It is clear that the Republicans simply want to shut down this entire debate. They don’t want to risk losing the huge amounts of money from the industries this will affect such as insurance, medical supply and pharmaceutical. What is most insane to me is that the people screaming at these meetings are a combination of real and paid “screamers”. The “real” screamers are those who have been spoon fed lies and swallow blindly. They don’t bother to search out truth and therein by ferret out their own educated opinion. They simply regurgitate the bile the Republicans shove down their throats like force fed geese whose livers are being readied for the pate` can.
I also truly believe that the far right exploits the feelings of those who fear what they see as a shift in power; a shift from having all white people in power. Now we have people of color in powerful positions. President, Attorney General, Mayors, respected university professors and the list continues to grow; admittedly, there are some who may not understand or want to admit that this is the fear they are feeling. There is that strong under current of race in the health care debate and the Republicans and their most far right extremists are using it to destroy any progress to a more humanistic society.
We must combat the onslaught. Push it back to the dark and venomous place where it is rooted. Every voice, every word that is raised to attack must be met with measured, mindful counterbalance. The best of us as a whole will overcome the worst of us. We understand that to survive as a species we must work for the betterment of all people and not just those few privileged. Dictators throughout history have known a formula for power: Keep the people poor, ignorant and in fear and you will control them.
We shall overcome!
1 comment:
Good point on race that I hadn't considered. That makes sense. I'd add gender into that mix too. We’re on our third woman secretary of state, but Hillary Clinton triggers an intense polarization among Americans. I think it’s because she transgressed the accepted, motherly/wifely role of “First Lady,” which set people against her in 1992. (Remember her baking cookies to soften her image during the campaign? What man would be expected to do that?) Then she made the real “error” of leading the health care reform effort, which combined a potential big change in our government that had defeated several past presidents’ efforts. That sealed her image as “ball buster.” Last year even typically more feminist-minded male comedians made jokes about her acting like a man. It was really discouraging.
Now the right wing elements of the media have ordinary Americans saying how much they hate Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer. Part of it is their relatively liberal politics (or what passes for liberal in 2009), but not all of it. After all, they each have women colleagues with comparable voting records. I think it’s the perceived toughness plus visibility. Here too we have a nasty backlash because of women who are going “too far.” Women can be empowered, just not too much.
As Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”
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