"Something horrible is happening in America. Something so unseemly and so provocative that I have been inspired to move out from three wonderful years of sheer apathy to render a public comment on the matter. In harsher economic times, more people pay attention, and with this renewed attention come voices of hope and voices of distress. With the passing of the new Health Care Reform Law this week, the voices of hope have proven how finicky they really are, while the voices of distress continue to frighten me to the point that I don’t know how their insanity will chart the course of my country.
This week, I learned that nobody knows anything, but everybody feels comfortable saying everything. I remember in 2004, when at the height of the Iraq War, George W. Bush came to my hometown and I couldn’t find a single friend who even had an OPINION on him, let alone were willing to come with me to Eisenhower Park to protest (I wouldn’t do something like that nowadays, I’m far too old for that sort of thing). But on Sunday, the second that healthcare passed, every single one of these friends was now the owner of a passionate opinion. Not only that, they were also now experts on anything and everything related to healthcare. The ones who only read angry articles about it of it call it socialism. The ones who only read happy articles about it embrace the rhetoric of its authors. I call it five more years of free living on my mom’s dime. Thanks for the good times, BlueCross BlueShield!
What really bothered me was that as soon as the bill passed, the country’s opinion on the bill completely shifted. Before it gained congressional passage, support for Health Care Reform was below 40%. After it passed, Gallup recorded that 49% of Americans had come to support the bill. What’s with the bandwagoning, people? Does passage of the bill change what it is? Or is it just easier to tell people that you liked it all along? I don’t understand the finickyness. I am led to believe by this that if the bill failed, its national support would’ve plummeted. In my mind, agreement with an idea shouldn’t be based on whether or not it is signed into law; it should be based upon the merit of the tenets of the individual idea, but maybe I’m just old-fashioned. But that’s not even what frightens me–that’s what irritates me.
What frightens me is that in a city like Binghamton, an economically deprived wasteland in collectively economically deprived Upstate New York, I now see protesters on the side of the road holding up signs that say “Don’t Tread On Me.” Despite the fact that this person, who was standing alongside the road in South Binghamton covered in filth, would most likely benefit from passage of the very law he was standing in protest of, he expressed a rage I had only seen before on television. This probably unemployed man had succumb to the belief that passage of the bill was the first step to a horrible thing: a full-scale government takeover of everything in his life. I don’t understand why he’d be upset though. If the government took over Binghamton, maybe we’d have some jobs around here.
Now that the verdict has been rendered, I see finicky supporters of the Health Care Bill sprouting up everywhere and that the bill’s opponents are going absolutely nuts in the face of its passage. Congressional Republicans charted a dishonest path. Mitt Romney passed a nearly identical bill in Massachusetts in 2006 that was applauded by conservatives at the time. It was even used by Romney himself during his presidential race to portray himself as a competent executive. However, once President Obama’s bill came into existence, opposition to Health Care Reform became less about disagreements with specific aspects of policy and more about personally destroying Barack Obama. At the end of the day, the Republicans were simply outmaneuvered, and that’s all there is, folks.
But it’s not. And now crazy people like the ones I saw on South Washington Street are everywhere, calling in death threats to politicians that they disagree with, and seemingly preparing themselves to violently rescue by force a country that they fear is being stolen out from underneath them. Demagogues like Glenn Beck are only making the problem worse, and I fear that as this problem spirals out of control, this whole Tea Party movement is gonna end with some crazed believer(s) taking it too far and causing some serious damage. The Becks and the Palins will blame Obama for creating such unrest that was able to spiral out of control this far, but the question must be asked: Who can solve the problem when those with power are powerless?"- Harrison Feuer
I have to say Harrison, by looking at the title, I was a bit nervous about what I was about to read. Needless to say, I am relived that you have not gone insane and remain one of the few people that still have a head on their shoulders.
As you may or may not know, this very topic has been a point of my tweets and status updates as of late, stirring up much discussion with some people who are completely ignorant as to what they are saying. The internet has made it extremely easy for anyone to regurgitate some right wing nut jobs agenda (and left wing at times) and have no well formed opinion of their own and simply taking what they read as there own.
The one thing that I have been repeating more often than not recently is that too many people all think that the mandate in the health care bill is going to destroy the country. What people have neglected to realize is that government mandates are not a new idea. In fact they have been around before this country was even formed. These mandates are called TAXES!
At this point I normally would go on a rant, but you have expressed most of my views in this note, so I will skip to the point.
The problem is not with the government, but with society. Not enough people are thinking on their own. There are no Socrates in America now a days. Everyone is ready to accept what they are told without questioning that validity of anything. I am not just saying this about conservatives, but everyone. When this bill came into headlines, I researched it on my own to form an opinion, not throw on MSNBC. Just some food for thought.
On a side note, this was extremely well written and thought out man. I hope you repost this somewhere for a larger audience to read.
As you may or may not know, this very topic has been a point of my tweets and status updates as of late, stirring up much discussion with some people who are completely ignorant as to what they are saying. The internet has made it extremely easy for anyone to regurgitate some right wing nut jobs agenda (and left wing at times) and have no well formed opinion of their own and simply taking what they read as there own.
The one thing that I have been repeating more often than not recently is that too many people all think that the mandate in the health care bill is going to destroy the country. What people have neglected to realize is that government mandates are not a new idea. In fact they have been around before this country was even formed. These mandates are called TAXES!
At this point I normally would go on a rant, but you have expressed most of my views in this note, so I will skip to the point.
The problem is not with the government, but with society. Not enough people are thinking on their own. There are no Socrates in America now a days. Everyone is ready to accept what they are told without questioning that validity of anything. I am not just saying this about conservatives, but everyone. When this bill came into headlines, I researched it on my own to form an opinion, not throw on MSNBC. Just some food for thought.
On a side note, this was extremely well written and thought out man. I hope you repost this somewhere for a larger audience to read.
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