By SJ Otto
I wake up Sunday morning to this.
In fairness, I have been characterizing the Republicans from this state as
far-far-far-far to the right. And sometimes even farther. So maybe I can
understand why Theissen calls our positions "far left." But as Bernie
Sanders has said at times, "it really isn't that far to the left."
The entire western industrialized world has a healthcare system that makes sure
NO ONE goes without health care. And I should point out that I just came back
from a trip to Cuba
and NO ONE THERE is denied health care because they are poor.
So as Sanders, the Cuban government
and I agree, providing poor people with health care is just NOT that radical.
And still I can't help feeling that
Theissen and others like him are not convinced.
It is not surprising that Theissen
and others frame the debate this way:
"But what we really saw in Detroit were debates
between the party's left and the far left."
When Ronald Reagan came to office
in 1981, he permanently moved the US political scale several bars to
the right. Suddenly the left became the middle and the right became the
political center. So far many, the political scale became permanently altered.
It is still like that. But many of
us, such as those who support Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others
are trying to do it move the political middle back to the actual political
middle. Theissen is sure to oppose such movement.
The next statement, from
Theissen's, is really similar to that which all the centrist Democrats are
saying:
"Montana Gov. Steve Bullock
accused the senators of "wish list economics." Former Maryland representative
John Delaney said they were advocating "bad policies like
Medicare-for-all, free everything and impossible promises that will turn off
independent voters and get (Donald) Trump reelected."
We have heard this all before. But
I happen to know that many people in this country are suffering from an
inability to pay for overpriced medicines that many of us just can't pay for.
These are not luxury items, they are needed so that people can live. People
will die without these medicines and many people have to go without food or other
necessities because they just can't afford the medicines they need.
Let's look at one of the arguments
may by Theissen:
"The public option is, as
Medicare and Medicaid administrator
Seema Verma explained, nothing more than "a Trojan horse with single
-payer hiding inside." It would be a disaster: "Private insurance pays hospitals 75%
more than Medicare for the same services. If millions of non-seniors sign up
for Medicare and those private subsidies disappear, costs will skyrocket and
hospitals will close—necessitating massive tax increases and government
intervention."
These are all the horror stories we
constantly hear from the right, both Republicans and centrist Democrats.
I for one, have had to declare
bankruptcy several years ago to pay off medical depts. So poor people like me
just don't count. We are statistics. All across the globe, wealthy countries
have found ways to make health care affordable to poor and working poor.
In the US, poor people without health care
are just statistics on a campaign poster. We just don't matter. Who really
cares if we can afford the medicines it takes to keep us alive. To the middle
class who have insurance through their work, we are just statistics.
Our lives just really don't matter.
Theissen won't lose any sleep over my death or the death of any of my friends
or relatives. He won't miss us and neither will the middle class red-necks who
have THEIR own heath insurance.
The only thing people like me can
do is withhold our votes. It isn't much. Maybe it doesn't matter at all. But
not voting for a centrist Democrat is all we can do. It isn't much but it is
all we can do.
