The Old Populism- See No Evil

As the media and the populist majority joyfully drive the last stake into health reform I can’t help but feel like we’re re-living a 50’s era myopia. Replace race relations with health care and we’re back in time 50-60 years. 

The majority of the electorate favored segregation back then. Dixiecrats took their bigotry to the Democratic convention. Governors called out the National Guard to defend the schools from integration. Outsiders from the north were murdered by the KKK, beaten, kicked and jailed by the police for radical behavior such as sitting in a diner, or riding on a bus, walking down the street, or even more radical, for helping people register to vote.

It took a Supreme Court ruling to break the deadlock. It took assassinations of a president, his brother, and a black minister to wake up America to the injustices we accepted- as if they were manifest destiny.

Today 45 million people live without health care. Some admittedly don’t want it. Some don’t need it. But millions of people want it and need it. Yet we turn away from their need just like we walked by “White Only” water fountains and restrooms. Our myopia blurs our conscience and we accept the injustice benignly. We can’t feel ashamed if we don’t see it.

So we keep our eyes on the insured, the healthy, the employed, the educated, and try not to  feel ashamed for our collective neglect of millions of Americans who need health care and can’t get it. I suppose deep inside we hope they’ll get by somehow.

Someday the sorry state of health care may lead to a more activist approach to health care reform like the civil rights movement in the 50's and 60's. In the mean time we  might as well have a sign on the hospital entrance that says. “Insured Only”.

A Popular Populism and Health Reform

Before yesterday’s landmark thumping of Martha Coakley Republicans have enjoyed a populist following of hard working, largely self employed middle class Americans, convinced to the core that big government is their enemy and nemesis hell bent on blocking their quest for the American dream- living free and unencumbered by government regulation and able to keep the money they earn and spend it however they choose.

The basic idea is sound, even romantic that we all enjoy the opportunity to seek a life of our own making. The Republicans have strong alignment at the top and the bottom- billionaires and the Joe Plumbers all support the Republican Party for the same reasons.

Somewhere along the political road Republicans have managed to convince a large middle class America that Democrats only offer socialism, roadblocks, regulation, restrictions and taxes- the antithesis of the American dream. Somewhere along that political road they also developed selective amnesia about being laid off from work because their employer outsourced the work to China, or fight vehemently to keep government out of health care even if it means being uninsured and under cared for, and forget that their home value and 401k deflation was a direct result of their unbridled American dream.

People are saying the health reform bill is now in trouble. The reality is health reform was in trouble long ago. Reform died months ago when the public option was killed in the Senate.  The President failed to sell reform to America.  Conservatives and Progressives hate it for different reasons. The great middle class is employed; they already have health care, and they largely don’t think health care needs reforming. The 30 million or so people who would benefit from health reform don’t have a voice- as large as the number is it’s only 10 percent of the population.

The November elections will likely turn out to be similar to Massachusetts and Congress will be deadlocked for the remainder President Obama’s first, and likely his only term of office. Health reform may come up again in another 12-15 years. In the mean time we’ll be living with the status quo- if we’re lucky.

Opponents of Same Sex Marriage Law in NH Firing up at Town Meetings

On January 1st, 2010, New Hampshire became the 5th state in the Union to legally recognize and permit same sex marriage. This action re-energizes the state’s motto, “Live Free or Die” by standing up for the civil rights of a minority of people who continue to be attacked both virtually and literally throughout the world. Same sex equality has more emotional opponents than any issue aside from abortion, and generally the same like-minded group finds coherent agreement on both subjects.

Opponents are now gearing up to petition opposition to same sex marriage at upcoming town meetings to change the state constitution, so gay and lesbian citizens can forever have their civil rights denied and banned. Live free or die seems to be going the way of the Old Man, but not without a fight.

At least the NH state legislature is firmly in favor of same sex civil rights. This body has been criticized for being too much democracy- a very inefficient group and the country’s largest state legislature- originally set at one representative for every 100 families, today is capped at 400 members. My hat goes off to them for taking the high ground on civil rights and for being prepared to defend their position against the inevitable opposition that will follow.

Our attempts to provide equal rights to all citizens are more challenged than ever by an ever-growing conservative religious right wing fired up and prodded on by their media demagogs. If traditional family values are the opponents main thrust for opposition to same sex marriage, maybe we should start petitions for town warrants to ban divorce. If children are to be raised in a home defined by one man and one woman, then why not mandate the process? If a traditional marriage petition gets on my town warrant, maybe I’ll push for a “no divorce” petition to help their cause. It seems equally reasonable to me, and of course equally absurd.