We're not even a year into this administration and I'm already
beginning to feel burned out. It seems like the far left and the far
right are screaming at (and past) each other so loud that any rational
discussion is stillborn.
Obama's health care proposals don't bend the cost curve in the right direction because they put the cart before the horse in mandating coverage before addressing cost. (Funny how increasing demand without a concurrent change in supply drives costs up, isn't it?) They don't address the root causes of defensive medicine or our pathological need in this society to shift blame or the improper collusion between corporations and government to restrict the markets.
Instead, we hear nonsense from the far right about "death panels" and teeth-gnashing from the far left that reform without a public option isn't worth having.
The Republicans aren't really showing much leadership on this one, either, and have seemed unable to articulate a coherent, consistent alternative, in general.
Yet, despite this dearth of true leadership, the far left and the far right snipe back and forth over the Birthers and the other nutjobs clamoring for attention. It's getting to the point where I've stopped reading many of the politics blogs on my Google Reader.
It all just seems like a horrific distraction from the real problems this country faces that require real solutions. American politics today are a free-for-all in freefall and coherent, cogent debate - the equivalent of oxygen in politics - is in short supply.
Everything is spin-doctored and packaged for the perpetual campaign that both major parties seem more than happy to keep running. The people want instant gratification and all-or-nothing. We expect our doctors to be infalliable. Otherwise, they're incompetent and we're going to take them to the cleaners. Our legislation has to fix everything all at the same time according to a particular ideological agenda or we aren't going to pass it.
It's nonsense. What the hell ever happened to gathering up a bunch of ideas, doing the analysis and/or testing to see which one(s) work the best, and going with what works? Or do we not teach the scientific method in school any more? We're not going to get everything right the first time. We're going to make mistakes. It's the only way we'll move forward, though. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We have to actually go get the data. Our pre-conceived notions aren't good enough and you think we would have all learned that by now.
I'm reminded of Chris Rock's statements in the film Dogma about ideas. He said that people will kill and die for their beliefs, but that it's much easier to change an idea. Let's get some more ideas out there.
Obama's health care proposals don't bend the cost curve in the right direction because they put the cart before the horse in mandating coverage before addressing cost. (Funny how increasing demand without a concurrent change in supply drives costs up, isn't it?) They don't address the root causes of defensive medicine or our pathological need in this society to shift blame or the improper collusion between corporations and government to restrict the markets.
Instead, we hear nonsense from the far right about "death panels" and teeth-gnashing from the far left that reform without a public option isn't worth having.
The Republicans aren't really showing much leadership on this one, either, and have seemed unable to articulate a coherent, consistent alternative, in general.
Yet, despite this dearth of true leadership, the far left and the far right snipe back and forth over the Birthers and the other nutjobs clamoring for attention. It's getting to the point where I've stopped reading many of the politics blogs on my Google Reader.
It all just seems like a horrific distraction from the real problems this country faces that require real solutions. American politics today are a free-for-all in freefall and coherent, cogent debate - the equivalent of oxygen in politics - is in short supply.
Everything is spin-doctored and packaged for the perpetual campaign that both major parties seem more than happy to keep running. The people want instant gratification and all-or-nothing. We expect our doctors to be infalliable. Otherwise, they're incompetent and we're going to take them to the cleaners. Our legislation has to fix everything all at the same time according to a particular ideological agenda or we aren't going to pass it.
It's nonsense. What the hell ever happened to gathering up a bunch of ideas, doing the analysis and/or testing to see which one(s) work the best, and going with what works? Or do we not teach the scientific method in school any more? We're not going to get everything right the first time. We're going to make mistakes. It's the only way we'll move forward, though. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We have to actually go get the data. Our pre-conceived notions aren't good enough and you think we would have all learned that by now.
I'm reminded of Chris Rock's statements in the film Dogma about ideas. He said that people will kill and die for their beliefs, but that it's much easier to change an idea. Let's get some more ideas out there.
Dude....I think you just got those "Monday Blues".
Bob is right, above. He usually is.
FL is right too. Greed is gonna be our downfall.
The "I'm for ME" is winning over the "I'm for US".
Sorry to say, but mandating coverage is paramount. Trust me if we can afford to drop trillions on the banks. Trillions on invading sovereign nations. Then we can certainly mandate coverage.
I think this goes to the heart of the problem. The right-wing doesn't care if it kills off millions of people, either our own people or another countries' people. Just as long as they get what they want. Their ideology is merely a facade to hide their true intentions.
So they can all bitch back and forth, spinning this, and distracting with that. But, it still doesn't change the fact that 48,000 people die in this country every year from not having health insurance.
This whole "debate" has nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with greed. Not your average kind of greed either. The kind of greed that kills people.
Since this whole "debate" started about 4 months ago, 16,000 people have died from not having health insurance. I am sorry but every person in our political system isn't worth 16,000 innocent lives. They should all kill themselves out of shame.
Very good post. As far as the scientific method, I won't speak for science teachers, but I think they do teach the scientific method multiple times. Heck, even political scientists use it. I happen to think we need a public option, but that's just my opinion. I will take any improvement at this point though.
Great post. As I see it, one of the biggest problems is homogeneity in the Republican Party. All the liberals are long gone, and now the moderates were ousted in the last cycle. Where the Dems have the Progressive Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus on the left and the Blue Dogs on the right of the party, the Republicans only have extreme right anti-government, anti-Democrat, anti-everything types. The Senate used to be the primary chamber where deals were cut. No more. Outside of the occasional cooperation from Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, the strategy from the right seems to just hold their breath until 2010, and inflict as much damage on Obama as possible. There's is not much negotiation going on behind the scenes, in my view, because the Repubs are going for dilution of the Dems in '10. Baucus is watering down the health care bill now, trying to get bi-partisan support, but it's a complete waste of time. He may get Snow, but he has to hang onto the moderate Dems. Zero Repubs in the House are cooperative. Zero.
Before my Grandson went back to College for the fall we were chit chatting and started discussing problem solving. Wonder of wonders he was asking me, not telling me. Maybe he is growing up. Anyway I started talking about the Scientific Method and after about 5 minutes my talking and describing this method he had 1 question. "They never talked about that in High School". That stunned me. We then talked at greater length and he actually thanked me, before he left. What do they teach in schools today ? Are they so focused on the TAKS test that they don't talk about anything else ?
Wow. JK, I think you hit the nail on the head. As much as Obama wants bipartisanship, I don't think it's going to happen WHEN THEY VOTE. I DO believe that Rs and Ds may be working with each other behind closed doors, but when it's time for the vote, only re-election counts.
With healthcare, the 'belief' by the Ds that healthcare is a right, and with the Rs, a privilege is the one that creates an unabridged chasm. Representatives will be judged by their vote, and there is no in-between when it comes to 'for' or 'against'.
'We the people' are so divided that we need the folks in the middle, like you, to SPEAK UP. But I haven't seen it. Where are all the Independents? They were a HUGE group in the polls before the election. Where are they now? We NEED you!