Here I go again. In the recent past I was authoring a monthly article for several magazines. That’s when I thought I had something original to say about the state of politics, or society … or just the chaotic thinking that permeates the country.
Then two of the magazines went out of business, Obama became President and I started to watch Keith Olbermann. I thought that Keith had more to say and could say it better than I. Being a flaming liberal, I liked Rachel Maddow when she started, but I soon tired of her cutesy delivery. Bill Maher has held up better, but still, he’s not delivering my particular point of view. I have a different perspective, including the fact that I am not part of the drug culture nor do I practice eating wholesome food.
Don’t get me wrong. Not everything I express will make liberals happy and with certainty, I will not put a smile on Republican faces. However, I do think many Americans above the age of 60 will agree with many of my observations.
Of late, I have been aghast at how Obama has handled the selling of his medical reformation. Like many Americans who voted for Barack Obama I expected better political prowess out of him.
Let me give you a political comparison: Lyndon Johnson was not one of my favorite Presidents but he exercised a flawless game of politics when he greased the political skids to get his social welfare agenda passed.
If it were not for a little thing called Vietnam, he would have been remembered as a great President. But he lied us into Vietnam with a fabrication called the “Domino Theory.” At the time I knew it was bogus and immediately I was against the war.
But if you examine his actions as President you will see they were part of a well established pattern he developed in the Senate. It was all part of “the big lie.” I didn’t mind “the big lie” as long as I agreed with the outcome. But Johnson’s “big lie” was needlessly wasting lives. So I was against it. In my mind all of Johnson’s “Great Society” benefits were pushed to the side when young men were being killed for all the wrong reasons.
No matter how hard Johnson tried, he could not disavow the blatant truth coming home in body bags. However, the people buying into his big lies were on the far right. That’s where the war’s support was coming from. The red, white and blue political hacks haven’t changed much. They still want smaller government and bigger armies for even more menacing enemies. Most important, they are the first to shout they want the government’s grubby hands off their Medicare. Common sense has gone right out the window. It did then and it’s pull-the-same-hat-trick now.
Simply, Johnson could sell his political agenda because of one primary political tactic: “You never get anywhere in Washington without having somebody’s pecker in your pocket.” And that’s a quote right out of Lyndon’s playbook. In the case of Obama’s healthcare bill, it is failing because the “newbie” to Washington doesn’t have enough peckers in his pocket. It’s just that simple.
The poor guy was delusional when it came to “beltway politics.” He thought that he could negotiate his plan through the path of give and take compromises. Consensus was his strategy! He believed all he needed to do was get the naysayers in a room, trade tit-for-tat, keep things amorphous and flexible so he can barter without sticking his neck out too far, and that would do the trick. The “pecker in the pocket” thing would have been ungentlemanly. Boy did he get that wrong!
Obama never counted on the storm that followed. He never figured on the forces that would be collectively mustered against him. Deep pockets have even deeper consequences for the well intended. The right wing flew into full throttle. Elected officials sold their souls to insurance companies in a nano second. The talking airwave heads on the political right flooded their programs with lies and distortions that Obama’s team could not imagine. And an entire panic-driven segment of the public flew into a frenzy about “end of life” scenarios, right-wing Nazism, left-wing socialism and wing-nut bureaucratic control … the list went on and on. Obama’s team found themselves out-flanked and outgunned.
Behind all the commotion is a concerted effort by several groups including, of course, health insurance companies. Examine how their expense/loss ratios have taken a larger and larger bite out of every dollar paid in premiums. In the early 1990s about five cents of every dollar in healthcare insurance went to supporting the company’s overhead. Today about 20 cents of every premium dollar goes toward commissions, underwriting, advertising, lobbying, and inflated executive salaries. Premiums have increased and so has the denial of healthcare claims.
In his idealism and good intentions Obama was truly naïve. In my estimation, the President would have been far better off waiting until later in his term to propose sweeping reformation and, in the mean time, lay the groundwork he needed. This should have included getting a few key peckers within squeezing distance before tackling healthcare. These should have included:
- Starting to regulate the excesses of healthcare insurance companies. They should have held some very public committee probes into the industry’s excess profits, their political agenda, which special interest groups they created to create their political clout. Let’s not forget the Sherman antitrust laws. Obama should have put the industry in such a defensive position they would have had to fight attacks on several fronts. The public disgust for these evildoers should have been heightened beyond anything imagined.
- At the same time Obama’s people should have formed an independent public information group tasked to air commercials illustrating the real tragedies caused by healthcare insurance providers.
- Then the government should have created a propaganda program of how Medicare has helped people.
- And lastly, give the program an easily understood name: “Medicare For Everyone,” just as Obama’s personal physician recommended. That would help immediately define the core benefits for the majority of people.
If the administration did this in a concerted way, the public would have been persuaded. However, everything was intentionally left up in the air to be endlessly debated. Little wonder it has been mired down in details. This left room for opponents to focus on problems both real and imagined. The daylight never was allowed to show through. The whole thing became political folly, and it remains so today.
However, a much bigger issue reared its ugly head. Obama was swept into office because the public was sick and tired of obviously and terribly mismanaged governing. The public wanted change in a big way — and Obama represented that change. But have things changed? Or, have they gotten worse?
When Obama forced GM into bankruptcy, the public liked that. He looked strong and decisive. When Obama’s team created “Cash For Clunkers” they liked that, too. The transparency he promised never quite came about. And when the financial houses took billions of tax dollars during Obama’s rescue and gave out large raises, the public lost confidence and saw the governance as incredibly ineffective. Add to this the closing of major retailers, borrowing more money from China and continuing the farce in the Middle East. Obama’s effectiveness along with his credibility suffers.
Put in the middle of all this the healthcare debate, and the huge deficit it threatens to incur, and the demise of the middle class, and the plight of the poor … and the unemployed … and soon to be unemployed. Those chickens are coming home to roost by rising up in one chorus and painfully shouting their disapproval. That’s what is really happening at the infamous town hall meetings.
Public resentment has not been higher in most people’s lifetime. It’s not just organized Republican men and women shouting at their senators and congressmen in town hall meetings. It’s also regular Joes and Jills who have been ignored and marginalized for too many years. They don’t trust their elected officials. They don’t even like them. In many cases they did not vote— at all! They considered their vote to be a joke.
In the words of the movie Network: “They are mad as hell and won’t take it anymore!” But the public has no choice, and they know it. Their anger is spilling over and their ingrained biases are welling to the surface. They resent illegals. They are alienated from people of color and people with money who live in homes they’ll never be able to afford. So they buy lottery tickets hoping to hit it big and they hate themselves afterward for wasting the money.
So they go postal … or turn to crime, or drugs or join some weekend paramilitary group. They have forgotten reasonable nuances and see the world as black and white and want to take matters in their own hands. If you are against abortion, kill the doctor. If you are for abortion, picket and protest the protestors. Just do something — anything. It’s time for rage, for going amuck. The world is lining up on all sides of every issue.
If you are inclined, seek out religion and devote yourself to leaving this life for a better one. What have you got to look forward to? If are a radical Muslim, now is the time to think about those 72 virgins you were promised. And if believe in a better hereafter, there’s always “death by cop!” It happens every day now. Isn’t anyone taking notice? The country is going mad.
Read the headlines. Earthquakes. Plane crashes. Berserk people with AK47’s in shopping malls. Healthcare reform riots. Why not? Send someone to the hospital who doesn’t have insurance. Don’t try to settle anything with facts. The facts don’t matter! These are visceral issues. They come from deep inside a very dissatisfied public. Obama’s healthcare was the match that lit everything up. He didn’t load the powder keg. He simply supplied the fuse. His mistake was that he thought good intentions would speak for themselves. He should have had a few more successes in his win column and, at the same time, destroyed the bad guys in the time-honored traditional way — through political chicanery. But he wanted to play nice. And, we know what happened: We finished last. Which proves two old adages: No good deed goes unpunished. And, a pecker in the hand is worth two in the …!
Tags: Obama, obama's mistake
Interesting musings; not my flavor. Always nice to read another viewpoint.
I’d keep my day job, however……
Monty