The Healthcare Debate as an Extension of the Campaign
Jame's Notebook
The longer the health care debate rages the more it becomes clear that this debate is a clear extension of the 2008 Presidential Election campaign. The debate has devolved from disagreement on policy to disagreement on philosophy, to name-calling and over the top rhetoric. What we are seeing, essentially, is the reincarnated frustration of a group of Americans who lost the election of 2008.
Adults holding signs of Obama made to look like Hitler. Men carrying a loaded assault rifles to town hall meetings. These are signs of rage, of confusion and most of all fear. I don’t use the word racism often. I don’t know that what we’re even seeing here can be called racism. I think what we are witnessing is a group of Americans who until recently were the majority. They believed they spoke for “real” America, and they usually got their way. They’re watching America change, demographically, politically and culturally, and they feel lost. That’s why Sarah Palin remains popular. It’s why the idea that there could even be a “death panel” in a health care bill has held traction.
Americans were allowed to believe throughout the Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush II eras that the debts they accumulated didn’t matter, that as long as they’re kids were headed to college and they had a big house with 2 cars everything was OK. A generation of citizens is clinging to what Ronald Reagan convinced them of, though he never proved. Tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will create wealth for all Americans (they didn’t) that the market should be the guiding force in society (housing bubble) and that large powerful national defense would protect us from all enemies (September 11th).
And so we are flung into an age where that which we thought we understood about the world has been proven false and the last leader of that age has been swept out of office a disreputable laughing stock. His supporters are left clinging to the promises of the Reagan revolution no matter how false. These see the change that has been swept into the White House and they are frightened. So the same rage, the same fear we saw at campaign rallies where they called Obama a Muslim (which, by the way, shouldn’t matter in this country), questioned his pledging allegiance to the flag, said that he used the Koran at his swearing in ceremony, and countless other falsehoods are back out there. Cynically, the MSM is watching all this rather than reporting the truth about prospective health plans. Controversy draws eyeballs, not facts apparently. So just as during the campaign, we are left the determine for ourselves which side we want to believe.
The trouble is it’s not a campaign any more. This legislation will effect 1/6th of our economy and the way of life for all Americans. We should have a news media that can actually inform people on the facts of this legislation, not terrify them of the President, or wink when the pretty ex-govenor mentions a ‘death panel.’ Media pundits say that the White House has lost the message war. Well guess who’s the referee…
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