Party Politics

By now it should be abundantly clear to anyone reading this blog that I’m deeply disillusioned with both the process and result of health-care legislation passed by Congress. For all the reasons I’ve enumerated I do not think this legislation will address the fundamentally unjust way we are attempting to provide coverage for sick people. As I’ve indicated before, the process itself has been tainted by problems ranging from overt corruption to a deplorable Faustian bargain made by the Obama administration with the pharmaceutical industry not to seek a negotiated national formulary, to cite just a few examples.

I need to be very clear, however, that at least I find the rhetoric behind the legislation to be laudable even if it is politically shortsighted and perhaps somewhat disingenuous. At least the Democrats still attempt to appeal to our more illustrious past, our better instincts and our hope for a brighter future (that hope thing again). This stands in stark contrast to the cynical self-serving demagoguery that characterizes the opposition Republican party. The consistent response of the GOP during the healthcare debate has been one of obstruction, disinformation, fear-mongering and in general, an appeal to its adherents basest instincts.

In past weeks, healthcare reform opponents have gone so far as to humiliate and harass a demonstrator in Ohio, who had severe Parkinsonism; they have indulged liberally in racial epithets; and they even spit on John Lewis and Barney Frank, esteemed members of Congress who happened to be black and gay respectively. This kind of rabid intolerance has been not only been tacitly accepted by political opponents of health care reform, it has been actively encouraged.

Bob Herbert writing in the New York Times on March 22 put it like this:

“At some point, we have to decide as a country that we just can’t have this: We can’t allow ourselves to remain silent as foaming-at-the-mouth protesters scream the vilest of epithets at members of Congress — epithets that The Times will not allow me to repeat here.

It is 2010, which means it is way past time for decent Americans to rise up against this kind of garbage, to fight it aggressively wherever it appears. And it is time for every American of good will to hold the Republican Party accountable for its role in tolerating, shielding and encouraging foul, mean-spirited and bigoted behavior in its ranks and among its strongest supporters.

For decades the G.O.P. has been the party of fear, ignorance and divisiveness. All you have to do is look around to see what it has done to the country. The greatest economic inequality since the Gilded Age was followed by a near-total collapse of the overall economy. As a country, we have a monumental mess on our hands and still the Republicans have nothing to offer in the way of a remedy except more tax cuts for the rich.

This is the party of trickle down and weapons of mass destruction, the party of birthers and death-panel lunatics. This is the party that genuflects at the altar of right-wing talk radio, with its insane, nauseating, nonstop commitment to hatred and bigotry.”

Perhaps it is this last phenomenon of right wing talk radio that best highlights how extreme both the rhetoric and the tactics have become. The ‘tea bagger movement’ is really an artificial and highly structured result of a conscious decision to attempt to foment disruption and discord in the run-up to the healthcare debate in Congress. There was nothing spontaneous or ‘grassroots’ about it. (Incidentally, I would like to retract whatever attempts I made in one of my previous posts to be understanding towards these people. Understanding and empathy are values that are completely lost on them.) It has been radio-- with its enormous potential to disseminate falsehoods and foment emotional unrest--that has played a pivotal role in all this. Radio can, of course, be a highly beneficial element of a free and well-informed society, but it also can be and has been horribly abused. Think of the chilling role of radio in unleashing the genocide in Rwanda. And most frightening of all is the way Nazi Germany so skillfully exploited the powerful propaganda potential of the then new medium.

In fact, I can’t help but draw parallels between the kind of rabid intolerance increasingly found in the United States and the slow terrible slide of Germany into its nightmare of genocidal insanity. If you think I’m exaggerating, read Richard Evans’ masterful and highly acclaimed historical analysis, The Coming of the Third Reich. Change the names, the dates and the places and he could be describing some of what is happening in the US right now. And as Bob Herbert points out, all it took was for good people to remain silent. It is indeed way past time that we,a s a nation, repudiate the politics of ignorance and intolerance.

I somehow needed to get that off my chest. But after rereading this, it’s clear and I need to change gears and leave US politics behind. I’m in New Zealand-- with a highly refreshing level of civility, incidentally--and I still haven’t reported on how things work here. (Hint: Kiwis occasionally grumble but they really don’t know how good they’ve got it). Next, the nuts and bolts of the New Zealand health system.