Just a quick post on President Obama's town hall meeting today. I found it refreshing to see him get out and do some explaining to an audience. The reason? He is usually his own best public-relations team. When we see him in action, we recall why he won the election. The same vulgar subset currently shouting down others at town halls were around during the election in 2008, but their childish howlings, paranoid delusions, and racist conniption fits failed to hinder the will of the majority in November. It's worth remembering this.
When Obama takes the podium, such opposition (aside from more rational kinds of opposition, I take care to add) stands little chance. He is obviously a well-intentioned, honest and intelligent person, and those qualities shine through. His presence carries an authenticity that goes beyond the office he holds (in itself a considerable factor), and he cannot afford to leave the public-relations campaign entirely up to Democratic senators and congresspeople.
You saw it that way, but then you're intelligent and if I don't presume too much, sane. That doesn't necessarily apply to the majority of viewers.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of an old joke. A mental patient is given a Rorschach test and to every picture, he replies "two people having sex."
"I think you have a problem," says the psychiatrist. "I have a problem?" the patient replies. "You're the one showing me the dirty pictures."
The entire subject of health care is a Rorschach test and the results don't speak well for our sanity.
There is nothing like an encouraging word to raise a flagging spirit. Yet, your cynical and misanthropic Octopus, finding himself surrounded by orcs and goblins, eagerly turns the page in search of the deus ex machina that will save our hero.
ReplyDeleteTurning the page … more orcs and goblins.
Ring bearer stung by oversized Republican …
Turn the page …
Sane? I identify as a Jurassic dinosaur!
ReplyDeleteConcerned family member: Doctor, doctor, my brother thinks he's a chicken.
Shrink: Well, why don't you get him some help?
Concerned family member: I would, but we need the eggs.
Anyhow, yes, I understand the problem. Dealing with fools is trying. Missing in some of our "Healther Skelter" town-hallers (thanks to Jon Stewart for that phrase!) is any notion that if we want to be accorded more than the bare minimum of respect one citizen owes to another, we must meet or surpass the lowest common denominator of being able to think logically. To accord us anything beyond the minimum civic regard if we fail to meet that standard is to insult the very concept of respect, which, if granted for nothing, is worth nothing. People who don't want to be infantilized should stop acting like bawling, irrational children.
Okay -- so the point is not to let them shape the agenda, not to give in and assume they're a force of nature that's bound to destroy all prospects for improvement. I'm actually somewhat optimistic that millions of more or less rational beings will become so disgusted with what they see at those televised town halls that they will accept sensible notions of reform, even if not necessarily the exact ones you or I would like.
A psychiatrist sees a new patient with a duck on his head sitting in the reception room.
ReplyDeleteSo the shrink asks the patient: "What seems to be the problem?"
The duck answers: "Doc, how do I get this guy off my ass?"
Thus, the problem remains. How do we get the robber barons of the healthcare industry off our asses?