Right-wing protestors have been disrupting Democratic town hall meetings across the United States. These town hall meetings are aimed at informing the public on why health care reform is necessary.
However, do these right-wing shenanigans represent freedom of speech or is something more sinister at work—like an attempt to stifle progress and the democratic process?
No doubt, health care reform is needed—it’s an inescapable fact illustrated by the numbers. However, these hecklers have consistently revealed their ignorance of the issues by regurgitating falsities and one-sided arguments. From Think Progress:
During the town hall, one conservative activist turns to his fellow attendees and asks them to raise their hands if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Almost all the hands shot up. Rep Green quickly turned the question on the audience and asked, “How many of you have Medicare?” Nearly half the attendees raised their hands, failing to note the irony.
This video effectively counters the movement to disrupt Democratic town hall meetings:
What’s so great about private health insurance? From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
However, I think it’s important — and telling — to compare those imaginary “what if” stories to the real-life, well-documented and all-too-numerous examples of abuse, corruption and downright cruelty perpetrated in our current system dominated by private “free market” health insurance.
The overall statistics are grim: Health-care costs are rising at double the rate of overall inflation, to the point that health care consumes 17 percent of our gross domestic product, and we pay two to three times more per capita for health care than any other Western industrialized country. And despite all that investment, a significant portion of our population still has no health-care coverage.
That’s not to mention repeated instances of corporate fraud in the health-care sector (see, Richard Scrushy and HealthSouth), denials of coverage for reasons of pre-existing conditions and even outright, after-the-fact cancellation of policies for Americans who faithfully paid premiums for years but saw their policies “rescinded” when they dared to actually file a claim.
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
Listen…you’re NOT getting you communist healthcare system.
Further, regarding the townhall “disruptions”…there is no debate.
There is no discussion to be had.
We need to eliminate the federal government, not involve it even more in our lives…much less healthcare.
When will you dumb liberals get it: NO YOU CAN’T.
As a practical matter, this country lacks the ability to address healthcare (and for that matter ANY problem), in a focused, direct, and coordinated fashion. It is also incapable of really planning much of anything of real value, at least not at this point in time. That type of activity does not fit within our governance model.
What you see here is an example of what happens when ANY entity is run by committee. We’ve known that as a society for a long time.
Our governance model is a “herding cats” governance model, where we let people and the entities they form have the freedom to do most of what they consider to be in their best interests, and we hope that it will also be in society’s best interests.
Sometimes that works for us, and other times it doesn’t. It will never yield consistency in approach, effort, and results. For us to think so is delusional in nature.
We (as a nation) lack the ability to rally around anything, unless it is perceived as an imminent threat to virtually all of us, and that’s not going to happen often. And so we become self-absorbed in thinking about our own personal, close to home minutiae.
There are some positive and negative ramifications associated with ANY alternate approach we might pursue, and the yelling and screaming will always be loud and raucous.
As George Will often says, there is the “inertia” which is Washington. There is also the “inertia” which is the U.S. and its constituent parts.
Although this approach has served us well for most of the last 110 years, from a theoretical perspective, one has to wonder how long we can govern ourselves using the “herding cats” governance model, in light of our increase in size and complexity of our citizens.
If the US were run like a business, then every single day, its management team would assess whether its goals are being attained, bust their butts to achieve those goals, ensure that it was getting the maximum value and productivity out of those working for it, and make on the dime changes to most effectively and efficiently reach those goals. In other words, be nimble.
This country is not nimble, and can not be.
I’m not advocating a particular change, either left or right; just the recognition that EVERY governance model has its limitations, and this one is no different. However, for us to think that we can continue to use it and not have negative periods and poor, inappropriate responses to problems, is not reasonable. A country needs to know its limitations.
YOU are dead wrong about everything. YOU are the problem.