by DON STITT
A conservative Republican friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook of President Obama in Heath Ledger’s “Joker” makeup, wearing a T-shirt that read, “Socialism.”
He included the addendum, “Hey, I don’t want my liberal friends to get their panties in a bunch over this. Remember, a lot of unflattering stuff was posted about Bush.”
(True enough. But to make a distinction here, Obama is an eloquent, diplomatic, thoughtful, and forward-thinking statesman, whereas the other person referred to was an imbecile who set our nation back by generations with ridiculous ideas. Just sayin’.)
And, it should be pointed out that this friend of mine once produced a music video of a song I recorded…with another actor playing the role I voiced on the recording. (I was available. Go figure.)
The notion of socialized medicine is an embarrassment to our nation’s capitalists. But it’s also an embarrassment to our “Capitalist” nation that between the growing national debt and the implosion of the banking and investment communities, our nation is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. We are roughly 3 trillion in debt to another nation, a nation whose sound mix of capitalism and socialism has made them able to effectively buy us. The are the People’s Republic of China. Yes friends, that’s right: Our greedy capitalists are now in hock to a communist country.
I got yer Big Scary Socialism right here.
So here are a few points about Big Scary Socialism that I think we have to consider as we try to drag 50 % of our population unwillingly into the 21st century:
Are you against the public libraries? The library system we enjoy today was the brainstorm of that dangerous anti-American Benjamin Franklin. He concluded that since most people only read a book once, we should make books available to as many people who wish to read them, for free. This idea did not do any harm to professional booksellers, as far as I can tell. He was a publisher himself, you know.
And public libraries are socialism.
Franklin also proposed another public works project: The Fire Department. Have the public pay to extinguish blazes in the homes of the poor? Outrageous. And yet, we have come to depend on the Fire Department, and their collective heroism on 9/11 still brings a tear to my eye to this day. Hard to imagine a world without fire departments.
And the Fire Department is socialism.
Are you against public education? Because, as far as I can tell, public education is helping countless millions of children. I won’t argue that private education seems to be superior for those who can afford it. I’d only point out that public education seems to be a good “default setting” for those who are not so fortunate, and it hasn’t threatened private education one bit.
And Public Education is socialism.
Are you against Medicare, or Medicaid in California? A poor fellow in a town hall meeting showed up with a sign for President Obama that said, “Keep your hands off my Medicare!” To those of us who understand the debate, this is wryly amusing, because Medicare is not threatened by the proposed Health Care legislation, nor is Medicaid. They would only be enhanced by single-payer health-care reform.
And Medicare and Medicaid are socialism.
Are you against Social Security? Remember, when FDR proposed helping destitute Americans who had worked a lifetime, and had their savings wiped out in the Wall Street crash of ‘29. he was called a “traitor to his class” by the uber-wealthy whose fortunes were commensurate with his own. But social security has been a hand-up, not a hand-out, to untold millions of Americans in their golden years since the thirties.
And Social Security is…well, you know.
To the degree that our private-insurer system works, (which in my opinion is “not very well,”) it works because the government keeps them in check. Do you think that a lot of claims are denied by the insurers now? Imagine what the system would be like if the government weren’t breathing down their neck.
And that’s the whole idea of the single-payer plan being debated now. It doesn’t eliminate private insurance for those who can afford it. It simply reduces the health care costs the public is already paying for by reducing the copious number of emergency-room visits for the uninsured. We pay for their emergency room visits, you know. Lessening this cost would save us money. An idea capitalists should embrace.
Public health has been in place in Europe and Canada for decades, and I have rarely heard a complaint from my European and Canadian friends to that end. Germany’s system seems to be exemplary. (And need I point out that the Marshall Plan was payed for by the public?)
Look, McCarthy was shamed into silence before most of us were born. The USSR is no longer a threat, (although I admit that Putin has me a little jumpy, and Kim Jong Ill hasn’t died just yet.) But the great communist threat never did us much harm. And while I do not propose putting such fears aside entirely, I do not see anything about socialized medicine that threatens the American way of life.
In fact, what I see is that it will help us immeasurably.
The one thing holding us back seems to be the fact that many people seem to get their information from news sources that are really in the pockets of big business, and the insurers have no shortage of propaganda and outright lies that they are willing to spew to keep their profit margins up. But some high-ranking former executives of these insurers are breaking ranks, and speaking out on public radio and public television.
And public broadcasting is…
Oh, gosh. I hate to repeat myself.
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If you like Don Stitt (and frankly – who doesn’t) check out his Facebook Profile and his other writings and social connections.
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