PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

Here is one of the funniest, and truthful, things I have read about the Republican effort to repeal the health care changes. It was written by David Frum, a right leaning commentator who lately was kicked out of the AEI:

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994-style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25-year-olds from their parent’s insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there, would President Obama sign such a repeal?

Read more:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2010/03/waterlosers.html#ixzz0jaFXljJd

The ;point, dear reader, whether intended or not is that there is a lot that is good in the health care bill and the Republicans ran themselves out on a limb opposing everything that was being offered. They decided on a “Gingrich strategy” of opposition at all costs. This worked in the late 1980s and early 90s because the Republicans were in the wilderness (in Congress) and needed a way to claw into power. Being loud, mean and obstreperous had its merits, for them, back then. It is a method that has outlived its usefulness. The Republicans are like an army that has decided to use only one type of gun, no matter the target. They keep shooting over the heads of their enemies but refuse to change.

A much smarter move for Republicans would have been to propose legislation with all of the good things the Dems put in theirs with none of the bad. They couldn’t do that, however, because their hands were tied by their insurance company supporters, who would have seen that as a complete sellout of their interests. Republicans are supposed to be nice to their masters, even if it is in everyone’s interest to be otherwise and embrace a measure of change.

There is a time in politics to compromise and a time to stand and fight. The Republicans are stuck in one, default mode and don’t know how to get out of it. They are like a toy robot that is supposed to turn around when it hits a wall, but doesn’t respond. Beep beep, Bang. Beep, beep. Bang. Again and again, all day, all night.

Everyone, including the Dems on Congress, seems to have missed out on the fact that Obama and his party won really, really big during the 2008 election. That means you get to do some of the things you want. You get to have a vote on legislation and win. (The Republicans call this “cramming this legislation down America’s throats.) The Republicans and the Tea Party people made so much noise that people actually became confused about the current status in Washington, DC, strange as it might seem. They made so much noise that people began to believe the noise was coming from a giant.

The goal of most Republicans, and their far right supporters, has been to negate the Obama presidency, just as they tried to do with Clinton.  They label Obama an illegitimate representative of the people, act as though it were true and then are surprised when he responds, holy, cow!, like it actually won the election last time around. The infamous potato face, Dick Armey, said as much about the Clinton years: they never expected him to fight back.

We are faced with an entire generation of Republicans, raised on the certitudes of Gingrich and the far right, who stew in their own juices all day and all night long. They are tended to by right wing media, flattered by right wing talk shows on the radio and fly to the districts on weekends for meetings with right wing supporters. It is as if the rest of the nation does not exist, other than as a mirage of the “left wing media’s”. They have become victims of their own propaganda. They live in an airless world where seldom is heard a contradictory word. They know they are right because they tell themselves they are and everyone with whom they have contact agrees. In turn, corporate bosses shower them with money. .

These are problems of their own making and can be resolved only by their own efforts. This, they will not do, of course. So, while they might harvest the bitter fruit of citizen anger over many things, like a man with African heritage living in the White House, they are most likely headed for a long, hard impact with reality. Sad to say, it could take another ten to twenty years.

Doug Terry, 3.29.10

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