The reform farce
Though I expected almost nothing from Obama - the health care "debate" has still been distressing. Even by the low standards set by W - this national farce has been...well...a new low. On all sides, Orwell has proven, yet again, to be the central prophet of our time. Everything is its opposite.
The Right continues to scream "socialism", though they've won the battle. The Left has been gutted and filleted by the extraordinary duplicity of Obama and the Senate Democrats and is now distracting itself with boycotts of Whole Foods and quietly steaming off Obama "hope" stickers from cars, windows and their collective buttocks. And all of it amounts to nothing - except more money for insurance companies.
The word "reform" itself needs refurbishing. The inversion of its meaning is now complete. War is peace, the status quo is reform. And onward we march.
What is happening is not reform at all - it is an inflation of the status quo. The one section of "health care" in America that is unnecessary and destructive, insurance, is set to expand under Obama's "reform". Joe Bageant at Deer Hunting with Jesus, Dispatches from America's class war writes what is to me the definitive piece so far on this farce:
In the end though, health care American style comes down to the preferences of two elite castes, Congress and corporate powers, neither of which can exist without the other. Corporations need the government to sanction their methods of extracting wealth from the public. Congress needs corporations to finance its campaign chariot races.
Read the rest here.
The battle cry from the Right and the Left "I want my country back!" seems oddly dated for the first time. What country are crying out for? The multi headed beast of an entitled, deluded, obese in every way population, financial mafias, political mafias, and a nation owned lock, stock and barrel by China and 1% of our population - has made the country we think we want back a mystery. An echo. A bizarre nostalgia. Can we now even recognize a small r republican nation in which the people and their representatives worked for the common good? I doubt it.
The Right continues to scream "socialism", though they've won the battle. The Left has been gutted and filleted by the extraordinary duplicity of Obama and the Senate Democrats and is now distracting itself with boycotts of Whole Foods and quietly steaming off Obama "hope" stickers from cars, windows and their collective buttocks. And all of it amounts to nothing - except more money for insurance companies.
The word "reform" itself needs refurbishing. The inversion of its meaning is now complete. War is peace, the status quo is reform. And onward we march.
What is happening is not reform at all - it is an inflation of the status quo. The one section of "health care" in America that is unnecessary and destructive, insurance, is set to expand under Obama's "reform". Joe Bageant at Deer Hunting with Jesus, Dispatches from America's class war writes what is to me the definitive piece so far on this farce:
In the end though, health care American style comes down to the preferences of two elite castes, Congress and corporate powers, neither of which can exist without the other. Corporations need the government to sanction their methods of extracting wealth from the public. Congress needs corporations to finance its campaign chariot races.
Read the rest here.
The battle cry from the Right and the Left "I want my country back!" seems oddly dated for the first time. What country are crying out for? The multi headed beast of an entitled, deluded, obese in every way population, financial mafias, political mafias, and a nation owned lock, stock and barrel by China and 1% of our population - has made the country we think we want back a mystery. An echo. A bizarre nostalgia. Can we now even recognize a small r republican nation in which the people and their representatives worked for the common good? I doubt it.
Labels: Barack Obama, Health care, Senate Democrats
posted by John Smart at
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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