Cultural Junk

Healthcare passes and we're ALL still here

T-minus 25 days and counting since Congress passed health care legislation and - nothing. The world did not spin off into the abyss, kids trudged off to school, parents headed for the office, life went on.

That's got to really suck for T-baggers and their ilk who surely expected Revelation-like plagues, disasters and disappearances once President Obama signed the measure into law. Of course, none of their doomsday predictions materialized, so what's a disappointed right wing extremist to do these days.

How about ramp up the number of death threats to Congress?  Since passage of the health care reform bill there has been a threefold increase in serious threats to members of Congress, which Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance W. Gainer says are nearly all from opponents of health care reform. The threats range from the vulgar to death threats.

WAY TO GO, TEAM! Because that's America does when it doesn't get its way. We tell the other side, we're gonna kill you!

Man, are we ever polarized. And I hate to be  nay sayer, bit it doesn't look like there's much hope for a reconciliation. It's either I get mine or I'm going home. And before I do, I'm gonna kill you!

Yes, we ALL are still here - the crazies, the pissed-off, the high and the mighty, the self-righteous and the simply selfish. Even Rush Limbaugh is still here, even though "Rash" told one of his callers he would leave the country and move to Costa Rica if "Obama's freedom killing and life threatening health care plan" passed. Well, it did and the big man is still here, which is surprising because it's got to be a whole lot easier to get fake scrips your Oxycontin jones in Costa Rica than here.

Pretty soon ALL the fresh out of ideas Republicriticals are going need something to medicate themselves with, because the rest of their doomsday scenarios also aren't going to be realized, and then what are they going to do? Imagine the downer that's coming when we wake up a year from now and:

1. The government takes over economy.Not likely in this capitalism economy. Too many BIG TIME investors would lose a lot if the government took over health care. Insurance stocks are doing just fine, and both pharmaceutical companies and hospitals just picked up a whole lot of NEW customers who now have insurance. Bottom-line: the private sector will always control the market. 

2. The federal debt explodes.That didn't seem to be a big concern when the Republicans blew the debt out of the stratosphere during their eight years at the wheel. If the debt does go up, health care reform won't be the cause. According to the Congressional Budget Office, new health care taxes and cost savings will reduce government deficits by $143 billion through 2019. 

3. Businesses implode: Not the smart ones. Business will do what business has always done. Yes,  companies will have additional costs, just as they do every year when health insurance premiums go up. Smart businesses solve problems. Stupid business asks Congress for bailout money.

4. Doctors will pack it in.And do what? Doctors already don't like the current system because insurance companies tell them what to do - and since when have you ever met a doctor who didn't like giving and calling the shots. Docs are worried about dollars, and how health care reform might cut into theirs. We don't need more rich doctors we need affordable health care. Don't worry about doctors. The AMA will do that for you.

5. We'll get socialized medicine. We've got "socialized" security and I don't hear the uproar about that. Look, under the new reforms you get to keep your existing health care, you have more health care choices and a bunch of your fellow Americans who didn't previously have any coverage can now get health care of their own. Sounds pretty "American" to me.

Want to know what is really going as a result of health care reform?

Democrats who supported reform will lose their Congressional seats in the November elections and Republicans who opposed reform will gain seats. Business as usual in the polarized ping pong game that is our political system in America.

The only thing that will have changed is that one side will go down having voted to make America better. That not socialism. That's patriotic and it should be celebrated.

The other side will have managed to hold on to what it prizes most in America, position and power. That's anything but patriotic but we're not likely to see a tea party which condemns that.

Republican Governors - They Came, They Saw, They Clustered

The Republican Governors Association met in Miami last week to determine a new direction for the GOP and present a united front and in the wake of their election defeat. They blew it BIG TIME.

The GOP governors got twisted internally, deadlocked between moderates who think the party should move to an ideological center and hard-liners who want a return to their core constituency. Caught in the middle was Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and failed vice presidential nominee, who has emerged as her Party's most visible personality, but also a lightning rod among many of her fellow Republicans.

During a news conference promoting party unity with other GOP governors, Texas' Rick Perry stepped between Palin and the microphone on several occasions, cutting short her remarks. Not surprising, since Perry, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty and  Florida's Charlie Crist all have been named as potential 2012 presidential candidates who would face-off against Palin, the party's de facto front runner.

The GOP is not a happy place with lots of questions and no ready answers. Should Republicans tackle issues like education, energy and the environment to broaden the party's base? Will it ever engage in serious discussion of social issues such as abortion and gay marriage? Can it win back women, Hispanics and young voters? Does it remain mired in an ideology that most Americans see as irrelevant?

The Party of Lincoln should look for guidance in The Words of Lincoln.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

''We need to reach out more as a party,'' said Gov. Crist, whose own home state and Republican bastion Florida went against tradition and voted for Barack Obama.

Listen up, GOP. You lost Florida's Hispanic vote, where Republicans had long dominated, HUGE. Obama won 57 percent compared to 42 percent for McCain. Nationwide, Obama won the Hispanic vote by a wider margin, garnering 66 percent to McCain's 32 percent. No Democratic presidential candidate had ever achieved either milestone since the exit polling of Hispanics first began in the 1980s. That's a demographic revolution of epic proportions.

Some within the GOP continue to place the blame on losing the election not on a failed ideology, but rather on a more technologically savvy Democratic campaign.  Others cited the unpopular Bush administration, the war in Iraq, the economy and even Hurricane Katrina.

"I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday."

The Republicans are grabbing at straws.  To exist, you need an ideology that is relevant to the world you live in. The Republicans haven't had one since Ronald Reagan was in office, and like so many nostalgic Alabama football fans who are watching the horizon for the return of Bear Bryant, the GOP keeps looking for their old-time religion to trickle down again. Until Republicans can look honestly in the mirror and see their own failures, they are going nowhere.

Gov. Pawlenty has an idea. He says the GOP needs to appeal to what he calls "Sam's Club voters.''

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

Here's a better idea. Stop with the labels and try governing smart. In the seven years the GOP controlled both the Administration and Congress, annual deficits rose in excess of $400 billion per year, a $5.5 trillion increase.  Your bookkeeping sucks, your spending is over the top and ethics have long since gone out the window. Americans don't care about labels. They want good government.

Gov. Jindal got it right when he said, "We got fired for cause."

Abe Lincoln said it better.

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true."

     Looking to the future, perhaps the GOP can learn a few things from those across the aisle. The Democrats have a high degree of agreement about who they are and what they believe in. They found in Senator Obama a charismatic and articulate leader who most Americans could also believe in and trust. That's why the Democrats won and the Republicans lost, pure and simple.

Get on board with that, GOP, or get used to more lost elections thanks to self-imploding ideologies like "drill, baby, drill."