Immediatists have been failing us for centuries now.
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[quote=“nungesser, post:25, topic:100421, full:true”] Somehow it boils down to a small, angry, incredibly ignorant minority of our people and a small, angry, greedy bunch of lawmakers being able to destroy things most Americans deeply want, against our wishes. I’m powerless and helpless to watch them being taken away.
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This thread has gone somewhere else, but I need to comment on that.
If you replace “Americans” with “people”, you can translate it to most languages on this planet and find empathic nodding wherever you go.
What’s a bit disturbing is if you also replace “most” with “the”, and probably skip the word “angry” you will get a positive response out of every crowd at a right-wing group rally. The exactly angry minority you are referring to, I assume?
I am not trying to attack you, and not your point. But I think we have a serious problem with the feeling expressed, globally. The feeling of being disenfranchised, the feeling that democracy is failing us (or rather: me, personally, and many people I care about), and that a minority is to blame - it’s everywhere. It’s possibly the sentiment of estimated 11 million people to vote for the neo-fascist candidate in France this weekend, and another many to stay at home during the elections because the alternative is a neo-liberal ex-banker.
I started off by saying I don’t understand the US of A in regard to the health care discussion. I am truly at a loss there, coming from a different cultural perspective. And indeed helpless, since not an US citizen and thus not entitled to vote, not able to go to town hall meetings, etc.
But I think I might have a idea what is happening in the public discourse, including old and “new” media. Online forums included.
And I can try not to nod to emphatically, or gif it.
I don’t understand the American health care culture, but I do understand the German one. And I hear a-many complaints about the German health care system. I do engage in discussions about it to a) tell people that it is fucking brilliant and not completely broken as my counterparts in discussions seem to think, but b) that there is definitely room for improvement, and while I am no expert I would be happy to discuss ideas and help to communicate them to decision-makers.
I can’t do much. But I am no longer taking part in the specific German version narrative of “our health care is so fucked”.
Word of caution: I don’t mean to offend you, and I’m not trying to accuse you of anything.
US of America is a strange and very foreign country to me, but I think that very possibly you are not as powerless and helpless as you think. And you are very much not alone, neither with your feelings nor with any actual problem in wake of the current ACA fuckup. I’m sure of that.
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/hugs
and @Wayward too: /hugs
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Hopefully the day doesn’t come where they are hoping for only paid protesters.
Like the Banking System? 
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Full disclosure: this effects me (negatively) and my loved ones more than most.
However, the ACA was never going to fix anything. This new plan will not fix anything. Insurance is only a small part of the whole healthcare problem. The whole healthcare system, from patients to medical students, is completely fucked.
Everyone should read this book: https://www.amazon.com/American-Sickness-Healthcare-Became-Business/dp/1594206759
It gives an excellent overview of how we got to where we are and gives great insight into how deeply fucked our whole healthcare system is. We all need to start taking more active rolls in our healthcare and the first step of that is gaining knowledge.
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But pricing all the sick people out of the insurance market entirely just might. Sure, they die, but you can’t make an omelet without breaking 24 million eggs.
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The Tories have publicly described this very phenomenon
Mr Wild said there were two reasons why the Government should make the cuts to pensioner benefits “as soon as possible after an election” .
"The first of which will sound a little bit morbid - some of the people… won’t be around to vote against you in the next election,” he said. “So that’s just a practical point, and the other point is they might have forgotten by then.
"If you did it now, chances are that in 2020 someone who has had their winter fuel cut might be thinking, ‘Oh I can’t remember, was it this government or was it the last one? I’m not quite sure.’
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This is partially true, yes. When his single-payer bill was rejected as being unpassable by Congress, he quite literally tweaked Romneycare to improve it and did indeed present Reps with what was essentially their own bill, which was pretty difficult for them to say no to. But it was designed as a sort of lego set, a health care scheme that would start out with the individual mandate and ‘no pre-existing conditions’ as its centerpieces, but would be able to be added onto to evolve into single-payer – baby steps rather than one big leap all at once. Unfortunately the puzzle pieces that’d let that happen were killed bit by bit by the GOP.
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Thank you, I appreciate your comment very much, and I agree.
Our government was designed to be slow and difficult on purpose. The intent was always to make passing laws hard to prevent a dictatorship. Big huge laws had to go through rounds and rounds of reviews and committees and hearings, and then voting on them was designed to be difficult as well. Our country’s founders wanted laws to be considered and revised many times so that people would feel involved and that no President or Congress or Judiciary could rule the land.
But when Congress decides to change the rules to benefit itself on the fly, or ram through a massively unpopular health care law they haven’t even read or reviewed, just out of spite, it makes me and many many other people feel powerless. They’re breaking our system to benefit the rich and powerful, and openly admitting it.
My one hope is that going from a “well, it’s kinda working” healthcare system to a truly horrible one will wake people up and make them angry and demand something genuinely better. We’ve swung one way. The swing back is going to be epic.
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The Phantom Menace is of course awful, but I don’t think it pointed out anything about events happening after the movie itself was made.
*Googles it*
Aha, you’re talking about these guys. Check.
So mocking their opponents for passing a law that could kill a whole bunch of people is derivative and tasteless, not just tasteless. Good to know.
This article has a lot of great information, but the progressive-left media needs to start springboarding solutions and stop being so comfortable handing the far-right media their talking points. This article is full of extremely accurate and important points, some of which I didn’t know even though I was familiar with the meat of it, but the conclusion is still focused on what not to be and not on what can be done. The 2016 election marked the lowest point of neoliberal Democrat ideas in popularity and strength, and if this opportunity isn’t used as a springboard by progressives instead of an opportunity to gloat then the new normal will be more fascists versus center-right Dems. Some writers and articles has reflected this, but it needs to be a more consistent message.
There’s already going to be four years of normalizing Trump in the mainstream, and soon the push is going to be for center-right Dems to go even more to the right. The last thing progressive ideals need is to be the cited source of Breitbart/Beltway Pundit articles for another four years. There are progressive candidates out there, and there are achievable popular progressive platforms to build. It can’t just be Sanders and his supporters trying to get that message out.
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Over here in the UK we call the phenomena you describe “Brexit”.
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I’m glad you’re being helped! I’m sorry that it might go away. It really sucks. And I’m sure medicare is next (privatizing it is one of Ryan’s priorities). So much for my mom being afloat financially. If she loses her medicare as it is, her health costs will be unsustainable for her. Which of course isn’t just about her finances, but mine and my sisters and our families.
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Oh god! Ugh.
To be fair, it’s hard to do that when so many countries have some sort of US military presence there.
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I’m so sorry. Keep writing and calling your senators. Let them know over and again how unacceptable it is. Get all your friends and neighbors and colleagues to do the same. Put a human face on this by talking about what this will do to your family. Make noise and be heard. Point out to Trump supporters in your family the impact this is going to have on you personally.
Keep up hope and again, I’m so sorry.
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Look at that sea of assholes who care for no one but themselves.
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