Iâm up to my eyeballs with Progressives at this point. And now Iâve got a lot of shit to get off my mind. First, let me warn you, I may or may not provide links. If you want to argue that Iâm wrong at any point, itâs on you to figure out where and show me. Also, I may ramble and become incoherent as is sometimes my wont. Youâve been warned.
Iâm irritated beyond words at seeing Progressives screaming to âkill the billâ because it doesnât have the unicorns and rainbows that they want. Some of these folks screaming for it now are just taking the baton from other Progressives who were screaming for it when the public option was watered down and became âshittyâ. Now there is no shitty public option so fuck it. Throw it all away. Who cares if it actually helps some people? Who cares if we can give people a taste of the good and they will take up the trumpeting to give the bill balls later on.
How will this happen? Well, the same way Medicaid started as a shitty, non-inclusive âreformâ bill, but who would get rid of it now? Not the people it helps. What about Medicare? Started as a shitty bill, that didnât help a whole lot of people, but somehow, over the years, because the be-all end-all of health insurance. Suddenly we all want it! But when we first go it, well, it was shitty. People got a taste of it and they demanded more. They got more. Oh, and this bill? Closes the âdonut holeâ that Bush enacted.
I keep saying, and history backs me up, that our country does things in baby steps. Any major change happens one little step at time. This includes civil rights, equal rights, employee rights (of sorts like making sweat shops illegal and requiring employers to provide safe work environments to their employees) and other reforms such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. None of these changesâimprovementsâhappened in one shot. We didnâtâand in some cases still donât haveâget the best of the best in the first round. It just doesnât happen. There are too many people with too many different ideologies for this to work in our country. Corporations have too big a stranglehold (thanks, Capitalism!) for major change to come in one fell swoop. We do it âone brick at a timeâ. And we continue to do it.
But the thing that sent me over the fucking edge⦠made me want to strangle someone⦠was when I saw a Canadian tell an American who has a pre-existing condition and NO insurance (not me, by the way) that they werenât special and that they should just shut up because doing nothing is better than this bill. This person, who has never had to worry about getting an appointment to see a doctor because she doesnât have health insurance, was telling someone who is struggling with Diabetes and no insurance that theyâre not special and NOTHING is better than the little bit of help this bill would provide.
Fuck that.
To me that was like someone with legs telling someone without that they donât need that crappy prosthetic, they should wait for a better one and DO WITHOUT until they can get a better one. Just sit in the goddamned chair and shut the fuck up. This person, who has 100% coverage thanks to her government, was telling someone to shut up until the âperfectâ could be reached.
Fuck that. I want what Canadians have, but Iâll be damned if someone who knows someone who might write on a blog is strugglingâbut has never had to pay a damned dime for health careâgets to tell a struggling diabetic American to shut up and wait some more. How fucking insane is that? âWell, shit, Charlie, weâll just start over because, yâknow, thatâs entirely possible during an election year and after the Democrats lose control of the fucking Congress." Worked for Bill Clinton, didnât it? He threw the whole idea out and started over, right? Oh, waitâ¦
Iâm not the slightest bit surprised that Obama isnât keeping his campaign promises (Hello! Politician!) or that heâs just like Clinton (I have a link around here where I said that same thing during the primaries). Iâm not at all surprised that the insurance companies/bankers/war profiteers are making big money thanks to him. I am surprised that weâve made it this close for something to really change regarding health insurance. Iâm actually shocked that some kind of change might actually come out of Washington. So what if itâs âjust like the Massachusetts planâ? Guess what? Most people, according to some poll somewhere, in MA wouldnât repeal that law. Imagine that! The people who are most unsatisfied with it are working to make it betterânot take it away. Holy shit!!! Makes me wonder what would happen if the rest of America could benefit from that in some way. Makes me wonder if people would actually add on to it and make it betterâwithout taking it away.
You know, prior to King George, I wasnât a flaming liberal per se. I was more of a moderate. But it was âwith us or against usâ then, so I went left. Iâm pretty sure that I canât fucking stand the progressive mouth pieces right now. I canât stand listening to people say âOMG! OBAMA BETRAYED US!!â and are making up history by saying shit like âLBJ rammed Medicare through and all was wellâ (except Medicare kind of did suck and left a lot of people out thanks to necessary, but shitty, compromises). Iâm pretty fucking sick of people chanting âkill the bill!â because itâs not exactly the way they want it.
You know what? Fine. You donât like it. Shelve it. And then let the insurance companies do whatever the fuck they want with us all. And the doctorsâletâs not forget about the guys doing the âhealth careâ who are gaming the systemâcan get their money and still not see the poor folks. And everything stays exactly the same!! Thatâs the ticket. Suddenly no one cares about people being denied treatment because insurance companies wonât pay for it (oh! and donât get mad at the doctors who wonât work with the families á lá St. Judes), no one cares anymore that insurance companies throw people off their rolls willy-nilly, or are increasing their rates by leaps and bound. Nooo. They cared a couple of months ago. Now itâs all about âkeeping costs down!!â for them.
I remember when people were posting personal stories on these A-list blogs and making videos to put the faces to the struggle. I remember when congress critters were reading letters on the House floor. Suddenly the ban on pre-existing conditions was introduced. Then the ban on rescissions. Then the ban on lifetime caps.
Then the stories stopped and the outrage started. Then the fucking âactivistsâ were calling for the heads of Representatives who didnât sign their goddamned, idiotic pledges. âHE WONâT SIGN!! CALL HIS OFFICE NOW AND TELL HIM HE SUCKS!!!â the headlines would read. And slowly, but surely we get to this point. The outrage that got certain bloggers airtime on MSNBC became an infection that stopped positive activism. At least on the netroots level. Phone banks and email lists were set up to tell people on our side how much they sucked ass. We were making real progress and then we were derailed.
Iâm over it. Done with it. There is no true ânetrootsâ community. These motherfuckers are just pitiful. I love my politics, but apparently Iâm too goddamned stupid to know that nothing at this point is better than something. Iâve heard that Mexico has cheap insurance rates and itâs pretty warm down there. I wonderâ¦
Wherein I Lose my Damned Mind
Iâm up to my eyeballs with Progressives at this point. And now Iâve got a lot of shit to get off my mind. First, let me warn you, I may or may not provide links. If you want to argue that Iâm wrong at any point, itâs on you to figure out where and show me. Also, I may ramble and become incoherent as is sometimes my wont. Youâve been warned.
Iâm irritated beyond words at seeing Progressives screaming to âkill the billâ because it doesnât have the unicorns and rainbows that they want. Some of these folks screaming for it now are just taking the baton from other Progressives who were screaming for it when the public option was watered down and became âshittyâ. Now there is no shitty public option so fuck it. Throw it all away. Who cares if it actually helps some people? Who cares if we can give people a taste of the good and they will take up the trumpeting to give the bill balls later on.
How will this happen? Well, the same way Medicaid started as a shitty, non-inclusive âreformâ bill, but who would get rid of it now? Not the people it helps. What about Medicare? Started as a shitty bill, that didnât help a whole lot of people, but somehow, over the years, because the be-all end-all of health insurance. Suddenly we all want it! But when we first go it, well, it was shitty. People got a taste of it and they demanded more. They got more. Oh, and this bill? Closes the âdonut holeâ that Bush enacted.
I keep saying, and history backs me up, that our country does things in baby steps. Any major change happens one little step at time. This includes civil rights, equal rights, employee rights (of sorts like making sweat shops illegal and requiring employers to provide safe work environments to their employees) and other reforms such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. None of these changesâimprovementsâhappened in one shot. We didnâtâand in some cases still donât haveâget the best of the best in the first round. It just doesnât happen. There are too many people with too many different ideologies for this to work in our country. Corporations have too big a stranglehold (thanks, Capitalism!) for major change to come in one fell swoop. We do it âone brick at a timeâ. And we continue to do it.
But the thing that sent me over the fucking edge⦠made me want to strangle someone⦠was when I saw a Canadian tell an American who has a pre-existing condition and NO insurance (not me, by the way) that they werenât special and that they should just shut up because doing nothing is better than this bill. This person, who has never had to worry about getting an appointment to see a doctor because she doesnât have health insurance, was telling someone who is struggling with Diabetes and no insurance that theyâre not special and NOTHING is better than the little bit of help this bill would provide.
Fuck that.
To me that was like someone with legs telling someone without that they donât need that crappy prosthetic, they should wait for a better one and DO WITHOUT until they can get a better one. Just sit in the goddamned chair and shut the fuck up. This person, who has 100% coverage thanks to her government, was telling someone to shut up until the âperfectâ could be reached.
Fuck that. I want what Canadians have, but Iâll be damned if someone who knows someone who might write on a blog is strugglingâbut has never had to pay a damned dime for health careâgets to tell a struggling diabetic American to shut up and wait some more. How fucking insane is that? âWell, shit, Charlie, weâll just start over because, yâknow, thatâs entirely possible during an election year and after the Democrats lose control of the fucking Congress." Worked for Bill Clinton, didnât it? He threw the whole idea out and started over, right? Oh, waitâ¦
Iâm not the slightest bit surprised that Obama isnât keeping his campaign promises (Hello! Politician!) or that heâs just like Clinton (I have a link around here where I said that same thing during the primaries). Iâm not at all surprised that the insurance companies/bankers/war profiteers are making big money thanks to him. I am surprised that weâve made it this close for something to really change regarding health insurance. Iâm actually shocked that some kind of change might actually come out of Washington. So what if itâs âjust like the Massachusetts planâ? Guess what? Most people, according to some poll somewhere, in MA wouldnât repeal that law. Imagine that! The people who are most unsatisfied with it are working to make it betterânot take it away. Holy shit!!! Makes me wonder what would happen if the rest of America could benefit from that in some way. Makes me wonder if people would actually add on to it and make it betterâwithout taking it away.
You know, prior to King George, I wasnât a flaming liberal per se. I was more of a moderate. But it was âwith us or against usâ then, so I went left. Iâm pretty sure that I canât fucking stand the progressive mouth pieces right now. I canât stand listening to people say âOMG! OBAMA BETRAYED US!!â and are making up history by saying shit like âLBJ rammed Medicare through and all was wellâ (except Medicare kind of did suck and left a lot of people out thanks to necessary, but shitty, compromises). Iâm pretty fucking sick of people chanting âkill the bill!â because itâs not exactly the way they want it.
You know what? Fine. You donât like it. Shelve it. And then let the insurance companies do whatever the fuck they want with us all. And the doctorsâletâs not forget about the guys doing the âhealth careâ who are gaming the systemâcan get their money and still not see the poor folks. And everything stays exactly the same!! Thatâs the ticket. Suddenly no one cares about people being denied treatment because insurance companies wonât pay for it (oh! and donât get mad at the doctors who wonât work with the families á lá St. Judes), no one cares anymore that insurance companies throw people off their rolls willy-nilly, or are increasing their rates by leaps and bound. Nooo. They cared a couple of months ago. Now itâs all about âkeeping costs down!!â for them.
I remember when people were posting personal stories on these A-list blogs and making videos to put the faces to the struggle. I remember when congress critters were reading letters on the House floor. Suddenly the ban on pre-existing conditions was introduced. Then the ban on rescissions. Then the ban on lifetime caps.
Then the stories stopped and the outrage started. Then the fucking âactivistsâ were calling for the heads of Representatives who didnât sign their goddamned, idiotic pledges. âHE WONâT SIGN!! CALL HIS OFFICE NOW AND TELL HIM HE SUCKS!!!â the headlines would read. And slowly, but surely we get to this point. The outrage that got certain bloggers airtime on MSNBC became an infection that stopped positive activism. At least on the netroots level. Phone banks and email lists were set up to tell people on our side how much they sucked ass. We were making real progress and then we were derailed.
Iâm over it. Done with it. There is no true ânetrootsâ community. These motherfuckers are just pitiful. I love my politics, but apparently Iâm too goddamned stupid to know that nothing at this point is better than something. Iâve heard that Mexico has cheap insurance rates and itâs pretty warm down there. I wonderâ¦
Related posts: