I’m an Independent. While some who comment on this blog like to call me a liberal, there are more than enough hints to clue them in otherwise, such as my guns, NASCAR, the fact that I’m not sold on man-made global warming or the fact that if it’s true, Chlorine is a bigger contributor than Carbon. There’s also my utter disdain for abortion, and my distrust of the IRS. But that’s all fodder for another post. The reason I’m even bringing this up is that I believe being a true Indie gives me a perspective on the Health Care Reform debate that isn’t tainted with partisan bullshit.
To wit, why are Republicans so against health care reform, especially a bill that includes over 200 of their own amendments and looks suspiciously like the one they wrote in 1994? Democrats say it’s obstructionism, and maybe there’s some truth to that, but more than anything, Democrats will say it’s racism, and there’s absolutely no truth in that assumption.
Let me repeat; Republican disdain for this health care reform bill has nothing to do with race.
But it does have a lot to do with President Obama.
If you are thinking the two are the same thing, might I suggest that you are the one with a racist problem? You see, Republicans aren’t concerned with whether President Obama is black, white, red, yellow, or green. I am sure that within their party, some might be racists, but race is not even a side issue in their party overall. The bigger issue is that President Obama is not a Republican.
The fight over health care reform can be summed up in one word: politics. It’s not that Republicans are against health care reform, even though they are against sweeping reform. It’s more the fact that any reform that passed was not a Republican bill. Any bill that President Obama offered was going to be rejected by Republicans, no matter how much it favored the conservative belief in the status quo. Republican anger over the bill’s passage isn’t about socialism, even though that’s the word they use most often to describe it. Rather, their anger is based on the inescapable reality that they lost to a Democratic President. If you look at one other piece of legislation currently making its way through the Senate, you’ll find the same Republican sentiments. Financial sector reform is meeting with the same Republican obstinacy that health care did, and no one in America, not even Republicans, are going to say that the vast majority of Americans are against a bank and Wall Street reform bill.
President Obama is not receiving undue attention from Republicans. They played this same act with Bill Clinton, and with Carter (who probably deserved it). The simple truth is, Republicans cannot, and will not ever be able to stomach a Democratic President, no matter who it is. For that matter, they won’t be able to stomach an Independent President, either. Since Ronnie Reagan, Republicans believe the White House belongs to them. It’s that simple. It’s too bad that today’s Republicans have lost the Reagan temperament and moderation. Reagan and his administration would call today’s Republicans short-sighted buffoons.
Republicans lost, and have been losing for a long time in this debate. That’s what led them to create so many myths about this bill, like death panels and their belief in a Democratic plot to withhold health care from registered Republicans. The deeper this legislation went, the more it stirred Republican angst over their absolute lack of any real power in Washington. In 2006, they still had George Bush to keep Democrats in line. In 2010, they had nothing; no power and no voice. So, they did the next worst thing they could think of; they started lying. Their plan wasn’t to defeat health care reform by vote, but rather by popular unrest. They almost succeeded. They stirred up their base, and scared seniors and a few Independents sufficiently to cause uncertainty in America over this bill.
It was never about race. President Obama is, in that regard, merely an unfortunate bystander. He happens to be a target because he isn’t Republican, and he resides in their House. His health care victory has riled Republicans even more. They just can’t envision a successful Democratic President. Bill Clinton, for all of his faults, didn’t fail in the White House. I don’t know that you’d call him a success, either, but he didn’t leave America worse off than when he took office, like George W. Bush did. Despite his sexual dalliances, Clinton ran a mostly Center White House, and still, Republicans tried to impeach him.
President Obama did the one thing that Republicans cannot forgive; he succeeded in passing a major reform bill, despite their best efforts at arousing fear. Obama ignored Republican taunts and mongering, staying on message, maintaining course, and in the end, his steady convictions overcame Republican anger, and will continue to do so as long as Republicans fail to learn their lesson properly. No matter what side you are on in this debate, you can no longer claim that President Obama does not know how to lead. Sure, you can lie and blubber irrationally about it, but when the dust settles, all you are left with is the one thing that drives Republicans crazy; a Democratic President who won. He passed his signature campaign legislation, a reform effort that every President for the last one hundred years had attempted and failed. He is a Democrat, and Republicans cannot, will not accept his victory.
In the weeks and months ahead, whatever lessons Republicans learned over the last year will come to the fore. Will they finally realize that America is as Center as a nation can be, or will they continue to insist on imposing their ideology no matter how off course it may be? As an Independent, I sincerely hope they learn to broaden their views, because America does not need to turbo-charge its growing divisions. Republicans do not own the White House, and a Democratic President deserves both Party’s best efforts for the American people. Rush Limbaugh disagrees with me, but what the hell does he know about America, anyway?
Republicans are at a crossroads, and the decisions they make right now will determine their continued existence. They can either roll up their sleeves and begin to work with the present administration, or they can continue to fight, lie, scratch and claw every step of the way. No matter what they do, they are up against a President with a strong will, one who doesn’t back down no matter the rhetoric. Republicans are pitted against an Executive who has the numbers and the political capital to muscle through his every initiative. No one likes to be on the losing side, but Republicans, to this point, have chosen to be losers. Their future depends on winning, and the only winner in Washington right now is a President named Obama.
You don’t have to like Obama, but you can no longer deny the fact that he owns the White House, he has a lot of influence, and he knows how to use it. Those are simple words and simple truths. They may be too simple. Republicans are looking for a complicated conspiracy, and the only one available to them is that President Obama is exactly who he said he was on the campaign trail. He invited Republican ideas on health care reform, and included over two hundred of them in his bill, just as he said he would. As President of the United States of America, he was the only elected official in Washington who acted like he was truly interested in making this bill better by listening to the other side, exactly how Americans expect their President to act. All he has to do now is tell Americans about those Republican ideas that were included, and the Republican lie about a totally partisan bill will disappear like early morning fog.
President Obama has the bully pulpit, knows how to use it, and Republicans don’t like it one bit. They do not like this young, unflappable President. It’s not because he is black. It’s because he’s not Republican.
POLITICAL PARTY POOPER 