Why is our country so polarized today? Why does a member of congress yell "liar" towards the president of the United States during his state of the union speech? Is it the evaporation of truly investigative newspapers that were trusted by almost all Americans. Is it the growth of truly partisan news channels that both offer up virtually unfetered lies as fact? Is it a natural disintegration of our antiquated two party system? Is it a natural reaction to a country at war as we saw during the sixties?I am unsure if any or all of these are true factors of the grotesque turn our political system and our culture in this country have taken over the past decade. I am almost fifty years old and have determined that the growth of the electronic device which I am currently writing this piece on - the computer. To be more specific the electronic explosion where free speech has taken on new meanings and led to the growth of both apathy and the lack of factual evidence needed in what one puts forth in writing.
One of the proudest moments I have had as a father was last week when my daughter stayed up on her own to watch the Health Care debate and vote on C-span. Then she came in to talk with me about why every republican voted against legislation that would provide health care to thirty-two million Americans. Her dad had no real answers except that they were playing politics with people's lives. It is a sad day for America when instead of discourse and dialogue we have threats and lies. This is not the America that produces the New Deal and LBJ's civil rights legislation. But, if this bill is given a chance to survive then it will be the most important Civil Rights legislation of this generation and my daughter will be able to say she stayed up to watch just like her dad did when man landed on the moon.
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An answer to your daughters question could have been that some people believe that this isn't a good deal financially for this country. While making sure affordable health care is available to people of all economic standings is the moral and correct thing to do, some people think this bill doesn't accomplish that. Yes every Republican voted against it and even some Democrats voted against it. What I'm surprised she didn't ask (and maybe she's not fully aware of it) is why some people that voted for it in the end needed some sweetener to essentially have their vote bought? Bart Stupak was adamantly opposed to the deal because there was no language about preventing public finds to be used towards abortion. Yes, he got a presidential order from Obama saying funds would not be used for this purpose but if one looks at history this order is useless. When medicaid was developed someone sued the federal government to allow these funds to be used for this purpose. The original medicaid legislation had no language preventing its use and the president at the time had also issued a presidential order banning its use. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the suing party saying that it was the legal legislation of the Senate that mattered and that the presidential order was not the law. This is why the now famous Hyde Amendment came into being. That amendment is what now makes it illegal to use those funds for abortion purposes. If someone today wanted to sue the government over use of health care funds to pay for an abortion the Supreme Court based on precedence would rule the Obama order invalid. As a lawmaker Stupak should know this. But he got funding allocating $700,000 for an airport and suddenly his moral convictions evaporated. This is the problem with America today, a complete lack of morals and the conviction to stand up for them come hell or high water. I agree with you 100% that all people should have affordable access to health care. Passing this legislation, I believe, does not accomplish that. I know we've got to start somewhere and it should have been started long ago. An all encompassing piece of legislation filled with pork is not the way to do this.
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