We Aren't Enemies

I was debating politics with my step-father several years ago, when part of his argument rolled around to the fact that Barry Goldwater had opposed Medicare. This was meant to be an indictment to prove that Senator Goldwater was opposed to providing medical care for the elderly. The fact of the matter was that the senator from Arizona was in favor of another bill that he believed did the job in a better way.

Recently another relative asked me how families were supposed to afford health insurance if not by the passing of the healthcare bill now before congress. So I gave her a list of things that could be done without gutting and undermining our current system.

In an effort to win votes and support for their side, politicians and interest groups often paint their solution as the only solution to a problem. The corollary is that if you oppose their solution you are opposed to solving the problem. Don't let this hocus pocus fool you. Many, if not most, politicians and Americans want to address inequities in our society. They want to protect us from terrorists, and preserve our civil rights. They want to encourage prosperity for all and provide for a social safety net. The arguments, for the most part, revolve around the methods of resolving problems and ranking priorities. The demagoguery comes into play once a proposal is made by one side or the other and then both sides begin a game of deceit and gamesmanship in order to preserve power and prestige for their party or ideology.

We forget that we are all on the same side. Remember the mood of the country on September 12, 2001? You can argue about some of the decisions that came out of that mood, but we recognized that more important than whether we were Republicans or Democrats, labor or management. we were Americans & there were real enemies out there whose quarrel with us wasn't the methods of achieving our goals, but the goals themselves.

When somebody holds up a banner that says "Healthcare for All", we can all agree with that goal. Just don't get confused and begin to think that if we oppose the present legislation we don't want anything done. That is just a ploy to scare you into supporting something that you may not understand, or with which you may not agree. It is an effort to make you believe that those who oppose this bill are against quality healthcare for all Americans. Be assured, that isn't the case.