why is the label of "obamacare" considered an insult?
ok i understand why the right considers it an insult. thats well apparent, though irrational. but it remains that those of us who quite like more than a few things in that bill arent too keen on the term as it is applied. we should be though. because what went through the house yesterday really is something great. put that label on it as far as im concerned. ill embrace it. obamacare. ill say it every day. twice a day. ill make it my own. it should not be that the most important social reform legislation in over a generation should be viewed with such a negative connotation.
If we want to look at history, we can go to the arguments that were drawn by the right against lbj's great society programs. old people thought the government was coming for them in the night. quite literally. well guess what-that single-payer system that is medicare (much much more 'socialized' than any language in 'obamacare') is now universally relied upon by the retired. do these people, those who were young in the 60s but now retired, know what they are protesting against when they attack obamacare? maybe, but more importantly-do they know where they themselves stand? apparently not.
its all really sad when you get to the root of it I think. its also sad when people scream at rep. barney frank for being homosexual. guess what? people are! and they arent subhuman! its also sad when people yell racial epithets at rep. john lewis, one of the great organizers of the student nonviolent coordinating committee. how can a protester expect to win ethos when he is seen doing that? its also sad when the pro-life rep bart stupak is called a 'baby killer' on the house floor. come on, how can that make sense? he negotiated a compromise. its how the world works. you find middle ground. you find what works. you do so in a way that doesnt go against your principles. if you would have listened, he made a pretty convincing argument on the floor. but you werent listening. nor were you over the last 18 months.
where the hell are we america?
a very good album this has turned out to be. not like i anticipated anything less.