Bernie Sanders, Obamacare, Compromise And Lunacy: A Conversation With Fred Owens

Dear Alan,

I am sitting where I usually sit -- at the dining table at L's house, where I can look out the front window or turn around and look out the back deck and the flowers. The kitchen is nearby  -- I like to sit near the food.

I have the Washington Post live feed on right now. Rep. Boehner is coming on to speak in a few minutes -- with the latest iteration of whatever is considered a reasonable offer.

I saw a quote from Bernie Sanders today which I liked. And what I liked is that he managed to describe his political foes without resorting to the charge of mental instability  -- such a charge has become the Democratic mantra  -- they're crazy! 

Alan: I agree with you Fred... except that American "conservatives" have actually driven themselves crazy. Not only do they advocate unhinged political positions - like positing need to negotiate constitutionally-legislated Obamacare, they are also subject to the spiritual putresence of hatred which makes them crazy-in-the-soul as well as in the head. I marvel that a "good" Catholic like Laura Wood keeps regular company with White Supremacists, giving them voice on demand.

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/arrested-development-american.html 

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/jon-stewart-nails-gops-crazed-demands.html  

Anything can be normalized... except frank lunacy. At that threshold, a line must be drawn. Blessedly, The Tea Party has drawn it themselves. Suddenly, the entire nation sees these "bag wo/men" for what they are - angry/mad white guys trying to stanch the tide of color. Although they may lack conscious access to the root of their hatred, the fact remains that Obama is their nigger whipping boy. If he were killed, I believe Tea Bags would feel greater satisfaction than Hitler took in The Final Solution. This also seems true for The Thinking Housewife, who puts racial and cultural purity above reconciliation and inevitable synthesis. It is remarkable that despite her avowed Catholicism and championship of The Magisterium, she holds Pope Francis in seething contempt. Given her absolutism, it was inevitable that she reveal herself as a "cafeteria Catholic."
http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2013/10/french-imams-cheer-pope-francis/

Anyway, here's how Bernie said it:

Bernie Sanders, as interviewed in Salon (10/10/13):

And how worried are you that there actually would be a debt default?

Well, you’ve got a lot of factors going. Am I worried? Yes, I am worried. I can’t tell you that it will happen or not. But you really have people who live in another, in an ideological world which is very far removed from where I think most Americans are. And they believe so strongly, they hate Obama so much, and they believe so strongly in their views that if it means driving this country or the world into a recession or a depression, that from their point of view is a small price to pay to continue their efforts.

---- That's how Bernie puts it. 

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/10/gops_incredibly_outrageous_attack_on_democracy_bernie_sanders_talks_to_salon/singleton/

If the following image does not paste, it can be accessed at 
http://www.prosebeforehos.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/bernie-sanders-war.jpg

My own take has not really changed much, except I cannot manage to convince anyone of its worth. But I will try again -- If Obamacare was a good program it would have gained a grudging acceptance from the opposition....... Nancy Pelosi should have realized that she had only delayed a huge confrontation when Congress passed this bill without any GOP votes in 2009. 

Alan: As you say, compromise is better. However, some things can not be compromised. Universal healthcare - a political project since Teddy Roosevelt first proposed it in 1912 - needed to be pushed through whether or not the lethal loonies were on board. 

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/harvard-study-45000-americans-die.html
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/brilliant-brief-history-of-universal.html

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/in-health-were-not-1-conservative.html 
Notably, Obama had enough legislative might during his first two years in office to enact single payer healthcare which had long been his personal preference. http://www.ijreview.com/2013/09/82370-flashback-barack-obama-promotes-single-payer-universal-healthcare/

I'll try a metaphor. Obamacare is a good and useful medicine, but it has a serious side effect -- the dosage drives a substantial minority of Americans bonkers.

Good medicine, but with serious side effects --

To say that it is not supposed to have side effects is no argument in its favor. What an objective observer from outer space would surely notice is that when the medicine of Obamacare is applied a large number of people break out in a rash.

Alan: Ah... But the medicine has not been applied yet. People oppose Obamacare out of ignorance and fear of the unknown. Once The Affordable Health Act is up and running (and "we" determine what needs to be tweaked) people will like Obamacare, not as much as they would have liked Single Payer, but ratcheting expectations down to "The Sausage" was a compromise made at the get-go. Democrats don't compromise? Pshaw! It is the very first thing Democrats do. It is truly said that Obama is the only human being - ever - to arrive at a strip poker game already naked. Indeed, Barack's mad rush to compromise is why his compromising nature is invisible to Republicans. Given Obama's psychological predisposition, compromise is baked in the cake before the ingredients get mixed. Republicans, on the other hand, are so self-righteously self-certain that every concession Democrats make seems nothing more than restoration of The True Baseline to which they are entitled by Divine Decree. That said, WAPO's Matt Miller makes an engaging (though improbable) case for a grand compromise that would combine Obamacare and the budget. My bedrock supposition "in all this" is that Obamacare's fundamental purpose is to normalize the principle of "affordable universal care." As things play out and healthcare gets increasingly expensive over the next 25 years -- largely propelled by the influx of aging baby boomers -- the nation will necessarily migrate to single payer (or something like it) because it is the only way to cut enough cost -- nearly half! -- to prevent national bankruptcy, or a protest movement of medically deprived elders starving themselves to death on The National Mall. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/03/national-geographic-chart-of-per-capita.html

We are going to the Santa Barbara Bowl tonight to see and hear the Avett brothers -- that will be fun.

Yesterday we had the lightest sprinkle -- the first hint of rain in six months -- which is normal...... The locals all say it has been a dry year, but I don't hear anyone say the d-word (drought). The locals seems to mean that this year is in the drier end of normal.

Fred Owens
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