Two Birds, One Stone

"Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human. It is always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed; that they gamble – yes, gamble – with a whole part of their life and their so called 'vital interests'." ~~ Notebooks, 1937

"There are means that cannot be excused. And I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don't want just any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive." ~~ Resistance, Rebellion, and Death, 1960

Neither of Albert Camus's observations is new to you, I'm sure. One would think that with the regularity with which they are quoted they might actually have had some impact on democratic political discourse. Sadly, that has not been the case.

The national debate over health care has turned into, what? I was about to use the rather stale word "circus" but that would be too kind. I had some naive fantasy that the election of Barak Obama would result in a more measured discussion. Certainly the Obama administration is better than the Bush mafia, but the right-wing loonies are drowning out even the slimmest chances of meaningful health care (or any other kind of) reform.

In all fairness, this is in part due to perverted remnants of our Puritan founding. As the persecuted religious followers became the agents of their own communities, they self righteously demanded conformity. That trait we have come to call the Puritan work ethic had its good side and its bad. As immigrants to a new continent it provided an entrepreneurial drive in the face of daunting odds, but it also justified a disdain for the poor whose need could be dismissively attributed to an outward manifestation of their presumed sloth.

The Puritan's evangelical offspring have bred down the years, spawning the ludicrous "theologies" of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority; Pat Robertson's Law of Reciprocity, amplified in the ministry of Kenneth Hagin and the self-help empire of Joel Osteen; and James Bakker's Prosperity Theology. These are effectively augmented by the ear-splitting rantings of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, et al.

There is plenty of incivility in other places on the globe. The UK goes apoplectic over soccer. The only people more intoxicated with the zombie state of mind induced by electronic devices than Americans are probably the Japanese. But are they screaming at each other over their airwaves? (Maybe the Brits are, but I'd venture a guess that the Japanese are not.)

If we do get health care "reform" I fear it will require those ironic quotation marks. Health care subsidies so we can buy private insurance ourselves? An insurance exchange? No single payer option? And why should it be an option? Why not just single payer? The solution is going to be just as zany as the problem.

It may be a moot point since it looks as if the last trick out of the Republican's hat, the Stupak Amendment (that will disallow the expenditure of a dime on abortion health care and will disallow a woman from purchasing insurance from a private insurer that provides abortion coverage), threatens not only to sabotage the victory of Roe vs. Wade, but will kill even a remote possibility of passing health care reform legislation altogether.

Those are two really big birds to fell with that one Stupak stone.

See Jane Smiley's 09/17/2009 HuffPost Book Review on Republican Gomorrah, which I read two days after writing this.