Saturday, August 22, 2009

"Make sense, not death threats"

(I really should have posted this last week, or whenever the 40th anniversary of Woodstock was... but I still want to post it and use my clever title. Because I'm so proud of my clever title.)

I don't really have any words for this whole health care debacle. I don't even watch the news (gave that up a long time ago; there was no point since they've stopped worrying about that whole "providing information" thing), but I do click on links via Twitter and Facebook. Maybe I shouldn't, especially when those links lead to debates with racist Republican uncles (don't worry, I've blocked him. Smartest move I've made in a long time).

This video really made me want to pack up and move to a more civilized country (it's not the best quality video; you can read a transcript of the show instead, if you prefer).



EDIT: And, of course, who could forget Joe The Plumber? Of course he has something intelligent and elocuent to add to the debate! How can people stand behind a party whose prominent members are resorting to death threats instead of discussing the facts and issues, like rational, intelligent, sane people?

The few debates I have unfortunately engaged in leave me dumbfounded, because the people opposed to health care reform MAKE NO SENSE AT ALL. I don't understand the words coming out of their mouths. I understand the individual words, but the way these people string them together... I'm baffled.

I should know better than to expect logic and reason from right-wingnuts, but they are really outdoing themselves this time. Case in point?

Michelle Bachmann:
I mean, SERIOUSLY? How can you possibly not realize what you just said???

Are they from another planet? Am I?

There are teeny-tiny rays of hope in this whole thing, like MomRising.org's Healthcare Truth Squad: Everyday Heroes, Busting Myths, Spreading the Truth!



It would be nice of we could talk about the actual points of the bills. If we could deal with facts, without yelling, and without assault rifles. Is that too much to ask of a civilized nation?

3 comments:

  1. I understand the against arguments a bit more, but I think we still really need to do this. Most of the arguments against making these changes are from fear-- fear that we don't know what impacts these actions will really have. Well, we already know it's BAD now, can't we TRY to change it to something that could be BETTER?

    And it saddens and disgusts me how we're so unable to have civilized discussions about this and instead are resorting to these low-level threats and fear mongering. It's ridiculous, a dirty and very very sad ploy to derail the discussion to the point of being obsolete, that the fear alone will eliminate the possibility of change.

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  2. There was another Rachel Maddow clip I wanted to add, but I didn't want to overdo it so I didn't, that talked about how the purpose of the protesters at the town hall meetings is not to present a differing opinion or to express their concerns, it is to disrupt the proceedings and to inhibit clear, rational, intelligent discourse. They are organizing just to keep people from talking about the issue. It makes my blood boil.

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  3. This health care "debate" infuriates me so much. Anti-reformers claim "we have the best system in the whole world and that people come from all over the world to seek care here." Well, that's sorta-kinda-not really true.

    For the first twenty-one years of my life, I spent a fair amount of time at the Mayo Clinic. There were a lot of international patients but from what I could tell, they weren't from England, Sweden and Canada. They were from the Middle East. (MIdeast? All the sudden that word doesn't look right.)

    Also, if Canada and Great Britain's nationalized health care system's were so awful, they people would revolt and reform it.

    Third, the great majority of people who are bitching (sorry) about socialized medicine are on Medicare. What the..?!

    I'm on Medicaid. Socialized Medicine has literally saved my life. I wouldn't be walking without socialized medicine paying for extra weeks of inpatient rehab and months of outpatient physical therapy. I see health care reform as the only way I will ever get off disability and become financially independent again. Without affordable health insurance, it's impossible. That the GOP establishment is exploiting people's legitimate fears and others' downright racism in order to secure a few hundred people's re-election is despicable.

    That's what this is about, ultimately. The GOP wanted to get re-elected, regained control of Congress and the White House, so they are willing to let insurance companies dictate the debate in exchange for campaign contributions. The job security of a few hundred people is simply not worth the health insurance, indeed the lives of millions of Americans.

    OK, rant over.

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