The Rand Corporation, a respected independent research group not known for its political views, has released its study on Obamacare and determined that it has indeed accomplished what it set out to do.
This flies in the face of every single Republican prediction about it, including ones they are still making to this day.
Has it been perfect? Oh, of course not — no one ever said it would be. But to deny it’s an improvement is to just ignore all the facts.
More people signed up for Obamacare than even Obama predicted (and certainly more than the “close to zero” the Republicans had predicted). More people are insured than ever before. The vast majority of those previously insured (80% according to Rand) did not have to change their insurance companies or doctors. It hasn’t killed jobs and in fact has created many new jobs. 85% of all employers stated that it hadn’t affected their hiring practices in the slightest. And studies show that people are satisfied with it, including 74% of all Republicans.
So to all the Republicans out there, let me say this: I understand that you plan on running against Obamacare again in 2016. Oh please don’t. I beg you. Don’t keep health care as a prominent issue in the campaign to remind everyone of what the Democrats did. I will be so unhappy. Please don’t throw us into that briar patch.
Liberals who say things like “There is no difference between Obama and Bush” are the left’s version of the Tea Party — radicals who think that compromise is evil and you have to be completely pure or else you’re “one of them.”
They are just as impossible to debate as the Tea Party extremists who vilify any conservative who dares to think that maybe evolution is real or that perhaps we should do something to help immigrants.
One of the reasons we are so divided as a nation is because we demand that everyone agree with us 100% or else they are the enemy. There is no room for compromise, there is no room for reasoned debate.
I’ve been arguing with some liberals lately about this, and they are treating me as if I am not on their side. When I say “I would love for Bernie Sanders to be elected but if he runs as an independent, I will vote for the Democrat” suddenly I become “one of them” — clearly, I support the terrible economic and foreign policies of those in power.
Despite everything I have always stood for, despite all I have written here in opposition to that very concept, my desire to not cast a protest vote and thus allow the Republicans to control all three branches of government is seen as a sign that I am merely supporting the status quo instead of being a reasonable attempt to prevent more harm from coming to our country.
I’m not pure enough for them.
But as I have said before, politics isn’t perfect. We don’t always get the candidate we want so we have to choose the better of the choices. The only time in my life where the Presidential candidate I supported in the primaries got the nomination was with Obama. Every other time, I ended up voting for the Democrat simply because he was better than the Republican (with the exception of 1980 where I voted for a third party. Never again.).
If that makes me “part of the problem” in your eyes, so be it. Get used to never getting what you want.
You will never get everyone in America to agree with you. Politics is the art of compromise. I’d rather compromise and get 50% of what I want than be stubborn and get 0%.*
Demanding absolute purity is what the Tea Party does. Let’s not use them as our template.
* And just to prevent the inevitable debate that happens whenever I say this, I am talking about compromising political issues, not compromising your ethics.
A mini riot broke out in Baltimore. Sure, it paled in comparison to South Central LA, but the message was the same. Were you listening carefully? Because I wasn’t. Yesterday however, I had a brutal wake up call.
You see, much like Rodney King, this political uprising had nothing to do with Freddie Gray. They were simply the proverbial straw. What happened in Baltimore was an eruption that has been brewing for over fifty years. A city simply does not forget 11,000 military personnel being deployed into their neighborhoods, or the corruption of Spiro Agnew. Even if they didn’t live through it directly, they know the story. They also can’t help but be reminded every time they walk down the street, what de-industrialization, outsourcing, urban blight and neglect look like first hand. This brings me to the phrase of the day: “No hope.”
When you’re basically unemployed forever, you can’t get out of where you are. You have no car to travel, no money for first and last, no ability to buy clean clothes for that job interview, etc. etc. etc. … Once you’re in the ghetto, you are probably there for good and so are your kids, and their kids. Your life may begin to spiral down into deep depression, and you may turn to things to help you self-medicate. Your kids see a life where giving up is a viable option because trying hard will get you nowhere. A new economy takes control, income based on vices. Drugs and prostitution become the only way to keep the lights on, until the very city, who’s poor development planning got you into this mess, turns off your water for non-payment.
Otherwise promising children lose an opportunity for higher education because of criminal records that they may or may not have earned, for charges that any reasonable people see as crap. False charges, planted evidence, crimes of desperation … etc. etc.
If you have never been to Baltimore, let me sum it up for you. Working class jobs once included the auto and steel industry, now it includes strip clubs and waiting tables. Good union jobs and textile jobs have been replaced with low paying janitorial and retail work … and you’re lucky if you can find one of these jobs because the unemployment rate is still near 9% while the rest of the state is at 5%. If you were to travel out to West Baltimore, your eyes would tell you an even more depressing story. Dilapidated housing, abandoned factories, empty store fronts, overgrown public parks … Words cannot begin to describe the conditions. We should be embarrassed as a nation that this even exists, and horrified that these same conditions can be found in many places in this country. There is no hope of making their homes better, no hope that someone is coming in to help, no hope for jobs, and no hope that they can ever escape.
I have a friend that I have been talking to about the civil unrest of Baltimore. I thought I had a good grip on the situation. I thought my outlook was fair when I looked at it from a distance. Sadly, it was not. I was so far off the mark I know feel like an ass. My original thought was that while I hoped the officers faced charges, I did not feel too terrible for Freddie Gray. After multiple arrests for narcotics over the last eight years, this man chose to continue down a dangerous path that would eventually lead to his death. However, since he died in police custody, and it is their job to keep people alive while in their custody, they had direct culpability in his death.
Then I talked to my friend, and one sentence she uttered may change my perspective forever. You see, she and her husband have won the game of life. They are both law school grads from a prestigious university (you can pahk your cah there). They have had in the past and currently have influential jobs. Their child, by any metric, is superior to almost every other child of his age. They have traveled the world, and she has checked off so many bucket list items, I think she just makes up new ones now … but they had grown up in a world completely different than mine. Because as African Americans, they had to be exceptional while their white counterparts could simply be a legacy to get to the same place.
This is where I was asleep. I often forget these very things. I forget that you can never stop thinking about race. I forget that there is still a huge divide, and we need to fight to bridge that divide. I forget that just because I don’t care what someone looks like doesn’t mean that others share my values and outlook. I forget that it is my responsibility as a white person who was brought up in a better time and place, to fight the battle of social injustice, ignorance and systemic racism that my forefathers created. As a benefactor of the system that was created to keep poor people poor and rich people rich, it is my job to help change the tide. My apathy and complacency makes me just a culpable as those who would be overtly racist.
I said to her simply that I hope the prosecutor succeeds, to which she replied, “I have no hope.”
That is when I woke from my slumber.
Affluent and educated, she is a woman that has a smile on her face that could bring joy to the most hardened. She drinks in life everyday. A great husband and an even greater legacy through her child … and yet, she has no hope that we will resolve an issue hundreds of years old that continues to stunt our growth as a nation.
Had Freddie Gray grown up white and ten miles further west, he would still be alive, criminal record or not. Had he the opportunity of a white suburban kid, he would probably have a college degree and be just starting out on his career path. Instead, we have yet another child of poverty, a young black man, dead at the hands of the very system that was created to keep success just out of reach.
For a woman who has sucked the marrow out of life, who has done whatever she has wanted to do through sheer force of her will, to still have “no hope” … she has made me realize that I have yet to become the person I should be. My parents raised me to be better than their generation by teaching me that race should never be a thing. They taught me to judge a person on their merits and morals. Unfortunately, because of this, I have become a part of the very system they fought, through my neglect. Why should I expect those who did not create the problem to be the sole solution to it?
Do I still have hope? Yes, but I know now that change can only be achieved by my own actions and words. Only when I take on the racist at the gym, the convenience store, at my own dinner table … only then can the wounds of the past and present begin to heal. Am I my brothers keeper?
Yes, I am.
David Cashel is a small business owner, and a Democrat State Delegate in Massachusetts.
Elton John recently announced he would be retiring from live performances. We’ll see. In the meantime, here is a list of my favorite songs of his. Remember: this is not a “greatest hits” list; it’s my personal list. Yours is certain to be different.
I had trouble narrowing it down to ten (as would anyone), but here we go. I’ll probably change my mind tomorrow and say “I should have included “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” or “Ballad of a Well Known Gun” or “Big Dipper”…
He really has some great songs, doesn’t he? Imagine how much better they would be if he had someone who could write decent lyrics.
In alphabetical order:
Better Off Dead: I admit I like the quirkier stuff. It’s why I like Sparks and Oingo Boingo. This is quite clever and complicated and different and that’s why it interests me.
Ego: This was a single that I quite enjoyed but it didn’t do well and pretty much disappeared and never was on any album.
Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding: This magnificent opening to Elton’s best album just builds wonderfully and I can imagine it must have been a very powerful live performance.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: This is the title song from his best album. I love the way it is produced.
Honky Cat: How can you not enjoy this? It’s just fun and Elton’s piano playing is perfect.
Legal Boys: I guess this one is kind of like “Better off Dead” in structure and the lyrics are a lot better than most of his stuff.
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters: One of the best ballads, although the reason rose trees never grow in New York city is because there is no such thing as a rose tree, Bernie.
Sick City: This was a B side from the “Caribou” sessions, although it certainly is good enough to have been an A side or on the album. It might have been the lyrics, which the record label demanded he censor. “Then she said ‘how about a blow down'” probably weren’t the original words. (A later song called “Screw You” had to be renamed “Young Man’s Blues.”)
The Bitch is Back: I remember when this came out and the radio stations wouldn’t say the name. A very exciting and well-produced song.
Tiny Dancer: Come on, who doesn’t sing along with this when it comes on? Hold me closer, Tony Danza….
Avowed socialist Bernie Sanders has announced that he is running for President.
He doesn’t have a chance of winning. He will only raise a fraction of what Hillary already has in her war chest. He doesn’t look like a President and that New York Jewish agitator vibe won’t help him in the slightest with most of the country.
Let’s face it — the votes are in the middle. 40% on the right will never vote for a Democrat and 40% on the left will never vote for a Republican. It’s the 20% in the middle who decide elections.
So why is he doing this?
To bring up the issues Hillary is trying to ignore. To make income equality a centerpiece of the campaign. To talk about the failed war on drugs and our overcrowded prisons and the need for a single-payer health care system. To get rid of Citizen’s United and have campaign finance reform. To make sure the Democrats actually stand for something other than just getting elected.
And you know what? Despite what some Hillary supporters are worried about, this should help Democrats win. These issues are not radical left-wing crazy ideas. Poll after poll show that these are mainstream views, shared by a majority of Americans. These are the issues that the moderates like.
We don’t need to appeal to those hard-core Democrats who are excited to elect the first woman President. We don’t need to appeal to the political junkies on the left (like me) who will always come out and vote no matter what. We need to excite the people in the middle who would just as soon stay at home than get out and vote. We need to give them a reason to want to vote.
Playing it “safe” and ignoring these issues breeds apathy. There are more Democrats than there are Republicans and when we lose, it’s not because the Republican positions are more liked by the population; it’s because we don’t vote.
So give Democrats a reason to vote. Get them excited.
That’s where Bernie might make a difference, because while many of us will shrug, yawn, and vote for Hillary simply because she’d be better than the alternative, there are a lot more people in the middle who will shrug, yawn, and just stay home.
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