On the Contrary

Apparently Bill Maher was on CNN a couple of weeks ago and when asked if he thought Sarah Palin could be elected President, he said, “I hope not, but I would not put anything past this stupid country.” This started a landslide of hate mail and he responded to it with a new rule, “Just because this country elects a smart President doesn’t make this a smart country,” and a wonderful essay about the level of stupidity in this country (Bill Maher: New Rule).

Of course I am watching the health care “debate” and I believe his argument is moot because the level of stupidity is obvious.  What is on display are amazingly stupid people who lack the critical thinking skills to evaluate and separate lies and propaganda from real issues.  I watched a Democratic Congressman from Texas asked his Town Hall gathering who were dead set against a single payer system, how many were on Medicare.  About three-quarters raised their hands.  Then he asked them how many of them had healthcare that was financed by the government and only a few raised their hands.  This is the very definition of ignorance and stupidity.  With that level of ignorance, debate is hopeless.

What I really love is our media keeps repeating that the support for President Obama’s health care plan has fallen, while proponents of the plan urge Democrats and the grass roots support that elected President Obama to get out and support the plan.  Here is my question:  DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT IS IN HIS PLAN?

The answer of course is an emphatic NO because he has left it to Congress to craft it and it is in hiding.  That is why there is falling support, the grass roots haven’t come out, and the know-nothings are controlling the debate.  I would highly recommend a frontal assault on the know-nothings, but you have to have a plan to defend and right now the White House strategy is failing badly.  Pick one Mr. President, but pick a plan we can fight for, not some watered down plan meant to preserve the status quo and the profits for the industry.

But I digress.  In an editorial this morning by Charles Blow (Health Care Hullabaloo), he used the phrase, “Belligerence is the currency of the intellectually bankrupt” to describe what is going on out in the hinterlands.  The fact that so many can be swayed by this type of “logic” makes me fear for the future of this country.  What I do see at most of these Town Hall meetings, sadly, are mostly fat ignorant white people who are going to be most hurt when they no longer can afford their health care.  And sadly many speakers had that southern drawl that characterizes a particularly ignorant portion of our country.  Actually, ignorant may not be the right characterization, but racist might be more appropriate.  The ignorant are the easiest to whip up into a frenzy as you stoke their fires of fear.  This particular fire is change and people different from you.  One woman before the podium was weeping and said they had stolen her country.  Yep, we need to return to the good 60’s where those blackies and other off color people new their place and the country was full of injustice.

Anyone who reads or thinks knows this country is in decline and has been for sometime.  There was an interesting story in the business pages of the New York Times about the fact that job growth over the last 10 years has been infinitesimal (Job Growth Lacking in the Private Sector)

You mean that after all those tax cuts during the Bush years, we barely created any jobs? This is not a trend we want to keep up.  It is time to take a new path and try something different.  But what we are seeing is a Republican Party that is firmly planted in the past and is bought and paid for by those that do benefit from our current economic path (the rich and the corporations).  Their offering to the public is no change, fear of change, and “small town values”.  “I got mine, screw you.”  It is anti-intellectual, irrational, and destined for failure.  But apparently large portions of our population are ignorant and easily scared into believing this nonsense.

Probably what is most sad is that the people who will suffer the most from continuing our failed approaches to the economy, health care, energy, climate, you name it, are the same people who are bellowing for no change.  How do you actually have a rational debate with these people, I have no idea.  But I am in my frontal assault mode and I would like to see both the press and the Democrats take them on and belittle stupid people.  Unless we are willing to point out their stupidity, embarrassed and more importantly debunk their hysteria, we are likely to continue down the same path that has got us nowhere in the last 30 years (Ronald Reagan on).

I hope we are up to the challenge.  As I get older, I am becoming less tolerant of stupidity and people who don’t read or think. After watching the Town Hall “debates”, maybe more people ought to be less tolerant of this intolerance.  More people ought to confront this level of ignorance head on.  Apparently Bill Maher will.  Thank you Bill.  Your honesty is so refreshing.