Hank Johnson Town Hall Meeting, August, 2009
It has been said that whatever the State of California is, that will be the state of the United States in five years. Lucky us; political gridlock, issuing IOU’s to State vendors and awash with people who are not citizens of the United States. And, with the upcoming census, this promises to become worse. To wit:
“California could get nine House seats it doesn’t deserve because illegal aliens will be counted in 2010.
And:
According to the latest American Community Survey, California has 5,622,422 noncitizens in itspopulation of 36,264,467.
Further, the Obama administration is talking about controlling the 2010 census rather than the usual agency, the Department of Commerce. In short, something fast is going on here and one gets the impression that the current debate about health care is designed to be a distraction from what is really going on. In addition to the census issues, there is also the fact that the economy appears to be on the verge of recovery and only 10% of the “stimulus” funds have been spent. Likewise, the Cash for Clunkers program was meant to last until November, but blew through its 1 $Billion allocation in under a week.
The “U. S. will be like California in five years” appears to be closer to “two years” at the rate of current spending. Likewise, the political leadership is from California and from the region. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is from San Francisco, California. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is from Nevada. The current health care reform in the House of Representatives is being led by my favorite limousine liberal, Henry Waxman, who hails from Beverly Hills, California. California has given us a lot of things over the last century, from Walt Disney to Charles Manson, movie stars and swimming pools, to state mandated electricity utility restructuring leading to brownouts and so much more.
Now comes the national health care debate; yes, things probably need some work, but you have to wonder why such an important issue that affects so many people would have been undertaken under such circumstances. One would think that the powerful Democratic Party would have first gained consensus and then built legislation around that. No, instead we get television coverage of people yelling at each other, a reflection of television itself. We get the President speaking at a “town hall” so stacked that seldom was heard a discouraging word. The President had to prod for some skeptical questions, but considering that everybody present in that hall that day had been admitted only after it was established that they were loyal to the Democratic Party and/or the President himself, there could not have been a difficult question raised This event included a grade school child asking a scripted question; as it turns out, this innocent is the daughter of a woman who was “an early Obama supporter and donor in Massachusetts during the presidential election.” Another great moment for our Republic.
That said, the Democrats and the President have little right to become indignant. It is not realistic to undertake a massive societal change and then be surprised when there is popular pushback. The people who attend these town hall meetings are our neighbors, our friends and those concerned about the direction that this thing is taking. Yet, they are portrayed as Nazis, insurance company goons and the deranged. The Democrats’ notion is that health care reform idea is so good that there should be no opposition, and when there is opposition, they deny its existence by demonizing or marginalizing. It is arrogance at the highest quarter to believe that way. And, it does not give honor to the Office of the President, who, no matter what their political orientation, is the President of all of us. The President says health care critics use ‘scare tactics’. How could people not be scared given the the strident pace of legislating the “reform” and considering the tone of the rhetoric?
Politicization of Health Care
Not that this is unfamiliar territory. I reside in the 4th U. S. Congressional District of Georgia, and for many years, our representative was a strident woman who did not like white people. Of course, when election time came around, she would be photographed with a few white specimens just to garner some votes from the community. On balance, however, if you were from a certain ZIP code and you contacted her offices for constituent support, you were ignored, not even given the courtesy of a response.
Now, with public skepticism about the health care reform legislation, we hear the questioners being called un-American. If there is ever a hallmark of being a legitimate American, it is that you have moments of un-Americanism. It can’t be any other way, you have to periodically question the status-quo just to be able to come up with the original ideas that we do. I would have it no other way. What will be next, a House Un-American Activities Committee? Back in the 1950’s the liberals hated this committee, now they seem to be embracing it.
If this is the way that our government speaks to its citizens, those that support it financially through their taxes, how will our government speak to us when they control our healthcare? And, this portends our greatest unspoken fear, that healthcare itself will become politicized. That when it comes to a margin call about some medical procedure and you have to contact your Congressperson, will their response be based upon your political inclinations?
I am Somebody
People want to be heard, and not to hear “Your call is important to us“. And, when it comes to health care, it doesn’t get much more personal. We all get sick, and we all die. Yet, we are being told to shut up and accept what is unacceptable. Our neighbors are being told to report anything that is “fishy” to the White House. It’s the 1950’s again, and instead of a Red-under-every-bed, it is now something else, yet equally unattractive. We are now reduced to ratting on our neighbors. The White House is the people’s house, not the Democratic Party headquarters. This is unseemly.
Professional Wrestling
There are those in the media who have compared the current health care discussion to being like the World Wrestling Federation. And, in point of fact, that is close to the truth because the media has helped the process along. As usual, I am reminded of a story, one of a young socialite from Boston who decided that she wanted a career in newspaper reporting.
Through family connections, she got a job at the Boston Globe and presented herself to the city editor for duty. The editor looked at her and realized that this gentle lady represented nothing but problems for him and decided to give her a first assignment that could well also be her last assignment. He sent her to cover that night’s professional wrestling match in Boston.
Professional wrestling, so called, was then much as it is today. That is, it is a battle between Good and Evil, and Good does not always win. Likewise, after the matches are over and the hall is being swept of debris, Good & Evil often sat down for a few beers and a discussion of the day’s events. Those who attended these matches were usually working-class, who greatly enjoyed the show.
There is no record as to whether this young lady continued in journalism, but she left us with a paragraph that could easily describe the health care “debate”.
However fake the wrestling might be, the crowd is for real.
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