We Do Like A Good Fight! (Yesterday's Angry Post II)

Don't we, now? Never mind if it is a completely made-up fight, and never mind if the vast majority of Americans are not affected by it one single bit. A good example of such a fight, stoked by the media in that they gave extra time and space for nutters to explain what their fears were, was the Obama speech to schoolchildren. So we are to sincerely believe that president Obama (that Blue Dog Democrat or something to the right of that, that bipartisan friend-maker who wants everybody to join in a circle-song) is going to talk to schoolchildren about socialism!

Socialism my ass. And even if he had done such a very odd thing, would an hour of his voice have been enough to mesmerize all those little children into Maoists or something similar? Would they have all gone out to get abortions and to burn flags then?

I understand that there are people that crazy in this country. But what I don't understand is the media paying attention to them, taking them seriously and presenting all this as appropriate public discourse when it's something that should have been kept within the office walls of a therapist.

But that's just a prelude to what I really am angry about: The utterly inane health care debate. And this is the reason:

How can people debate something they know so little about? Sure, we all have our personal stories about health care. But fixing the SYSTEM requires understanding the current system and it requires understanding the alternatives. It requires someone to actually give the necessary facts before any debate can even begin.

And I don't see that. What appears to be happening is an obfuscation, not a clarification. The more people debate, the more false claims are entered into the riot and nobody much mentions that they are false. All arguments are suddenly equal! Or opinions are suddenly equally worthy of being taken as facts!

When something like this happens, people pick on an emotional basis. And the Obama administration isn't doing its job in this particular matter in terms of the leadership that is needed by explaining the basic facts, the basic problems which the system has. This has allowed the opposition to frame the issues and the media has decided that the plot of this particular story is all the grassroots opposition to any changes in the health care system.

I hope that tonight's speech will change this. Perhaps president Obama will suddenly grow that fire in the belly that is needed for pushing a real reform through. Perhaps, and I sincerely hope so. But as things stand right now, the obfuscators are winning because they have more belly fire. They care more. And that is bad news for all those who want real health care reform more than they want to sit back with a bucket of popcorn and watch yet another silly political fight.