The Republican Party, working with America's largest private health insurers, is willing to let your ill loved ones die in order to score political points and protect their patrons' profits.
It really is just that simple.
The ink isn't dry on the new health care legislation,
and GOP leaders have already launched their campaign to repeal it. They want to repeal the newly granted right that this bill gives you and your loved ones, the right to be able to get health insurance coverage,
and never lose it, regardless of medical history, or employment status.
Talk about a high-stakes game of political poker. Republican congressional leaders -- hardcore conservatives like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell -- have shown the hand they'll play in the months leading up to Election Day in November. And these guys don't bluff. They will continue to try to take the anger and fear that so many Americans have for so many different reasons, and direct all that negative energy into anti-Democratic activism. This, in a nutshell, is the Republican 2010 Election Strategy.
They will continue to target people angry at the economic crisis, fed up with unemployment, foreclosures, big banks, credit card companies and Wall Street...people afraid of losing some of the health benefits they now have...people unwilling to pay a penny more in taxes no matter who in great need it may help, and people who won't even support higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
Most people who fall into one or more of those categories, and who either do not have or do not make the time to do research on these issues, are still looking for ways to vent their anger and frustration over them. These are the people who the health insurance industry and the Republican Party will work so hard to keep factually misinformed, emotionally overwrought, and close at hand.
The most disturbing part of this is that these millions of hard working and out of work people are the very ones who will benefit most directly and dramatically from the new reform bill. We are talking Life and Death here. And yet, if you're angry, anxious and misinformed enough, it's all too easy to fall prey to lies about "big government takeovers," "anti-freedom power grabs," "huge tax increases," and of course , "socialism." Good people end up seeing such deceitful "red herrings" as true dangers -- as opposed to dying from cancer or some other disease or health condition because you are denied or have lost your health insurance coverage.
These are the people whom the "repeal movement" will be built around. The Republicans will continue working in close coordination with America's private health insurance industry to protect billions of dollars in profits, to protect the campaign and political action committee contributions, free vacations and assorted other perks they receive from the industry, and of course, to get elected and reelected come November.
They will spread their disinformation dogma through their corporate conservative media empire -- Fox News its Heart Of Darkness -- using the same money-laundering scheme that worked so well for them over the past year, with Insurance titans like Aetna, Humana, Wellpoint and United Health funneling millions of dollars to the Chamber Of Commerce, which will then act as the public front for a massive negative advertising campaign, and a far broader, multilevel propaganda effort.
That broader effort will continue to use a wide range of personalities to spread their message, so as to attract a wider range of potential converts to their cause. For every nut job like Glenn Beck, there will be a more "thoughtful" (sane) conservative voice saying the same things, but without the craziness, crying and Tourette Syndrome theatrics.
The internet will continue to be used to spread fear, loathing, lies and disinformation like wildfire.
A vast network of organizations -- The Tea Party its Heart of Darkness -- will be used to fan the flames, to keep sharing and repeating the falsehoods.
The Tea Party crowd, and so many others of their ilk, are mostly beyond the reach of reason, as evidenced by their recent public use of racial and sexual epithets in the halls of the congressional office building in Washington.
But millions of other Americans -- many of them our own co-workers and neighbors, perhaps friends and family -- are absolutely within the reach of the clarion call of Truth. Everyone who does have some understanding of the truth of health reform and does not want to see it repealed, must make a point of actively reaching out to those who don't yet have that level of understanding. It would also help to share the shameful truth about the political-private collusion going on behind the scenes, exposing the real motivations behind all the anti-reform rhetoric.
If the Democratic Party can effectively spread the gospel of Truth in terms that average folks can understand, great. But it will have far more impact if each of us who supports building a better and stronger health reform plan, rather than tearing it down, gets to work in our own personal circles and communities. If we do, we stand a good chance of beating back the Republicans and Insurance Companies in the horrendous Life and Death game they have made out of efforts to overhaul our American health care system.
