Re: those “town halls”: The entertainment value has given me the occassional chuckle, I’ll admit.
These things are, and always have been, meaningless anyway, empty hand-waving in the general direction of the inherently unattainable beyond the smallest scale ideal of “representative democracy”. Any exchange that takes place is asymmetrical, since the politicians involved are privvy to details that never get to even the people dorky-yet-naive enough to show up to those meetings, let alone to the average person, as well as being largely immune to the effects of what they do. Along with their years of experience in spinning people to go along with anything, they have their proven ambition for power (otherwise they would never have run for office).
The people that show up to the “town hall”? They have too much time on their hands and/or a chip on their shoulder, and little else. It’s like someone from Timbuktu showing up at the shadiest used car dealership known to man with a pocket full of cash, except with the twist that none of the cars for sale are actually at the lot.
I’ve long said that the reason for certain “wedge” issues is to make the two halves of the political elite seem to bystanders as if they have serious disagreements. What we’re seeing is the result of that. Look, what is being proposed is generally minor reconfiguration of the regulatory structure on health care, inevitably to include people being forced to buy insurance even if they can’t afford it. For obvious reason I question this, but it is not a substantial departure from the way things are right now. But the talk around it…wow! If this were a movie, there’d be Oscar nominees in these crowds:
Pro-reform politician: “This plan is going to be absolutely wonderful, cost nothing, and make everyone shit gold! Pay no attention to the fact that there is no ‘the plan’, minor detail…”
Anti-reform protester: “You want to murder old people and use my money to pay for free nosejobs for illegal immigrants! Fuck you!”
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Anti-reform “town hall” questioner: “This is SOCIALIST! No government in health care!”
Pro-reform politician: “…are you on Medicare?”
Anti-reform questioner: “Yeah, why do you ask?”
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Pro-reform congressperson: “We’re trying to fight the special interests here, opposing us is foolish market absolutism!”
Obama to Billy Tauzin, head of drug lobby: “Psst…wanna make a deal?”
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Anti-reform protester: “This is creeping fascism!”
Same protester, back when the argument of the day was about torture & warrantless wiretapping: “You damn libruls and your weak-ass ‘rights’ talk is gonna get us all killed!”
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Lately it’s even boiling down to a raw essence of dueling Godwin violations: “You’re a fascist!” “No, you’re a fascist!”. Statist-progressives are taking up the how-dare-you-question-authority tact, meanwhile Saul Alinsky’s corpse is being retroactively adopted into the “conservative” movement. Yet both sides are arguing over a total falsehood, in that whether they think it a positive or negative they consider the current system to be market-based, built on voluntary exchange. News Flash: it’s not.
Alas, the entertainment value to all this incoherence can wear off, and will. For that reason, I say the following:
-To the supposed reformers: if you’re not going to acknowledge the previous interventions that got the system to this point, then you might as well just cut the crap and endorse single-payer, because that’s where it’s headed anyway. Trust me, though the insurance companies will squeal, the rest of your corporate backers will rejoice in that they could finally dump those pesky insurance plans onto your — our — back.
-To the most public opposition: if you can’t be bothered to stick to the subject & get your stories straight on what you’re opposing, then maybe you shouldn’t bother showing up. It’s bad enough that state-progressives were already equating skepticism of government with robber-baron apologia, but…honestly, WTF? I don’t think politicians are worth respect either, but be fair with your disses, m’kay? Oh yeah, and to those among you whose beef is seriously that the state doesn’t murder enough immigrants for your tastes, you can take your “Tree of Liberty” quote signs and shove them up your ass.
Ok, you may now both go back to bitching about two inches of movement as if the very soul of mankind is at stake. I shall resume single-handedly stimulating the economy with my purchases of popcorn.
Psychopolitik 