Social networking serves many purposes. Through facebook, i’ve managed to acquire a diverse collection of ‘contacts’, and i like it that way. Rather than eliminate the people who don’t agree with me, share my political or spiritual views, i enjoy the glimpse it provides into other ways of thinking.
The passage of the universal health care bill by the U.S. congress last night has triggered a slew of political and social commentary. The series that fried my circuits came from a woman i’m connected to via local theater. Her children are involved in my former troupe, and she’s been an active and supportive ‘stage mother’.
Through her postings, it’s obvious that she is of a more conservative persuasion than many theater folks. She’s one of the people that serves as a barometer for me – a vocal representation of the pulse of the conservative-leaning “Average Jane” – the backbone of my little corner of the world.
Her postings on the passage of the health care law have provided more insight, however. This clearly demonstrates why we have become an ungovernable nation.
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Alarmist post shortly after the bill passed:
Rightwing Goodmother: The thirst for power is one that is not easily quenched. Who knows what they will do next. To so easily ignore the Constitution and the will of the people is very scary. Goodbye Freedom. Dear God, please help me not become depressed. (Wow–that’s a downer of a post–sorry–just expressing my thoughts.)
This evening, after she had sufficient time to troll the internet for her opinion, this one popped up:
Rightwing Goodmother: borrowed… The President who still smokes like a chimney signed a healthcare bill, that was written by a committee whose chairman admits he doesn’t understand it, passed by a congress which hasn’t read it, funded by a treasury chief that doesn’t pay his own taxes, and managed by a surgeon general who is obese. Yeah…this will work out well.
Followed IMMEDIATELY by her own comment:
Rightwing Goodmother: But enough politics for the day–I’m going to watch Dancing with the Stars!! 😀
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We. Are. So. Fucked.
Trailer Park Refugee 
Ain’t that the truth? These people protesting – many of them vehemently – have absolutely not one iota what they are protesting against. They’re just whipped up by their favourite opinion person from Faux News.
Check out this excellent bit of film.
rob – thanks. i am now bathed in the stupidity of the masses. off to take a bleach shower… that was one sorry collection of the voting public. we are so very fucked…
Easily ignore the Constitution huh? I can only think that she is speaking of George W. Bush, you know wiretapping, concentration camps, starting wars and not funding them, torture but i only moderately follow politics these days because you are right Daisy, we are fucked, in the old days when one got information that may have helped educate and change ones views it was a good thing, now it’s viewed as a sign of weakness….
That said as the only First World country who doesn’t count healthcare as a human right i’d like to tell this lady to get fucked, when she loses her insurance or she or someone she loves is denied insurance for some “pre-existing condition” we’ll see how she feels about it then, fucking moron, i’m sure she love Jesus too cuz last i checked he was all about trampling on the poor so those with the silver could fatten their wallets i.e. the insurance industry… it’s not a perfect bill by any means but it’s a step in the right direction… the best health care in the world as long as you can afford it and if you can’t we’ll point you towards the undertaker… i’m sure Glenn Beck is weeping and now Rush will move to Costa Rica as he’s threatened where ironically enough they have state sponsored health care and a large amount of American doctors? wonder why?
She is like most who get their info mostly from Fox and whose knowledge of the Constitution is based solely on the two or three out takes she learned in high school.
Oh, so you know the Wheatleys too!
We didn’t even get a public option in this legislation, like the kind the Godless Communist Dystopias like Finland, Canada, and Israel have. If that would have gotten passed, Theater Mom might have locked herself in her basement.
oh daisyfae, come to the gimcrack darlin, we’ve got the drugs and the pretty nurses… we’ll sort out all your future health problems – and it’s free!
kono – she isn’t inherently evil. just deeply ignorant and unaware of it. she has no concept of the working poor – either no health care coverage, or mostly worthless high deductible coverage (like my 23 year old college educated daughter has at the moment). but mostly, i am despondent over the willingness of ‘the people’ to accept sound bites and sensationalized ‘news’ as gospel – and then take to the streets in ignorant protest. the uninformed, and unaware of it, are the greatest threat to stable society.
annie – exactly. i’ve seen it from the ‘other’ side as well. during the bush administration, there were many folks claiming ‘the end of democracy is nigh’, that he was taking us straight to an oppressive, totalitarian regime. sometimes, just as uninformed in position… we are completely doomed – but not by our politicians. it’s ‘us’…
renalfailure – sure reads as though lucinda wheatley has a facebook account, doesn’t it? she’ll be down in her basement shortly, worrying herself over gay marriage and her need to get out there and protest to ‘save the baby humans’… life is sacred until deer season.
nursemyra – honey, i’m on my way. get me jacked up on some painkillers and i’ll quit whining….
Well, she used all the right buzz words and phrases. Honestly, I have completely shut out not only the healthcare debate but all political dialog. Politics use to be a pretty big deal in my life but I turned my back on it because I couldn’t stand the fighting.
Staunch Republican was up in arms yesterday… so whenever he’d start on his Rush-Fed-Information-Regurgitation I’d start listening to Bob Marley in my head.
Personally, I’d like to find this whole thing in plain, non-partisan English so I can decide whether I’m happy or sad.
classic!
I am a Conservative and I don’t believe like Right-Wing Granny does. Just remember there are Conservatives and Right-Wing nut cases. I happen to fall in the Middle and try and see both sides of the story. There are basically a lot of things in the Health Care bill that will help many people–especially the children. No child should have to live without health insurance.
Yes and I just read a WTF quote this morn in USA T oday from a man who says if he doesn’t want the gov’s help and would rather fend for himself. “I won’t take Medicaid and I will not pay the fine,” he says. “They’ll give me good health bebefits in prison, I believe. If you can’t provide for yourself, why should everyone else provide for you?” Um, who does he think pays for the healthcare of inmates?
Hello-o? Critical thinking skills? Why have you foresaken the alarmists?
DaisyFae, I AM the working poor.
I am a single Mother of 2.
I work 3 jobs and receive very little in the way of child support.
I do receive assistance in the form of State funded Health Insurance for my kids.
Not Medicaid, I make just a hair too much for that.
I have no insurance.
I can’t afford it.
This Health Care Reform Bill is for the millions of people like me who struggle to make all the ends meet.
I understand that no one wants their taxes hiked up, but you know what? I pay taxes too.
Oh, and my kids insurance isn’t free, and not everything is covered.
As it stands, my youngest may be dropped for a condition that hasn’t even been confirmed yet.
That is MY reality, and the reality of so many others.
We ARE fucked.
In so many ways.
Oh, and if RWG is so distressed about having her “freedoms” taken away, ask her if she protested the Patriot Act.
Which is still in effect by the way.
unbearable banishment – it gets harder and harder to extract ‘facts’. like you, i’m pushing away from understanding what is going on because of the circus atmosphere coming from both extremes…
stephanie – i almost wish they’d work important legislation a single nugget at at time, and like ‘tax law’, try to make sure there are intelligible summaries for those of us who are not attorneys. i’m a reasonably bright person, highly educated. and I struggle with the language of this bill… i tried to read it. didn’t make it very far… sad.
lynn – it was the contrast that killed me on this one… angst, angst, angst – OOOOH! A Shiny Dress on my TV-TUBE! YAY!
judy – thanks for stopping by to comment. i’m a moderate by most reasonable definitions. and i ABSOLUTELY know the difference between ‘thinking conservative’ and ‘right wingnut’. i just wish we had more vocal, articulate and clear-thinking conservatives out and about these days… and i believe there is good and bad in this bill (best i can tell, given how challenging it’s been to figure out what’s in it)…
fragrant liar – i still love the “Keep your government hands off my Medicaid” people. jeebus h. roosevelt christ mc gee. THINK, people. THINK!!!!
blazingscarlet – you’re on the front lines of this discussion. and i hope there is a silver lining in the messy legislative process for you, and people who share your circumstances… i guess who is the anti-christ depends on what you watch on tv. Cheney for the MSNBC crew. Obama for Fox Newsers… (sigh)
yup you’re all commies now…heh
it’s the best thing to happen to America since you turfed the brits out
Hey, you want to get really depressed, come to Texas where I live. We’ve got Rick “Let’s Secede!” Perry, Rep. Neugebauer the Babykiller Shouter, and the State Board of the Un-educated who want to take social studies textbooks back to the Middle Ages when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It’s enough to make you want to hole up in the bathroom and never come out.
Interesting comments from everyone. Kono already stated what I was thinking at the Rightwing Godmother’s comment about thirst for power, how it’s unclear what “they” (presumably the current president et al) will do, and so on. I say you hand her a copy of Jane Meyer’s _The Dark Side_ and say, really? Obama abuses power? Gitmo atrocities? Wiretapping? Trampling all over habeas corpus? Hello?
Speaking as a liberal, I’ve always believed in the marketplace of ideas, and how dialogue is necessary to facilitate change. This means actively listening to opposing points of view and agreeing on point X and disagreeing on point Y. And my background sorta encouraged/encourages that belief; I grew up in one of the swing districts of Washington (state), and I live in San Diego, which is more or less a “purple” city now. Many of my best friends from high school are deeply conservative, and so’s my old man. And we’ve had tons of arguments, but none of these people necessarily call me names, get into reductive name calling contests, etc.
The fact that this is all going on over _freakin’ healthcare_ is kinda surprising. Almost comical. I give it three or four years, then people will decide the Kool-Aid doesn’t taste so bad. It tastes like, you know, Kool-Aid. Oh yeah.
SA
Wow, so much to say. I just posted on my facebook that I’m ecstatic that this health care bill passed, it now heads us in the direction to be in league with the rest of the world. I think that’s one of the main points, there is a ‘rest of the world’ out there we if we look, if we listen and if we pay attention, we might find out we are not all that different. I’d bet that we all pretty much want the same things. To be loved, to be safe and to have a future.
Watching the debate from afar has been interesting, to say the least. I don’t pretend to understand all the nuances of health care for Americans but I’ve shaken my head and thrown up my hands so many times. Strip away all the political agendas and it just seems so obvious. Sadly, a huge percentage of the American population and their way of thinking scares me …
I have been trying to keep politics off of my blog lately, because it’s all pissing me off a little too much. But I’m not sure how long I will be able to hold my tongue.
manuel – commies, socialists AND fascists! all rolled into one bit ol’ Nazi! at least that’s how the screaming heads describe it, when they’re they’re not crying into their “Jesus Krispies” over breakfast…
texastrailerparktrash – rename your bathroom “Saf-T-Cellar”, stock it full of provisions and hunker down for another decade or so. gonna be a long time before this is done…
sonny – it’s the disappearance of informed debate and discussion that is killing us… i agree that we need to consider alternate positions, working toward ‘greater good’ and all that… but i can’t even conceive of a scenario in the current US climate where this could happen. i truly enjoy a good discussion/debate with educated, informed debaters. this crap with ‘talking points’ and knuckle pointing makes me ill…
carlae – sadly, it’s the people spouting “We’re still the greatest nation on earth” and “We’ve got the best health care on the planet” who are the least informed. Look at the numbers – we DO NOT have the greatest longevity, state of health. We spend more on health care than any other nation. They simply don’t know the truth, and don’t care to learn it… Grrr…
tNb – i bet it is fascinating (and probably less aggravating) to watch from afar… and yes, it’s the ‘thinking’ and lack thereof that is the scariest…
chris – i avoid politics for the most part out here. just bashing my personal demons. but this one really frosts my ass… i’m not a genius. far from it. but just how stupid has the general population become that we’re in this situation? Idiocracy. We are living the dream, 500 years early…
i wonder if she watched fox news before or after DWTS?
dave – i suspect she has it piped directly into her brain via bluetooth device… it’s easier than thinking.