The people’s patriot!

A day after healthcare reform passed in the House of Representatives with zero Republican votes, former “Country First” Presidential candidate John McCain had this to say on Arizona radio:

“There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year. They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

WTF? The 2008 Republican presidential candidate has just forcefully endorsed Republicans in both houses of Congress obstructing all legislative activity for the rest of the year. It’s only MARCH. There are two wars. No jobs. Foreclosures. Failing schools. Crumbling infrastructure. And trillions in federal debt. How is this attitude after a legislative defeat even remotely responsible? How can a career senator even say this publicly?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) caught wind of this and spoke truth to shamelessness:

“For someone who campaigned on ‘Country First’ and claims to take great pride in bipartisanship, it’s absolutely bizarre for Senator McCain to tell the American people he is going to take his ball and go home until the next election.  He must be living in some parallel universe because the fact is, with very few exceptions, we’ve gotten very little cooperation from Senate Republicans in recent years.

At a time when our economy is suffering and we’re fighting two wars, the American people need Senator McCain and his fellow Republicans to start working with us to confront the challenges facing our country—not reiterating their constant opposition to helping working families when they need it most.”

In my quick search for an accompanying picture to this post, I came upon a shocking piece of idiocy from conservative political commentator Debbie Schlussler who posted in 2008 about McCain’s superior definition of patriotism as described in a Parade magazine article:

“HUH?! Sorry, Barack, but while that makes a great Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream slogan, a lofty feeling at the ashram, or even a description of a sex orgy, that’s not what patriotism means. It means exactly what John McCain says it does–putting America first, sacrificing for it.

But, now we know that if Obama is elected, he will think the nebulous, hippie feeling of “faith in one another” is America’s priority, when it should actually be what John McCain thinks it is–putting our country first.”

Yeah. Patriotism has nothing to do with how we treat our fellow Americans as neighbours, colleagues, employees, consumers or constituents. It has nothing to do with cultivating community, cooperation, altrusim, and good-faith communication. It has to do with putting “country first”. And there’s nothing “nebulous” about this concept.

Obama has consistently argued that effective legislating requires Democrats and Republicans to have faith in one another’s motives, to have faith that we all want what’s best for the country, though we may differ on what that is. Without that faith, there can be no progress in Congress. Only obstructionism. Slash and burn politics.

Humph. That’s hippie talk.

McCain has called on all Republicans in Congress to stop working for the American people as their elected representatives if it requires cooperating with the majority party in Congress. They’ll keep collecting their 6-figure paychecks and they’ll keep using their comprehensive, government-provided health insurance, but they’ll stop working to create jobs and extend health coverage to you.

John McCain, the people’s patriot!

Twisted Politics

You’ve probably heard about the man with Parkinson’s Disease, a former science and technology lecturer at Ohio State, who was berated at a Tea Party protest against healthcare reform, for wearing a sign that read:

“Got Parkinson’s? I Do and You Might. Thanks for helping! That’s community!”

One protestor said to him:

“If you’re looking for a handout, you’re in the wrong end of town. Nothing for free over here, you have to work for everything you get.”

And still another…

“No, no, I’ll pay for this guy. Here you go, start a pot. I’ll pay for you.”

This last guy proceeded to place a dollar in his lap before throwing another dollar at him and screaming:

“I’ll decide when to give you money!”

I couldn’t help but think of this incident when President Obama spoke to the Democrats in the House today before the historic healthcare reform vote. To the Democrats he said:

Something inspired you to get involved, and something inspired you to be a Democrat instead of running as a Republican. Because somewhere deep in your heart you said to yourself, I believe in an America in which we don’t just look out for ourselves, that we don’t just tell people you’re on your own, that we are proud of our individualism, we are proud of our liberty, but we also have a sense of neighborliness and a sense of community and we are willing to look out for one another and help people who are vulnerable and help people who are down on their luck and give them a pathway to success and give them a ladder into the middle class.

I don’t think it’s an unfair characterization to argue that Democrats are fundamentally more communitarian than Republicans who huff and puff about the death of small town values out of one side of their mouth, while rabidly defending a merciless “you’re own your own” individualism out the other side.

To be a Democrat is not to shirk personal responsibility, but to support thy neighbor as thyself, to support thy nation as thyself.

Don’t – get it – twisted.

The Big Picture

The White House has created a fantastic video less than 2 minutes long summarizing the health care crisis in numbers. If you haven’t really paid much attention this past year to the health care debate and don’t understand all the fuss, watch it.

If you believe America has the best healthcare system in the world, ask yourself, “For whom?”

If you think a call to your member of the House of Representatives won’t make a difference, think again.

If you think it’s a disgrace that millions of people die or go bankrupt in the richest country in the world because they can’t afford health insurance or ballooning medical bills, then say something.

And if you think that America should once again become a moral authority in a world, where most first-world countries and every other English-speaking country ensures healthcare coverage for all of its citizens, then lead by example.

Call your Representative and tell him or her that no American should die uninsured because of a pre-existing condition.

No American should have to sell his house, to safeguard his health.

No American family should lose its healthcare because the breadwinner lost her job.

No American should have to pay more towards insurance than they do towards their mortgage.

And

No American should have to cross the border, north or south, to get affordable healthcare.

We’re better than that.

President Obama, March 19th, 2010:

[E]very single President has said we need to fix this system.  It’s a debate that’s not only about the cost of health care … [but] a debate about the character of our country, about whether we can still meet the challenges of our time; whether we still have the guts and the courage to give every citizen, not just some, the chance to reach their dreams.

At the heart of this debate is the question of whether we’re going to accept a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people, because if this vote fails, the insurance industry will continue to run amok.  They will continue to deny people coverage.  They will continue to deny people care.  They will continue to jack up premiums 40 or 50 or 60 percent as they have in the last few weeks without any accountability whatsoever.  They know this.  And that’s why their lobbyists are stalking the halls of Congress as we speak, and pouring millions of dollars into negative ads.  And that’s why they are doing everything they can to kill this bill.

In just a few days, a century-long struggle will culminate in an historic vote.  And when we have faced such decisions in our past, this nation has chosen time and again to extend its promise to more of its people….

When the naysayers argued that Social Security would lead to socialism, the men and women of Congress stood fast, and created a program that has lifted millions out of poverty.

When the cynics warned that Medicare would lead to a government takeover of our entire health care system, and it didn’t have much support in the polls, Democrats and Republicans refused to back down, and made sure that all of us could enter our golden years with some basic peace of mind.

Generations ago, those who came before made the decision that our seniors and our poor should not be forced to go without health care just because they couldn’t afford it.  Today, it falls to this generation to decide whether we will make the same promise to middle-class families, and small businesses, and young Americans like yourselves who are just starting out….

I still believe we can do what’s right.  I still believe we can do what’s hard.  The need is great.  The opportunity is here.  And the time for reform is now.

Call your Representative.

UPDATE: Why healthcare reform now? Krugman, an economist, explains it simply.

625

That’s the number of people who lost their health insurance every hour in 2009.

Anyone out there who voted for Obama and then tuned out of politics needs to tune back in this week. You can’t lead him into battle for your causes and then walk away. Get his back. I’ve got it.

Call your Representative this week and tell him or her to support healthcare reform and pass the bill in the House. I did.

I just called my representative in Virginia, Glen Nye. I called his D.C. office from SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA for goodness sakes. If I can call from Sydney, you can call.

You don’t have to care about politics. Care about your relative who is sick, or your friend who is out of work, or your child who is too young to vote but old enough to want a decent future.

Care about Americans.

Get off your ass and act now.

A Four-Year Old’s Revenge

My niece, who will be 5 in April, is allergic to just about every known allergen. The last time her preschool served food with traces of peanut, her beautiful face puffed up like a tomato and she was rushed to the hospital for an adrenaline shot.  Her daycare now maintains exhaustive lists of each child’s allergies.  Hers is the longest.

So she was not too impressed and pretty hurt when a boy in her class brought to school a cake with peanut butter icing for his birthday party. My niece is very fond of food.

That evening she asked her mother to find out from her teacher what the birthday boy was allergic to. “Why do you want to know what he’s allergic to?” her mother asked. She replied with absolute sincerity, “Because I want to put it in my birthday cake.”

Fascinating.

Is this a nascent sense of justice, or of vengeance?

If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.

Code of Hammurabi, ca. 1790 BC

Or is it simply a manifestation of our natural moral instinct – untempered and unrestrained?

Her intentions weren’t malicious. I doubt she wanted his face to puff up like a tomato. I suspect she simply wanted him to be denied what he denied her.

“That’s not fair.” This is a refrain with her. She’s obsessed with fairness. She expects the world to be at all times and in all ways equitable.

She’ll ‘grow up’ and grow out of this expectation.

But the Hammurabi instinct never really dies.