dagblog - Comments for "What Nation Are We? This Way Lies Death and Ruin. Killing Medicaid (Patients)"

Thanks for sharing these

librewolf — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 11:56:03 +0000

In reply to American classrooms do a poor

Thanks for sharing these articles. They illuminate the long term structural nature of inequality in healthcare, and in doing so added reason why the new right is so eager to get rid of "Obamacare" at any cost. When you start putting the whole story together it starts sounding more and more like a dystopian political novel.

American classrooms do a poor

rmrd0000 — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 14:30:57 +0000

In reply to I agree, I don't know of any

American classrooms do a poor job of telling the complete history of the country. Most of the education involving blacks revolves around slavery. We fought the Civil War, problem solved. There is mention of MLK Jr and then we move on. When Affirmative Action is criticized, few are ready to respond that social programs like the Far Deal, New Deal, Social Security, and the GI Bill excluded blacks. For much of recent history, Affirmative Action was white.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/books/review/when-affirmative-action-w...

Edit to add:

An article in the Atlantic looks at the battle over health care as an ongoing fight over Civil Rights.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-fight-for-healt...

I agree, I don't know of any

librewolf — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 13:15:51 +0000

In reply to I'm sorry about the lost

I agree, I don't know of any sources straight off who examine the relationship of white nationalism in the US and Western Europe, but sociologically speaking I suspect it goes way back to at least colonialism if not the Crusades. Colonialism and racism have been linked for sure, but I have never seen anything in that regard to the Crusades. However, my reading into the Crusades is hardly worth mentioning. On the more "recent" history, I wold imagine that the connections tie to the WWII era - particularly the Nazi Diaspora.

My life span goes back to desegregation. Growing up in the relatively racist Midwest (Missouri - the buckle of the Bible Belt) it seems that from a white supremacist perspective there were a number of blows where the "government abandoned white people". Namely we have desegregation, equal opportunity, fair housing, the suppressing of Jim Crow, expansion of voting rights (and particularly the Voting Rights Act), and the big one, Affirmative Action. I believe that AA was the turning point for many. From discussions I would have in my classes, many white students (even those who felt they were "liberal" and "not racist") became angrily activated on the topic of Affirmative Action. That certainly ties directly to the election of Barack Obama who many felt was AA writ large and the final assault on the "dignity" of the nation.

I believe that Europe has been more impacted by the mass migrations of the last few decades that the US. Global warming and environmental destruction partnered with war is driving what is likely the largest human migration in the history of the world. The combined US-Western European actions (militarily and politically) in Asia (Afghanistan and Iran), Middle East, and Africa have obviously caused a stead flood of people into Europe. In Western Europe, immigration from Eastern Europe has been a particular sore point. In the US, much of the focus has been on southern immigration. It was EE immigration that drove the Brexit vote - or so said the BBC news. Interestingly, much of the US chatter was that it was Syrian and North African immigration, but that fits the US white nationalist narrative - not necessarily WE.

I had a whole complex

librewolf — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 12:02:47 +0000

In reply to Rowan, our political system

I had a whole complex response that for some reason disappeared in the midst of writing; just as I was almost ready to publish. Oh well, shit happens with computers. Probably for the best. Here is the short version.

There are too many of the dominant and privileged (white, male, wealthy, 'native born', heterosexual, Christian) who feel they are being disadvantaged so that others LESS DESERVING than themselves are GETTING STUFF - stuff like education, training, housing, healthcare - they DON'T DESERVE. And they are getting it at the EXPENSE of "hard working Americans." They elected Donald Trump because he can (and does) throw temper tantrums and screams and "breaks things" and doesn't care how it effects anyone else. His acting out is an expression of their own rage at being "disadvantaged" by these worthless people.

Out of this we get policies that are issues of life and death where too many think that is really is OK to say that 22 Million can dies so that THEY get THEIR money back. And that millions more will be in precarious health situations as the insurance that they get will not pay for emergency rooms, hospitalization, chronic conditions, or a hundred other things.

It's "OK" because in this world view -the Trump, Ryan, Rand, Crew, Mitchell, etc. - those excluded really have nop value. Their are plenty to take our places and those people have no value either. In fact, given the state of their rage it would be best to just line all these worthless people up and vaporize them. How dare they (and the lousy liberals) take up everyone's time arguing that they have a "right", a RIGHT, to healthcare.

Let me be clear that THIS IS NOT HOW I FEEL. However, it is definitely the tenor of what is coming down from Washington, and within our own communities. The whole thing hurts me (and million of others), physically-emotionally-psychicly hurts me; hurts me beyond the fact that I am being judged as one of these 'worthless' people and therefore DESERVE to die since I can no longer "serve" amd "pay my own way."

This nation's inability to address the structured inequalities in our society have brought us to this place of governmental crisis. We have built our hoe upon the shifting and untrustworthy sands of lies and denials. I can only hope that the baring og this morass of ugliness at the core of who we are as a nation can aid us in cleaning the wounds and building something stronger and truer.

Autosave's available, but for

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 00:15:01 +0000

In reply to I'm sorry about the lost

Autosave's available, but for a later version update - https://www.drupal.org/project/autosave_form

I'm sorry about the lost

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 01 Jul 2017 23:29:54 +0000

In reply to I had a whole complex

I'm sorry about the lost comment. I wonder if drupal has a comment-autosave plugin. I'll check when I get a chance.

To your comment, I agree with everything you've written, but I don't feel that these factors fully explain today's political dysfunction. First, the fear that "undeserving" minorities take advantage of white people goes back almost half-a-century, beginning with Nixon and George Wallace and reaching the mainstream with Reagan. Why now, four decades later, does Trump come to power? Second, while the U.S. is in worse shape than other countries, our situation is not unique. The rage you speak of is echoing across the western world, even in countries with stronger social nets and multiparty systems. In short, this sickness runs deep, and I don't think anyone truly grasps its source.

Rowan, our political system

Michael Wolraich — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 15:51:00 +0000

In reply to I don't know about "ideal",

Rowan, our political system could certainly be improved by proportional representation, but I'm skeptical of structural solutions to the problem at hand. Political polarization and xenophobic populism also afflict countries with multiparty and proportional systems. Think of Israel, Austria, Hungary. If the U.S. suddenly adopted a proportional multiparty system, we'd probably get four parties like many European countries: far-left, center-left, center-right, far-right.

What do you think our governing coalition would look like in that case? If we were lucky, the two centrist parties would cooperate, as has happened in much of Europe. But these centrist parties are faltering around the world, and in America's current political climate, I'd predict a coalition between center-right and far-right, similar to Israel where the left is even more impotent than in the U.S.

PS Thanks for provoking such an interesting thread

Krugman sums up the

rmrd0000 — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:20:51 +0000

In reply to What Nation Are We? This Way Lies Death and Ruin. Killing Medicaid (Patients)

Krugman sums up the Republican assault on healthcare in two charts. One shows the percentage of people targeted for tax cuts. The second shows how much of the tax cut goes to the 1% at the cost of taking healthcare away from over 20 million people.

https://thedailybanter.com/2017/06/krugman-sums-up-senate-health-care-bill/

A significant number of

rmrd0000 — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 12:21:37 +0000

In reply to Thank you, artappraiser.

A significant number of "Independents" actually leans towards either Democratic Party or GOP.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/11/independents-o...

I think there will always be

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 07:58:08 +0000

In reply to I think the ideology of the

I think there will always be a fight between gov & private sector to do things better/worse. But I also live in a country where we're not trying to make government fail at every step. The US approach is quite exhausting - it's not so extreme elsewhere.