Author Archives: Sheila

Appalling

Senator Lindsay Graham is very conservative; however, he is not one of the extremist know-nothings currently attempting to turn the GOP into a religious/nationalist cult of some sort. And that fact–the fact that he is occasionally willing to work with–gasp!–Democrats–has led the S. Carolina Republican Party to censure him! 

As many who read this blog know, I was an active and visible Republican for thirty-plus years. I ran for Congress as a Republican. As the party moved further and further away from the fiscal responsibility and social liberalism/libertarianism that had attracted me–I left. Millions of others did likewise. Today the party is the mirror image of what it was when we belonged–rather than being fiscally conservative and socially liberal, it is socially conservative and fiscally liberal. And since most Americans do not agree that government should tax the poor to benefit the rich, or that it should intervene to keep people like Terry Schaivo “alive,” or that efforts to extend healthcare (whether one likes the bill or not) are comparable to the holocaust, the “true believers” are making the party’s candidates increasingly un-electable. 

When people as conservative as Lindsay Graham are no longer “pure” enough, you have a party intent upon destroying itself.

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THIS is what drives me crazy…

I’m linking to Political Animal for this discussion of David Vitter’s distortions of the pending cap and trade legislation, but not for the particulars of that legislative battle.

This sort of situation–where someone who opposes a proposal totally mischaracterizes it–has become endemic, and the media watchdogs who are supposed to tell us who’s lying aren’t doing so, for a variety of reasons.

I have a short fuse anyway–just ask my husband–and the routine use of outright lies and fabrications in policy debates is driving me up the proverbial wall!

The Mean Between Extremes

The ancient Greeks used to warn of the dangers of extremism, and advocate for the “golden mean.” Our contemporary circumstances point to the value of that warning.

I posted yesterday about the hateful responses to Elie Weisel’s objection to equating healthcare reform with Nazi death-camps. But the examples extend much farther: the demonizing of Muslims, the insistence by fundamentalist Christians that this is a “Christian Nation” in which others reside only by sufference.

M.J. Rosenberg makes the point forcefully.

Frightening Ignorance

Elie Weisel is a Holocaust survivor who has written moving books and articles about the Nazis, and their effort to exterminate the Jews. He has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize. Recently, he objected to the use of pictures displaying Nazi atrocities on signs carried by “teabaggers” protesting healthcare reform–making the (obvious and reasonable) point that equating an effort to extend health care to intentional genocide serves only to trivialize what happened during the holocaust.

The response by the extremist faction of the Republican party? According to Politico and several other sites, Weisel’s objection unleashed a torrent of abuse and anti-semitism. Here are just a few: 

Everyone knows that Obama is George Soros sock puppet. Wasn’t Soros Jewish once upon a time? May the Schwartz be with you.

The jews need to clam up and accept the fact that they are in a Chritian country.

This hollowcost thing is totally overblown by the jewish.

Eli Wiesel should just go back to Indonesia. I don’t see him condemnig the terrorist shooter at Fort Hood.

Elie is a whiner. She should stop her whining. You didn’t not complane when the libs were calling Bush Hitler.

You know what? The fact is that at a time in history, The Rosthchild family controlled practically everything.

In the wake of Obama’s victory last November, we saw an unsettling and deeply troubling display of racism. As the response to Weisel demonstrates, the bigotry is not limited to African-Americans. It encompasses Jews, and immigrants–especially Mexican immigrants. In the wake of the tragedy at Fort Hood, the rightwing blogs have been filled with vitriol aimed at Muslims, including calls to expel all Muslims (even citizens!) from the country. (It does no good to ask these protectors of American purity why there aren’t similar calls when similar acts are perpetrated by Christians–recognition of hypocrisy isn’t their strong suit.)

It really pains me to say this, because I was an active and committed Republican for 35 years, but the party has been completely taken over by this base of angry, largely uneducated, haters. The reasonable Republicans I’ve worked with and known are leaving in droves, loathe to be associated with the teabaggers and know-nothings who are calling the shots.

The GOP made a Faustian bargain. For years, party elders courted the radical Christian Right, and gladly benefitted from their votes, volunteers and money, calculating that they could continue a relationship that was almost entirely one-way. Throw the rubes a legislative bone now and then, employ the rhetoric they wanted to hear, but otherwise ignore them. Those Republicans are now reaping the results of that cynical calculus. The GOP can’t win elections with just the votes of these irrational, angry activists and thugs. But if these people continue to be the face of what was once the Grand Old Party, they can’t win the votes of the vast majority of Americans who are people of good will.

If there is a moral to this sad story, it’s “beware of the beast you feed.”

The Economics of Healthcare Reform

It’s getting so I hate to turn on the television, unless I’m watching something I have TIVO’d, and can zip through the commercials. On live TV, there is an ad that runs every few minutes declaring that healthcare reform will add to the national deficit and raise taxes. The ad ends by darkly warning that “America cannot afford” to reform healthcare.

Complex issues are never accurately addressed by slogans and bumper stickers, of course, but those of us who have actually been following the various proposals and arguments cannot help but be offended by the intellectual dishonesty of this particular 30-second spot. There are a number of proposals still on the table, for one thing, that would have different results. None of them currently would do any of the things this ad claims, for another. The Congressional Budget Office says that the version in the U.S. House would REDUCE the deficit by some 100 billion dollars over the next ten years.

Since I grit my teeth every time this particular bit of propaganda airs, I was gratified to see release of the following open letter from several of the nation’s most eminent economists.

Successful health care reform is vital to the nation’s fiscal and economic future. The legislation the House will vote on in the coming days will guarantee security of coverage, limit the costs of care, create incentives for improved quality of care, and set us on the path towards sustainable economic growth. In short, the House health reform legislation takes the steps necessary to promote our economic health.

Specifically, the bill:

  • Reduces the deficit by over $100 billion in the first 10 years, and continues to reduce the deficit in subsequent years, as judged by the Congressional Budget Office.
  • Takes initial steps to “bend the cost curve,” and thus might lead to even larger cost savings than official estimates suggest.
  • Covers nearly all American citizens and legal residents.

We urge House passage of the legislation, which provides a historic opportunity to realize the long-delayed goal of significant health care reform.

Signed,

Dr. Henry J. Aaron, The Brookings Institution
Dr. Mike Chernew, Harvard University Medical School
Dr. David Cutler, Harvard University
Dr. Judy Feder, Georgetown University, Center for American Progress Action Fund
Dr. Dana Goldman, University of Southern California
Dr. Jonathan Gruber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Len Nichols, The New America Foundation