The Failure of the Skinny Repeal is a Failure for All of the United States
Last night, in a dramatic move worth of House of Cards or The West Wing, the Republican lead push to repeal portions of the Affordable Care Act failed, three Republican Senators choosing not to support it, Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and John McCain, the last who had been lambasted for returning from the hospital to enable the vote to come to the floor. The defeat is undoubtedly only one of many stories in the attempt to remove the Obama administration law, a mission that has been a rallying point for the GOP for years.
If you’ve read my blog, you’re probably not surprised that I’m happy this bill didn’t pass. It stood to cause millions of people to lose health care coverage and to put lives in danger of either bankruptcy or death for the stupidest of reasons. It is a good thing the bill died and I hope we never see it’s like again.
But a problem remains: We were one vote away from disaster.
The debate over health care is one in a long line of things that should not be partisan yet has become so. There is no issue that does not get a D or an R next to it these days, including the best way to ensure that Americans stay healthy. While it’s not surprising that partisanship plays a part in politics, the toxicity of the matter has reached epidemic proportions.
In the cesspool of political opinion that is Twitter, there is a recurring theme that if it pisses off Liberals, then Conservatives are for it. The logic that if you’re angering someone then you’re doing something right has always been faulty (sometimes, you’re just being a dick). The Right has been interested in winning as much as it has to govern, likely more interested. Defunding Planned Parenthood, curtailing the rights of LGBT citizens, what to do about immigration, and my own pet topic of Gun Control have all stopped being about helping people live their best life, free and able to pursue happiness and prosperity, but more to add another sticker to the nose of the plane, a notch on the belt, and a trophy on the wall.
This disease is not peculiar to the GOP, of course. I think there are many Liberals who are as interested in taking down the Republicans as they are in making sure everyone gets to live their life as they choose; the push to exclude hate speech from free speech and, again, gun control are examples of this. The positions for many of the general population are less rationally considered viewpoints and more matters of faith based on your affiliation.
Worse, this disease has spread down to the populace, such that people repeat slogans, damning policies they’ve never read. Too many Americans don’t consider the bigger picture or weigh what they personally think is best versus the causes of freedom, equality, and opportunity.
The Skinny Repeal is a symptom of a greater malady. I wish I knew the cure. The problem is that we’re losing our way, forgetting what the point is. The same willful blindness and flag waving that leads GOP faithful who would have torn their clothes and howled had a Democrat had one tenth of the connections to Russian election interference that the sitting President does to declare the undermining of our electoral process as a “nothingburger”, that stubborn ignorance is driving a knife deeper into our own chests. If someone screams in horror, they grin and push it in a little further.
The only think I think we can do is what all civic minded people should do: remain vigilant and informed, participate in the process, and remember that at the end of the day, We’re all Americans. Your party affiliation should be a rough classification, not a rigid set of marching orders. It should not shock you or make you call someone a traitor with a person in your own party disagrees with you on an issue. Our goal should be to make sure that both we and our neighbors have representation, not take turns giving each other titty twisters.
The goal is a United States, not a Red or Blue one.
I’m sure that there will be more to come on the healthcare front. When it does, let it be by the people, of the people, and most importantly, for the people, not for party.
