The Speech

We have just witnessed the most powerful example of how the Great Divide in the current American political morass functions (to use a highly inappropriate term):

Millions of Democrats heard the President say tonight that his health care proposal would not replace their current health insurance plan. Instead, they would be protected from being dropped from coverage when they get sick or refused coverage because of pre-existing conditions. He said that he would attack waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid and save billions of dollars that could be better spent on real treatment for real problems.

Millions of Republicans heard the President say that they would be forced to drop their current coverage and dumped into inferior "government run health care." They heard the President say that he would "cut Medicare by $500 billion, while doing virtually nothing to make the program better for our seniors." South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson was so worked up, he yelled out that the President is a liar when Obama said that his proposal would not provide coverage for illegal immigrants. (Wilson later apologized after being called out by Senator John McCain.)

“America is great,” Ronald Reagan once mis-quoted Alexis de Tocqueville, “because America is good.” We have the opportunity to be both great and good once again, but only if we can seek the greater good by seeing each other, not as enemies, but as patriots, focused on forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, and promoting the general welfare. Or we can just tear up that old Constitution and just let the mob rule.

When is Success Spelled "F-a-i-l-u-r-e"? In GOP Land.

If I owned a grocery store and, through a special incentive to sell milk, offered to me by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, I was able to reduce the price of milk to the point that my customers emptied my shelves, and still clamored for more, would I think that it was a failure? Would I accuse the government of having not thought out the program that resulted in my selling more milk than ever? Or would I wish that they would put some additional price supports in place so I could keep all the kids in strong bones and white teeth (and me in high cotton)?

That's similar to what happened with the "cash for clunkers" program. The most wildly successful tax rebate in history, one that actually resulted in measurable outcomes, is being labeled as a terrible failure, as if no one actually took advantage of it, as if all that money were just piled up in the in the nearest Chevy dealer's parking lot and burned.

It's what's happening on the health care reform debate. Congressman and Senators, all of whom are covered by the type of health insurance that none of us could possibly afford (paid for with our tax dollars), are stirring up large crowds of people, many of whom are also covered by socialized health care (Medicare), to cry that they are against socialized health care.

It's what happened when Bill Clinton flew off to the Worker's Paradise of Pyongyang and brought home two kidnapped American journalists. Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton called the mission a failure, as if Clinton landed in California empty-handed.

What is going on here? Why are people accepting things are so obviously untrue (notice I haven't even mentioned the "birthers" whom even Ann Coulter thinks are mad as hatters)? Why are so many people in this country so quick to believe that black is white and white is black? (Forget the subliminal racial message there.)

I was talking with a Republican friend the other day (Why do I have more Republican friends than Democrat(ic) ones?) who insisted that "Obamacare" would mean European style-socialism. I asked him what was wrong with European-style socialism and he launched into a long tirade about Stalin. I was talking about Sweden and Spain, Germany and Greece and I told him so. I asked him if he knew that European health care costs were lower than ours. I asked him if he knew they lived longer and led healthier lives. Their teen birth rates are lower than ours, and abortion, while legal, is far less prevalent than in the U.S.A. He was silent. And then he brought up Obama's birth certificate and the firing of the AmeriCorps Inspector General.

And a few minutes later he had the answer for me. Red wine. Europeans drink a lot of red wine, he said, that's why they're healthier than we are in spite of having a terrible government-run health care system. Red wine. I should have known.

The Obama Administration has made a lot of mistakes in its first eight months, including having sold much of its integrity to the Wall Street Mafia. If anything, Obama has been far more Bill Clinton (Reagan's true disciple) than FDR. He is a firm believer in the Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, even for health care, taking a true European solution off the table. Single payer is not even under discussion.

That's a mistake. Just like it was a mistake not to institute serious, aggressive reform of the financial system. Obama's problem is not that he's a socialist. It's that he's a capitalist, and he believes in the same capricious market god that the GOP worships. But he gets things right, more than occasionally. Cash for clunkers, for instance. Or letting Bill fly off to up-stage Hillary in North Korea. Or today's announcement in Elkhart, Indiana, of the competitive grants to go to American manufacturer's developing batteries for hybrid cars.

But truth has disappeared in the United States of America, so don't expect the GOP to acknowledge any of that. Tax rebates for buying a new car? A failed experiment in socialism. Freed American hostages? Pandering to dictators. Investment in new American manufacturing technology and jobs? Did you know that he was born in Kenya?

Pass the chianti, please.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

They were against all that wild spending before they were for it. Not a single house Republican voted for the stimulus bill and only three Republican Senators did. "It was a vehicle for pet projects," "loaded with wasteful deficit spending."

But now, passed into law without their help and with their vociferous damnation, it's "a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners" (Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska), and it will "help provide needy families affordable housing." (Rep. Kit Bond R-Missouri). The recent convert to Euro-socialism, Lindsay Graham, says that he's "all for infrastructure spending" and "for signing people up for Medicaid," both of which are in the bill.

The slithy toves are gyring and gimbling in the wabe. Because all that money is...well, it's going to help their constituents. It's going to create (or preserve) jobs and the anti-statist GOP wants you to know that even though they hate socialism, they are still committed to making sure you know that they will embrace this grand venture into statist economic policy by spending all that communist money.

GOP opposition to this bill was never about what was in it. Because it has tax cuts, infrastructure projects and money for state governments sinking under the weight of collapsed revenue, it could even preserve some of their jobs come the next election. No, the GOP hated it because even though the final bill was nearly Clintonian in its sell-out of Democratic interests, its passage would hand the new President a victory they just could not abide.

"You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point." Of course, I, being a good and charitable Christian, would never say such a thing about the Republicans. Those were the words of their own party chair to their radio cheerleader Glenn Beck.

Or as Lewis Caroll rendered it: "O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

Beware the Jabberwocky.

The Party of Veruca Salt

They wanted tax cuts. TheDemocrats gave them $280 billion of tax cuts in the $789 billion package. That includes up to $800 a year for two worker families, $8000 tax credits for buying a house, $1500 in energy efficient home remodeling, sales tax reductions on new car purchases, ending the Alternative Mininmum tax for 24 million taxpayers (at an average $2300 for those lucky enough to have jobs that pay that much). 

They wanted the elimination of pork. So the Democrats gulped and cut $25 billion for aid to cash-strpapped states, $16 billion for school construction and $50 billion dollars to the nuclear and coal industries. The budget ax chopped over $100 billion off the final package.  

So now, they have decided that the best approach is a fake to the left. Lindsey Graham says it's time to nationalize the banks. Should Obama take the bait, the GOP's attack dogs will accuse him of being a Communist. 

Because what the GOP really wants is to turn back the clock to 2002, when they occupied the White House and ruled the Congress. The party of Abraham Lincoln is now the party of Veruca Salt. Somebody hand them an Everlasting Gobstopper please. At least that will shut them up for awhile.