Trump

Repeal and Go Fuck Yourself…

/ Jeff Crow / 1 Comment

Tomorrow, July 25, 2017, the United States Senate is set to vote on the repeal of the Afordable Care Act, or, as it was called by most, Obamacare.

Obamacare was a sweeping change of the American healthcare system in 2010, such as it was.  Well, less a system really then, more a pile of shit made over to look like lipstick on a fairly average pig.  But none of that matters anymore.

I was not the biggest fan of Obamacare.  I still am not.  I didn’t care much for how it was passed; I didn’t care much for the “read it after we pass it” attitude, or then Speaker Pelosi’s behavior about passing it.  I didn’t care for what seemed like half-assedness and shortcuts that were taken in the bill.  But, then came this abomination.

We shouted that there wasn’t enough time, but then again, the ACA was debated over for two years.  We cried that there wasn’t enough hearings, but then again, the ACA had more than twenty-five hearings in the Senate alone.  We bemoaned the lack of transparency in the process, but again, there were two debates broadcast live to the people of the nation in primetime.  He muttered that it was bipartisan, and yet Republicans helped draft, not only the bill, but the ideas behind it.  We wailed and gnashed our teeth, and yet…here we are now.

So, you ask, yes!  What about now?  What do we get instead?  Well, we got twelve old white guys, in a room, deciding what our health care should look like.  A fifth of the American economy. We wailed and gnashed our teeth about Obamacare, yes.  And yet…now?  Zero debate, zero hearings, zero transparency, zero input.  We don’t get to know what they’re voting on tomorrow, purely because it doesn’t exist yet.  Oh, don’t worry, they say, about reading it before we vote, it’s just, we haven’t written it.

Are you fucking kidding me?  We didn’t wait eight years for this.  We didn’t wait eight years for, “We don’t have a single idea in our bald little heads.”  We didn’t listen to your bullshit, Leader McConnell, for eight years to be treated like this.  We expect better of the so-called “adults” in the room.  No, do better.  A bill with a 13% approval rating; that has united the insurance companies, the AARP, the AMA, and countless healthcare professionals against it; that is a tax cut for millionaires, masquerading as a healthcare bill; this is not the best you can do.  Do better, or do no harm, as the Hippocratic Oath says.

I have pre-existing conditions.  I’ve spoken of them openly here and elsewhere.  My wife has pre-existing conditions.  She’d like to open her own business, but good luck with that if anything flares up again.  My son has pre-existing conditions, my parents, my in-laws.  You’ve messed with my family Mr. Speaker, Mr. Leader, and Mr. President.  We are coming for you, for your agenda, for your jobs, for your donors.  We are going to sink you under so many letters, so many copies of hospital bills, so many pictures of those we have lost.  We are going to sink you with stories and anger.  You think your base was pissed with Obamacare?  You just wait.  The real Silent Majority is coming for you.

Who are we?

/ Jeff Crow / 1 Comment

I’m so sick of politics I could vomit.

Actually, that’s not true.  I’m so sick of us.  Of the American people.  Of Republicans and Democrats and 24-hour news networks.

I’m sick of a culture that forgot the lessons of Kindergarten.  That forgot common human decency.  Of a culture that cares more about what the Kardashians are doing than about what is happening to our fellows half a world away, let alone in our own neighborhoods.

I’m sick of people who will get into bed with racists and bigots because of a tax plan.  I’m sick of people claiming the moral imperative, and then supporting misogyny and hatred.  I’m sick of people shouting for tolerance and understanding, and then attacking the ideas of thoughts of others.

I’m sick of all of us.

When asked, a recent poll found that 56% of people believe their children will be worse off.  I’m one of them.  Republicans in this country read that poll and claim it’s a repudiation of Obama’s Presidency.  Democrats read it and spend the rest of the day arguing about how to fix it.  All of them act like the French politician that saw the people running, and said, “I must find out where they are going so I may lead them.”  They have the numbers, but they don’t understand.

I do belive our children will be worse off.

I belive that humankind is causing climate change.  I believe this because I have read the studies and looked at the math.  Because 99.9% of all climate scientists have told me so.  Because volcanoes produce somewhere between 65 million and 300 million tonnes/year of CO2, while humans produce 29 billion tonnes/year; we, as a species, produce massive amounts of green house gasses.  If a doctor tells me that I’ve got to change the way I eat or I will die, I believe them.

I believe that people should be treated fairly, no matter the color of their skin or their beliefs or whom they choose to love.  I believe that the Founding Fathers didn’t want religion within miles of their government.  I believe that the economy is stacked against most of us, and that the top 1% hold more wealth than the bottom 90%.  I believe these things because I read studies and abstracts and lectures.  Because I was taught critical thinking skills and am able to use my God-given faculties to find answers to questions.  I question.  I seek answers.

This election has been said to be about so many things.  A rejection of political correctness.  A rejection of the bicoastal elites.  A rejection of the norm.  Of “draining the swamp,” and finding a new way.  But, to me, it is a rejection of something else; a rejection of thought and civility.  A rejection of fact and embrace of fiction.  A focus on the felicitous and salacious.

And before you begin to think that I’m just angry that my candidate lost, my candidate lost in the Primaries; the Democrats nominated the worst candidate they could find.  I’m not angry that a Republican won; I think there are some great thinkers in the Republican Party, and I look forward to years of healthy debate with conservatives in the future.  I am angry though; because the American people have been had.  The liberals gave up the fight, and the conservatives jumped in bed with ugly people.  So, we’ll repeal the social safety net.  We’ll walk back our commitments to international climate change agreements, and find new ways to get involved in wars we have no business being in as a show of American “might.”

Yes, I do believe our children will be worse off.  But because we didn’t go far enough in the last eight years.  Because we elected a reality television star as our President and hailed it as a victory for a cause he doesn’t believe in.  Because we can’t talk about the ugly things it exposed in our culture without it devolving into an ugly conversation itself.

I do have hope though.  I hope that it will inspire new generations of liberals and conservatives alike to start the conversation over.  That is will inspire people to pay attention and get involved in the process of our government.  That it will inspire all of us to reconsider the role we play in our society.

And yes, to Mr. Trump and his administration, we will remember every word you have said.  We will remember the times you should have spoken and remained silent.  We will remember every forgotten tweet and campaign promise.  All of us, conservative and liberal alike.  And those of us that disagree with you, we will fight back.  For as Winston Churchill once stated, “we shall defend our land, whatever the cost may be,…and we shall never surrender.”

Because we believe our country, and our world, are worth fighting for.

Goodnight my friends, and good luck.