Republicans Health Insurance Cultural Warfare
I don’t get it. Why are republicans so bitterly opposed to discussing health insurance reform? They scorn the subject with terms like Obamacare, Socialism and Nazis. I heard speak of death panels and euthanasia. This kind of talk does not construct an argument against government involvement in our healthcare system. No, something else is going on here. Their upset about something. They relay their message to one another through code words like the ones mentioned above. These words don’t actually have meaning; they are triggers that are programmed to set off deeply embedded passionate resentment, even hatred in a constituency attuned to receive these signals. Once received the switch is turned on and the vileness long suppressed is emitted.
We hear their shouting voices but the words don’t make sense. The subject of their scorn cannot be addressed directly. It is like a new born baby who starts crying. We know it’s upset about something, but we can only guess what it is. These republicans are whining but they can’t use the specific words to articulate what their whining about. They know, and I think the rest of us know, that they are bitter about things that are unmentionable in the year 2009.
Like I said, we can only guess what the whining is all about. So let’s play along and see if we can come up with some ideas on what the problem is. Could it be a black president from a Northern state? Reminds me of Lincoln sneaking into Washington upon his election trying to avoid the snipers hidden along the route looking for a chance to take him out. How about Mexicans illegal’s getting free healthcare by courtesy of our tax dollars? Is it forcing healthcare providers to pay for abortions?
Personally, I don’t think it is any of the above. Nor do I think it is related to the burgeoning national debt. Americans love debt. That is why we all have so much of it. More than most of us could pay off in two lifetimes. I believe this is classical cultural warfare. These right wingers developed their cultural beliefs in the time prior to and through the golden age of the Regan era. By then their beliefs about the essence of America had been written in stone and the obligation of every true American was to pledge allegiance to it and fight to the death to preserve those ideals. These cultural values and ideals are non-negotiable. Any mention of updating or making any changes will not be tolerated.
Unfortunately, change in the world in the past hundred years has come at breakneck speed. Knowledge and its accompanying technology have changed the very fabric of human existence and history. In the not so distant past the human condition was fairly static. Now it is being reconfigured on a continuum. Nothing stays the same. Not technology, our language, our thinking, and how we perceive ourselves.
The cultural rules have been changed over the past 40 years. Most people know the new cultural value system because they spend a lot of time learning it in front of a TV or computer screen. Not like the old days when it was passed down to them by mom and pop, or in church.
But the old cultural warriors have shown up to do battle to save their republic. For a lack of a better word, they refer to today’s culture as socialist. They tell us they want their country back (read culture). They will do what they have sworn to do, defend it to the death. That is why a citizen wore a gun to Obama’s town hall in Portsmouth New Hampshire. He wasn’t these to defend heath insurance providers; he was there to defend against cultural change.
Culture clashes are tragic things because someone has to lose. Think of the Native American Indian having their sacred lands, traditions and way of life established over eons trampled over and discarded in the twinkling of an eye. We all mourn for the loss those Indians experienced. They were raped of their identity and humanity by foreign powers that cherished personal gain and progress over a magnificent culture they could not be bothered to learn about or coexist with. In turn the Native Americans considered their culture non- negotiable and therefore could not and were unable to coexist with the white man. Irreconcilable differences.
There has been a lot of activity and grandiose government activity since the economic crash last fall. But the line has been drawn in the sand with health care reform. One major change too many and too soon. It is either resist now or be overrun and doomed to the trash heap of history, forgotten and despised.
Health care reform may fail to pass this year because we have failed to assimilate the idea over the past eight years of republican rule in such a way that we could ease it into and reconcile it with our cultural values. Cultural change takes time to accept, and people need time to validate it. By not discussing the need for this change we have created a culture shock that makes debate and civil discourse impossible.
But this is a new world, and reform supporters have the numbers to force the issue upon the defenders of the old way. This could also happen and another great tragedy will have splattered on the canvas of American history. The death of a magnificent and noble culture overrun and in decline. Ask any Native American Indian and they can explain the inhumanity inherent in the murder of a culture.
