The recent battle over healthcare reveals the problem inherent in what is left of the Republican Party today. It is a party that is devoid of ideas, bankrupt of creativity and desperately trying to read the same old tired script that has been soundly rejected by the American people for years now. If those who pretend to be in leadership of the GOP do not figure this out soon, the dreaded two party system, a cancer eating away at our republic, will soon be replaced by the one party system. Even the diehard democrats and wannabe progressives need to realize that this scenario would not be a positive thing. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Let me preface this by saying that I am not sold on Obama-Care. I do not know if what he is proposing will work as well as he thinks, or cost as little as he claims. What I do know is the same thing all Americans know now; the current system is completely broken and irreparable. To pretend otherwise is simply silly at this point. Yet that is the tact the GOP is trying to sell. They are claiming that what we have now is just fine. Untold millions without healthcare completely. Those who do have healthcare pay exorbitant rates for minimal coverage and routinely have to fight for their benefits should anything serious afflict them. Millions more are routinely denied coverage because they have "pre-existing" conditions the very reason they need coverage. The number one reason for bankruptcy is the inability to pay for medical expenses when a serious medical condition arises.
The coverage that is provided neuters true medical service. Growing up a visit to the doctor meant actually seeing the doctor for a fair amount of time as they tried to get to the bottom of what was going on. Now, it is nothing more than an assembly line, where the doctor sees you for less than 3 minutes; just enough time to see what prescription they can push on you. I once saw a specialist who thought I might have a condition. He offered me two options, one a medication regimen and the other a test to see if I actually had the condition. He recommended the medication but I took the test and of course did not have it. But what have we come to when medication is recommended for a condition that has not actually been diagnosed?
So the sorry state of American medicine goes. Hours to wait to be seen, days if not weeks for an appointment, regardless of how serious the current suffering is. Medication priced to kill you economically. The pharmaceutical lobby is making millions of dollars and so are the insurance companies. Yet despite the obvious nature of a wrecked system it seems the response of the GOP is twofold. First is to downplay the current state of healthcare and second, is to distort and attack the Obama plan. Both are failing miserably as one would expect.
This really portends to a larger problem within the Republican Party however. When the vacuous Sarah Palin is considered a serious contender for your 2012 hopes you must realize that you are steering a rudderless ship. The terror card was overplayed and has worn out. The scare tactics no longer work. The script that worked so well for many years is now soundly rejected. Yet they keep playing from it. They come before congress with silly charts that pretend Obama-Care has 100 steps before you see a doctor. They offer no real ideas of their own of course and ultimately that will be the final nail in their coffin. Because whether or not Obama's plan is right or not will eventually not matter because he will be the only one offering an idea for change.
If 2012 rolls around and the GOP is still running on tax cuts which everyone knows will go to the richest people in the country and social wedge issues then you can pencil Obama in until 2016. You can pencil in a larger majority for him to work with as well. And despite how appealing some might think that is, it is the wrong prescription for America.
