Health Summit Hangover

Holy shit. Two media posts in a row. Someone at this keyboard is clearly getting ready for grad school. Truth be told my original inspiration for writing material when I started this mess has has dwindled a bit lately. My road trip was cut short and I haven't had any strange dating stories, pretty much all that's left for me is to sit here and watch The Daily Show and scream PREACH ON BROTHER JON STEWART.
Screw it, when you're rollin', you're rollin. Everyone gets angry, and some people take out their frustration on small animals and World of Warcraft. I take it out on my keyboard.
I actually managed to watch a considerable amount of the health care summit. I was probably for the first time in quite some time, encouraged by our government...sort of. It's like watching a fat kid in the batting cages. He's swinging wildly at everything, but every once in a while he'll connect with a pitch and you'll think, well if he keeps at this for a few more years he might bat 8th in a park district softball game.
I felt pretty sorry for Obama. There he is, frustrated, trying every tactic he can to just get congress to accomplish something. And instead of producing a bill, all they are doing is sitting there bitching about it. Its honestly like trying to keep a meeting on track for your extra curricular while you decide on a T-shirt. Except it's not a T-shirt. It's the most important issue in the United States right now.
I try not to tow a party line if I can avoid it, but sometimes its inevitable. So, I'm going to just say it. The republicans are irritating the shit out of me right now. Every GOP at that table said. "let's start over, we're not happy with this." You know what guys, how about this? Fuck you. You've had long enough to do it, and you should have done it right the first time. Quit whining.
You start over, and nothing will ever get done. I'd rather the bill have flaws then not exist at all. I believe the great Nike once said, just do it.
And Eric Cantor, you're a moron. If we had the best health system in the world you wouldn't be sitting in the Blair House debating over ways to fix it. You just happen to have the best health care because you have health insurance furnished by the federal government. Anyone who thinks our current system is fine, and that the rest of the world looks to America as an example is a blithering idiot. The kind of idiot who probably wanders through Walmart for fun, and the only time they left the country was to go to Cozumel for spring break.
But look, elected officials will always say stupid things that defy the imagination. What I found most reassuring about this, was that on several occasions, I saw Obama snap at someone. I saw arguing. We need to have more of this. Arguing is productive.
I have a suggestion to make this meeting more effective: Turn the cameras off.
Turn them off for two reasons.
One, I don't want anyone feeling like they need to be overly civil with each other, and just repeat the talking points that got them elected to keep their constituents happy. They should be arguing. Arguing gets shit done. If it means you have to turn the cameras away so you can feel free to say, hey Dick Durbin, shut your pie hole, your idea isn't going to work because of xyz. Then do it!
These are decisions that literally will effect the life and death over 300 million people. This should be a heated discussion. There is difference between respectful and being timid. Cordiallity will not get things done. Bluntness does.
The other reason this shouldn't be telecast is because the mass media is going to do everything they can to undue the progress you might have just made--thanks to the sports frame mentality. No matter what the medium, when you tell a story, you do it with a voice, intentionally or not. Personally, I chose to tell my stories with the annoying-shit-of-a-dude voice of a guy who sits in the back of the room and says stuff that you either hate to agree with, or feel guilty laughing at. The problem is that we live in de facto two party political system in the US. Naturally political discourse gets framed like a sporting event, or "sports-frame" as crotchety old media professors call it. Its 2 parties, 1 vs 1. It's sport. The question isn't which side is doing this, which side says what, but which side wins.
Alright CNN, I'm gonna break this down for you like Jenga. It's not a fucking competition. Politics in America isn't solely a perpetual fight between two ideologies of governance. But why would we assume otherwise when you check the news and see Wolf Blitzer standing between a pundit in a red box, and a pundit in a blue box, trying to score who won.
Turn the cameras off. And fix our health care system for the love of god.



March 2
