Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch wrote an excellent piece in the Washington Post yesterday that explains the appeal of Ron Paul and also predicts, I think accurately, that the party that takes up the banner of civil liberties and anti-imperialism will be successful. I was about 60% of the way through the article when I thought to myself, ‘this is an excellent article…it hits all the right points…ridicules the correct people…and doesn’t resort to any of the usual stupidness that I always see in mainstream analytical pieces’. And just as I had that internal conversation with myself, I read:
But if war were the only answer for his improbable run, why Ron Paul instead of the perennial peacenik Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic congressman from Ohio whose apparent belief in UFOs is only slightly less kooky than his belief in the efficacy of socialized health care?
I had to read it twice to make sure I had it right. Gillespie and Welsh were arguing that a belief in UFO’s is slightly less kooky than a belief in socialized health care. And I don’t want to dismiss the first part. Dennis Kucinich once saw something in the sky that he couldn’t identify. He saw an unidentifiable object that appeared to be flying. He saw something we term a ‘UFO’. I’ve seen plenty of stuff in the sky that I couldn’t identify…especially at night. I never thought the stuff had aliens inside. Kucinich never said that what he saw had aliens inside. He’s not a kook because he saw a UFO.
But let’s say that Kucinich actually thinks that a space ship can, or would, traverse the ten or more light years of space between the nearest star that has planets, and Earth…buzz the stratosphere…and then turn around and go home without so much as refueling. He’d be a kook.
But would he be kookier than the majority of Canadians, Brits, and Scandinavians that adore their socialized medicine?
This one passage of the piece ruins an otherwise excellent article that I may discuss at a later time. The really kooky thing is that anyone could live in this country and defend our medical system. It’s totally inefficient, ungodly expensive, and a complete moral embarrassment.
I would think that the Democrats want Ron Paul selected as the GOP nominee just like the Republicans want Hillary selected as the Democratic nominee. Dennis could win believing in UFOs but he can’t win believing in socialism. We aren’t ready for women, blacks, or communists to become President. Unfortunately, there are many good candidates that fall into those categories. I have only one reason for not voting for any who fall into those categories – I want to win!
US business interests are viewing the war as a drag. I look at the NY Times occasionally. I never look at the post on purpose. It doesn’t speak to me.
Egh.
Little comments like that make me wonder if the journalists involved are outright corporate shills, or if its just yet another example of American provincialism. I used to give them the benefit of the doubt and think it was just provincialism, but I’m not longer willing to do that.
The idea that the effectiveness of socialized medicine could be considered “kooky” given how effective it is in many countries in the world is just bizarre. But somewhat typical for some of our fellow Americans who haven’t even met someone from another country, let alone left the borders themselves. You’d think that journalists SHOULD be a bit better at getting out and seeing the world.
This is typical. What happened was that Kucinich was standing next to Shirley McClain when he saw something in the sky.
Every night people since people have had eyes they’ve looked at the sky and seen things that weren’t readily identifiable.
Then someone else’s opinion on UFOs, McClain’s as modified by others, are carried around in the crowd for ridicule. This is not much different than constantly replaying John Dean’s yelp in Iowa from years ago.
The truth is that over the last half-century millions (yes, millions) of people around the world have seen unusual lights in the sky. Unidentified is unidentified. That’s the okey doke, that at some point Kucinich noted that the emperor has no clothes on. Heh heh heh. What a nut!
But to suggest that socialized medicine is wacky, or zany, or somehow a pie plate in the sky won’t fly for most Americans. The okey doke stops there. Too many people know someone who doesn’t have healthcare, a kid out of school, children of someone working at a job without health insurance, someone between her last job and social security.
Socialized medicine! Like an episode from “I Love Lucy.” Funny like cancer.
Until the concept of “socialized” gets rehabilitated, like the concept of “liberal,” a euphemism like “universal” seems a better alternative, with the states running the programs. But with Hillary proposing a corporate form of universal care, we could easily end up with the same system we have, albeit a more costly one, but still retaining clerk approved care and subpar coverage, depending on what you can pay, bring us full circle.
I was perplexed here recently when AG reacted to my describing the IRA as marxist with fury. Sínn Fein is probably the most left-wing party in Ireland, a country with a collective wage bargaining process.
A few days later I remembered that his was in the US, where socialist
= evil and marxist =child eating satanist.We’ve remarked before on ET on how, on one hand, we get quite similiar political compass scores to dKos or BT, but on the other hand, we come across as screaming pinko-commies to the dKos and BT crowd. I’ve come to the conclusion that while we share roughly the same views on outcomes we have completely different views on acceptable methods. US political discourse excludes the possibility of government intervention, socially organised intervention, in many ways because it’s “socalism”.
The Swedes makes no bones about the nature of their social democracy: it is a combination of capitalism and communism, which for all practical purposes equates to what we know as liberal-socialism, which was initiated by the New Deal. The Democrats, however, never got to push America into furthering their socialist goals by at least being able to introduce socialized medicine. We do have Medicare and Medicaid, however, excellant socialized medical programs, the latter run through the states.
Our agenda suffered some dismantling under the conservative Republicans these past 30 years whose mantra was greed and helping the rich helps everybody.
Why don’t the journalists ask the candidates how many believe in angels, followed by how many have ever seen so much as one!!!!!!
If they believe in angels, they probably also believe that God delivers rain on demand and genocidal victory (read the Old Testament for instructions on how to pull down the walls and slaughter every man, woman, child, and dog… blaming even the dogs out of jealousy) and will help their football team or gambling odds.
At least Kucinich SAW something which was also seen by others. I’d rather vote for someone who admits that he saw an unidentifiable light than someone who confesses to believing nonsense merely because some preacher spouts off.