The Primate Press

I know Barack wants me to be doing my part to support healthcare reform, and to donate my money to Organizing for America, and explain his proposal to my friends who aren’t yet on board. And I know I haven’t been paying much attention, what with trying to make a living after becoming un- and then self-employed, and all the other things I’ve been up to – really since the election.

But right now there’s something I want Barack to do. Mr. President humbly insists that he can’t do this without me, and that I have to be like an activist and start a movement to get it done – but I personally feel pretty useless right now. Right now one thing has to be done for any healthcare reform to happen and only Barack Obama can do it.

Stop trying to convince the Republicans. Start trying to convince the 52% of Americans that oppose this bill. If they like it, Republicans are irrelevant. That’s what I want Barack Obama to do.

Maybe that’s impossible. Why do 52% (or more depending on the pollster) oppose this bill? Maybe it’s just bad. Maybe the Republicans do have the pulse of America, and the Democrats are out of touch.

Right. Perhaps 52% of Americans believe, like Senator John Barasso of Wyoming, that they all should have “catastrophic insurance coverage that required them to pay for most services out of pocket,” because “Americans would make better, less costly health care choices” then. Or, perhaps 52% of Americans believe we simply cannot afford to cover the uninsured, the “more than 30 million people over 10 years” Obama would cover, because we can’t afford the programs we already have, like Medicare. I’m sure they’re leary, but do they really believe the nation that could afford to attack Iraq does not, when it comes down to it, have it in its capacity to find a way?

Republican politicians are ideologically rabid about these issues. They disagree philosophically. Americans in general do not.

For example, consider the December CNN poll that had 61% of Americans opposing the health care reform bill in its form at the time, which included a “public option.” The same poll showed 53% FAVORING a public option, as a general idea.

Maybe they’re against the current bill because it’s not liberal enough! as the Huffington Post would have you believe. But that’s just as gross and self-serving an assertion as the Tea Partiers claiming they represent America.

52% of Americans quite simply don’t like the bill because they believe, while it might help some people, it’s not going to help them personally. Most Americans get good health insurance through their employers right now, and while they may be paying somewhat more, it’s a pretty good situation. In this recent ABC poll, 53% of Americans believe if the bill becomes law their premiums would go up, and 50% that the quality of their care would be better if no change was made. They are unsure, and so do not want to take the chance of ruining something that’s working for them.

Obama claims this won’t happen, or at least that if there is a price increase it’s because benefits have also increased. I don’t know if Barack is right or not, but why do people in general believe he’s wrong? Because they’ve dissected the bill and found evidence to the contrary? Because they have been won over by a well-formed and cogent Republican argument? No, because the extraordinary ruckus made by the massively powerful, corporately-funded conservative PR machine has succeeded at its singular mission. To raise enough doubt in normal people’s minds to make them balk. That’s all. No one’s convinced anyone.

It’s Obama’s job to convince them. Not mine. Only Obama can do it.

Oh, God. The One. She’s one of those.

Well, let me just explain why. First of all, even though it may seem like it’s existed forever, this power of the conservative media, which can really claim only a 25% minority of true believers, to incessantly influence public opinion, is an extraordinary force. Never before the past decade has so much money been riding on, and bankrolling, the defeat of public policy that displeases big business. Never before has technology made the dissemination of falsely or suspiciously-based doubt so immediate and so cheap. Never before has corporate America been so motivated and so well-poised to literally warp the debate with views that hardly anyone shares. This is an extraordinary situation in which to promote a bill whose goal is to help people, perhaps, but at bottom is not in line with the interests of corporate America.

On top of all that money, the goal of raising doubts is pathetically easy to accomplish. Distractions, fear, oversimplification and blatant lies are all fine tools any buffoon can master. FactCheck.org might call them out again and again, but the goal has already been accomplished. Communicating an idea is hard; derailing communication takes no hard work, intelligence or talent at all.

I do not believe that Obama has magical powers or is Jesus with a tan. I do believe he is an extraordinarily talented communicator, with a deep and broad knowledge of the issues, and the indispensable ability to educate. I also think – oh, I guess I know this – that he is in an extraordinary position to unleash these abilities on the public, as he is the president. He is the One! – but only because we need someone extraordinary, in an extraordinary position, to counteract this extraordinary situation.

(This happened repeatedly in the campaign, by the way. People were unconvinced, Obama was so young, the media was saying such outlandish things. Then Obama would make a concerted effort to aim his extraordinary powers of communication and explanation in opposition to the misinformation, and people would come around. This is called, being a leader.)

If he would only stop being accommodating and do it now.

Stop trying to convince the Republicans. Start trying to convince the 52% of Americans that oppose this bill. My ordinary fellow supporters and I will pitch in by explaining the reform to people we know, perhaps. Then, use reconciliation to pass it. If the majority of Americans are on board, Republicans are irrelevant.

Does anyone really think Republicans are going to vote for any healthcare reform bill no matter what’s in it? I don’t. While I truly applaud Obama’s above and beyond efforts to invite them into non-partisan cooperation, so far his efforts have done no good. Republicans vote against everything proposed by Democrats no matter what. That’s because it doesn’t benefit them politically to cooperate (or that’s their perception.) It only benefits them to oppose, oppose, oppose. Obama may do an admirable job inviting non-partisan cooperation in Washington, but it doesn’t make Republican voters waver for a second on what they demand of their representatives.

Ezra Klein with something of the same thought in the Washington Post.

So we may disagree about to what extent a Public Option would help — it would help me personally a great deal, being self employed and relying on not getting too sick for fear of testing the arbitrary limits of Unicare’s benevolence — but do any Democrats really think it would hurt? Even just to try?  This argument comes down to, as usual, team politics. Republicans oppose this legislation because it’s from Democrats. Republicans will find a way to oppose it after the public option is off the table.

Finally, Barry Obama is seeing the light. I think the reality has set in on what that public option would really mean to the United States of America, and even a closet communist like him knows he could never get away with it.

For an illustration of just what things would be like if a public health care option ever were to be adopted, I need only mention these three words: UPS, FedEx and USPS.

Once upon a time, mail in this country was handled efficiently and effectively for everyone. Back in Colonial times when there was only UPS and FedEx, two fine private, for-profit companies, everyone knew they would get their mail on time for the lowest cost. But some liberal in Washington was not satisfied with things working efficiently and effectively, and he came up with a public option for mail — the United States Postal Service, or USPS. I think that was Jimmy Carter.

Now, you have the situation of today. A giant, federally-funded, poorly run behemoth has taken over the entire mail industry, and is the only choice. No private company can compete when the playing field includes a cheater like the US Government, propped up with a free revenue stream of taxpayer dollars. So UPS and FedEx, once the champions of high quality mail delivery, with retail stores everywhere, quickly declared bankruptcy and disappeared from the landscape.

When’s the last time you got your mail without going down to the USPS station and waiting for hours? Some resort to flying to Canada to get their mail. And with the usual waste and mismanagement of a government bureaucracy, getting our mail costs much more than it used to when free market competition kept prices low. Remember the good old days, when it only cost 32 cents to mail a letter?

And God forbid you have a problem with mailing something. Calling the USPS with a problem is a nightmare. Its customer service is nothing like the fine customer service that naturally comes into being when the free market system is unregulated. It’s the opposite of the excellent customer service you get when you call, for example, the fine private company AT& T. The electronic voice is so sincere when it assures you “your call is important to us.” The real live people are so courteous when they transfer you to another department, or the wrong department, or tell you to call back at a different number, or disconnect you accidentally for the eighth time in a row. They’re so nice when they give you the phone number of the department they’re trying to connect you to, just in case for some reason you get disconnected. And it’s no problem at all calling them back over and over, because the wait time is never longer than 20 or 30 minutes before another representative comes on the line. They always speak perfect English. You can tell by their American names that they are local employees, and not slave labor outsourced to India at a dollar per hour, as the United States Postal Service does. And knowledgeable! These people are so knowledgeable when you have a technical question about your Internet service. Not only do they know exactly what department to pass you off to, they know all the special offers they are required to bombard you with after they haven’t helped you with the problem you called about in the first place! Now that is the unfettered free market system working to help the regular joe.

Nope, if the liberals in Congress get away with this Public Option, it will be the end of American life as we know it. A government competitor in a free market industry? It’s unheard of. It’s unamerican. It’s unnatural, and we have yet to see an example of it working in our country.

Preventive testing not covered by insurance: $166. Medically necessary root canal without dental insurance: $1280. One doctor visit in excess of calendar year limit: approx. $300. Out of pocket costs since April, when I was laid off: $1776. Public health care option: priceless.

I thought that Obama had made inroads into the very changes in the Democratic Party this piece discusses, but he has really only begun to scratch the surface. Of course he has, there hasn’t been time. The primary race is barely over, and in some ways it’s still being fought.

Well, time’s up. Democrats have to get this message, right now:

WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN? [9.9.08]
By Jonathan Haidt

And Barack has to come back from the primary race himself, right now, and show (not tell or describe or orate about or run ads and catchy slogans about, but demonstrate!) that he really does stand for unity in this horribly and unnecessarily divided country.

“Most Democrats don’t understand that politics is more like religion than it is like shopping.”

link

Please refer to this story for soundbites of McCain, Cheney, and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) using this very same expression. One of them — who’s name you can guess — was referring to a different lipstick-wearing presidential candidate’s policies — who’s name you also should be able to guess. What’s more, 3 years ago, McCain was in such a huff about his own running mate’s Bridge to Nowhere earmark, whose state has since received and spent that money on other things, not turned it away, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine him using the same expression in regards to her policy.

The genius of the GOP has always been its prescient self-knowledge. Usually it turns this into a highly effective weapon by instinctively painting its opponents as the very thing it knows itself to be. This time, though, the Republicans saw a mirror image in an innocent remark of Obama, and could not help noticing their VP candidate there. She is perky, pretty, bubbly, surrounded by babies, and a woman — and yet she promotes an ideology that is in direct opposition to sensuality, personal freedom, the wellbeing of children, the rights of women, and American democracy.

The resemblance really is uncanny.

Fortunately for them, elections aren’t won on realities — in fact, far from it:

George Lakoff on the selection of Sarah Palin.

At first I thought Barack Obama’s emphasis on changing the tone of politics was off-target. It seemed like politics was ugly, but not central to the problem of why we have had such poor leadership. Then I came to see how an improvement in the process, particularly creating an atmosphere of cooperation instead of combat, could help to get things done by making it safe to find middle ground between warring camps.

Now I’m back to seeing this proposed change in tone, though by all means very useful if it happened, as a secondary problem. The problem is, it can’t happen until some more bedrock things have changed.

Try a reversal of the market’s thrall on absolutely every aspect of our lives. Try tempering the juggernaut of mass media that is a self-feeding monster in its own right. Try changing the devolution of education into a factory for packing information into students like sardine cans, who learn to think critically only at their own risk. Try, if you will, a change in the dynamic of our culture.

I can see where Obama was coming from with the new tone in politics argument. How can you change anything if the demands of partisanship negate all movement in any direction? But it might be that you cannot get elected to the position to have the power to change the tone in politics without a fundamental change in our culture allowing your message to be heard.

It’s a classic chicken-and-egg conundrum.

This is not a problem of bad people or mean-spiritedness at its core. At its core it is just something that happened to us. Some technological advancements brought about the hypercompetitiveness of the market. More technological advancements, in response to market pressures for new products, exponentially accelerate this competition – in the media, in politics, and everything else. It’s taken on a life of its own. It demolishes our means of improving things for ourselves or countering the effect by removing our ability to accurately communicate with each other. All speech and all hearing is distorted by the media (which includes the blog mob) and market thinking. It’s just like in The Matrix, where at some point a paradigm shift has happened and humans no longer control reality – their creations do. We can’t take back the control until… well, I’m not really sure.

There is a neat solution in the movie, what with a “One” that is predicted by an “Oracle.” But if Obama is some sort of “One” he is entirely at the mercy of this man-made juggernaut, just like everyone and everything else. He talks about changing politics. But that too is mediated by the destructiveness of the culture. If he  sees through to this bedrock problem I’m not sure he possesses a way to counter it – and until someone can we’ll continue to elect the least qualified and least human.

Maybe Barack knows Kung Fu.

Transcript of Barack’s denouncement of the Reverend Wright spectacle