CommentsCORRUPTION WATCH-Lies, myths, myopia and character assassination along with evil perfidy rule the discussion of healthcare. If Dante were alive today, he would probably assign the GOP to a lower rung in Hell for deliberately excluding as many people as possible from healthcare. But the GOP might have to share that rung with the Democrats who, deceptively, have not taken responsibility for their role in the nightmare that is now providing a platform for the GOP to kill millions more Americans.
Politicos Refuse to be Honest
Healthcare and health insurance are not the same thing. Insurance companies do not provide one iota of healthcare. People need to distinguish between providing healthcare and paying for healthcare.
All societies, except those that operate on the Sodom and Gomorrah model, make certain everyone has access to healthcare. Any option other than Universal Healthcare is per se evil. Many people believe that saving one life is tantamount to saving all humanity. This is a philosophical and religious view that many base on the myth that we are all descended from Adam.
Millions of other Americans, however, believe that God predetermines who has been “saved,” and He shows who has been saved by showering them with wealth and health. Thus, for these believers, poor sick people have been damned and it upsets God’s plan to provide healthcare for them. To paraphrase Matthew, out of context, their attitude is:
“Do not be anxious about your life, about your body...consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin...O you of little faith? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” -- Matthew 6:25-34
Of course, this philosophy is used to justify why others do not merit healthcare. They do not treat themselves as lilies of the field and take no steps for their own welfare.
Senator McConnell has personal healthcare not because God has anointed him as “saved.” Senator McConnell gets top notch doctors because he voted for other Americans to pay for his superb healthcare plan. Under the McConnell-GOP approach, God has no use for a poor baby in Washington D.C. – otherwise the baby would not be poor and sick. On the other hand, I do not see any Democrats in Congress giving up their healthcare until everyone else has it. I see no Democrats staging sit-ins or going on long-term fasts to bring attention to the need for Universal Healthcare.
Democrats and GOP Are Equally At Fault
The Dems make certain that the entire nation continues to think in terms of Us versus Them by using the politics of identity. Their pitch to voters is: give us your votes and we will give you the goodies. The fact that Obamacare denied us Universal Healthcare is never mentioned. The Obama Administration denied the idea that everyone is entitled to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by refusing to discuss the mutual bonds of duty and rights that hold society together. Where were the daily exhortations from Obama and other Dems explaining that to pay for pre-existing conditions, we all must financially support the system? Why didn’t every American understand that young people need to pay into the system so that older people with pre-existing conditions would not die?
Obama Abdicated His Duty to Launch a National Discussion for Universal Healthcare
Obama denied the universal truth that everyone needs healthcare all the time and we all have a duty to pay the bill. There was no nationwide discussion of civic rights and civic duties – and simple morality. “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” philosophy vs the “Get off my Back” attitude.
Maybe Obama did not want people asking why the burden of military service falls upon a very small percentage of Americans. Launching a discussion concerning how everyone should share the burdens and benefits is far too risky for any politician. Why aren’t all Americans asked to participate in shouldering the more onerous duties? Why does one segment of America go to Iraq while another goes to Wall Street? That was a question the Obama-Geithner duo never wanted anyone to ask while they were giving trillions of dollars to Wall Street and allowing the Great Recession to become the longest recession since the end of World War II. After Obama developed the notion of “too important to prosecute” for the Wall Street criminals who crashed our economy, any discussion about rights and duty was political dynamite.
The Obama Administration held no honest discussion of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness when it came to healthcare because the politicos had too much other crap to conceal. Once started, such a discussion could not be contained to just healthcare. White people might cease to see Blacks as their enemies, but rather as just another group setting the shaft. The last thing that the GOP or the Democrats want is for Americans to adopt a culture of mutual responsibility. Heaven forbid if Wall Street be asked to contribute to the public welfare.
The Three Questions Americans Could Ask Themselves Daily
If Americans asked themselves three questions when discussing the implementation of Universal Healthcare, we would be able to work though our problems.
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
This means that we have both the right and the duty to look after ourselves. Since life is complex and we have interlocking duties and responsibilities, the answer to the question varies depending on circumstances.
If I am for myself alone, what am I?
This question reminds us that in a society, we have relationships with everyone else, and thus, we have to temper our self-interest by working out processes so that others are not neglected.
If not now, when?
Sometimes the answer is “not now.” A person in her first year medical school does not benefit either herself or the world more by running off to some foreign country to be a partially educated health care worker. Thus, we all need to recognize that there is a season for everything; there is a season for education, a season for receiving and a season for giving.
Both the GOP and Dems Play Divisive Politics of Identity
We never have this discussion in the United States because we are pitied against each other with the Politics of Identity where the GOP inflames the passions of their supporters against minorities and the Democrats agitate their base over the prejudices of the GOP. Neither the GOP nor the Democrats want Americans to cooperate with each other so that we can devise a system of mutual rights and mutual duties.
Both parties want us to forget that the government was created “…in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.”
Both the GOPs and the Dems are running us ragged with their lies, deceit and greed – together they make certain that we Americans stay divided so that they can conquer. They will never allow Americans to figure out the answer to Rodney King’s question, “Why can’t we all just get along?”
Thus, it is time for us to do that for ourselves.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
