As the child of hard right wing GOP’ers I’d say that sums it up pretty well.
I will say that a lot of people I talk politics with tend to focus on issues rather than problems. Republicans in general aren’t opposed to the idea of universal healthcare, they are opposed to using the same shitty insurance system we have now and forcing it on everyone.
When Bush was torturing people and throwing trillions of dollars into the invasion of countries round the other side of the world while New Orleans drowned, everything was probably just peachy with these asshats. Fuck 'em gently with a chainsaw.
If that’s so, why was single-payer off the table? (Obama’s cowardice was rooted in quote-pragmatism-unquote.)
Considering the entire political system is driven by money (and lots of it), there’s really no hope for more substance unless we get rid of…money. Those with money want to control the process and what better way to do so than with something only they have lots of…money. The rest is noise and intended to distract from the man behind the curtain.
Democrats believe that America is dominated by hereditary billionaire tycoons, banks, Wall Street, and petrochemical companies. Republicans believe America is run by a handful of elderly Jews, mostly Soros, Piven, and Alinsky (even though he’s been dead 30 years).
But yeah it’s gotta hurt to believe that Obama is a cowardly shuffling mumbling idiot man-child but he still somehow whopped their candidates by decisive margins two elections in a row. Oh right, voter fraud.
One of their problems is that Fox news sells them nothing but panic and despair. If Fox aims to do propaganda, they ought to read up on the basics.
Americans have always elected the sleaziest candidate they could find. Republicans just aren’t very good at finding people who are sleazy enough. 1928 was the last time the Republicans won without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket.
As far as presidents go, Bush Sr seemed pretty reasonable to me. Sure he raised taxes which cost him the re-election, but he avoided getting mired up in mideast wars and was a hell of a lot more fiscially responsible than any other modern Republican president.
I’m heartened by the fact that “muslem” doesn’t appear on Obama’s word cloud at all. Neither does Kenya. Is the birther movement well and truely dead? I can only hope so.
Of course they didn’t think like this during the Bush years - their team was in charge. This is simply a tribal expression of the fears of the current political minority, because they understand that they are the minority and feel like they are being pushed around (shocker!). If the Presidency reverts to the Republicans in 2016, you’ll get the same set of responses from Democrats. It is entirely based on who is currently in charge, not anything to do with their policies (which should be obvious, since President Obama’s policies are remarkably similar to Bush’s).
Like a lot of things politicians are horrible at explaining things in a simple way that a 5 year old could understand.
My mother was a nurse for almost 30 years and she really hates “Obamacare”…but if you present the idea to her from the other side, “What about the idea of giving “free” care to everyone?” She’ll bite and start talking. And in the end it comes down to the logistics for her and a lot of GOP’ers. But the key there is you have to make the logistics simple and easy bullet points (and easy to check factually), and that’s where 99.9% of politicians faultier.
I don’t think it’s so much panic and despair and it is anger and vitriol. I’ll add that if the Republicans were in charge then it’d be panic because of how the Democrats are trying to undermine their power…
Democrat word cloud: Terrorist, arsonist, hostage-takers, ransom, extortion, Koch , Halliburton, Racist, Rethuglicans, Bibles, NRA, assault weapon, war, etc…
Sadly, it is something that works quite well. People who get news in bullet/talking points, over and over, driven by fear, are quite convinced of it, to the point that no in depth counter-argument with facts will alter the perception. I remember back at college, while taking a speech course, being taught that any speech written, based solely on logic and devoid of emotional triggers, was less likely to be persuasive and less motivational to create action. That is pure marketing 101. Create pain, provide a cure for the pain, get people to buy it.
“Liar” – this is like “liberal media bias”, it’s a convenient escape valve for when something doesn’t fit your ideology.
Bush Tied to '86 Bid to Give Iraq Military Advice
I don’t think it was merely pragmatism. He, along with both sides of the political spectrum, received hefty campaign donations from Big Pharma. The risk of introducing a single payer system was that deep pockets would not abide by it. In European countries with single pay systems, there are negotiations for prices that pharmaceutical companies can charge for their drugs. Before Obamacare ever came out of the gate, the pharmaceutical companies and Obama agreed that there would be no price negotiations. The US is pretty much the only country that doesn’t allow for it. It’s difficult to contain costs without that option. So we have this slapdash of a system where insurance and pharmaceutical companies still stand to gain, while the public is subject to a tiered system of care based on wealth. All paid for by lobbyists.
I’m not sure how anyone can read the word cloud on Obama and not get very, very angry.
These people are perverting our government, and our country. I don’t care how scared they are…they need to grow up and take responsibility in the world. This isn’t about differing political viewpoints; it’s about being too lazy to educate oneself beyond one’s “lizard brain”.
It was their idea. Gingrich proposed in the the 1990’s. Romney implemented it in 2006. The other options I knwo of are 1) single payer (Government takeover!), 2) No insurance for anyone (destroys and industry and denies care to almost everyone who needs it), 3) Only nonprofit insurance companies with a mandate (ditto), 4) No mandate (failure, nothing changes b/c of resulting premium cost spiral
What are you saying they did want?
I’m not sure how true that is (I’ve heard a lot of “but then I’d be paying for those lazy poor people to get treated”), but speaking as a brit: THIS.
I actually had a read of the obamacare bill, and it just seemed so screwed up, forcing people to get certain insurance. Seriously, just have universal healthcare, it’s what all the civilised countries are doing. If you’re involving insurance companies, you’re going to get screwed.
If the medical staff are being paid by the government then their only objective is to treat patients, not make money for their employer, or rather, they won’t be pressured by their employer into putting profits ahead of people’s health.
