553
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
553 points (96.8% liked)
politics
19144 readers
1391 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Voters who are willing to support some kind of universal coverage never materialized last time this country had a nationwide healthcare debate. And those debates don't come around that often. Usually once a generation or so.
Many on this site might have been too young to remember. I was there. I went to the rallies and I also saw how support for universal coverage fell apart seemingly overnight. This was over a dozen years ago. Obama got elected and one of his big pushes was to reform healthcare. For years before this, everyone would always claim that they wanted universal coverage. They wanted something more akin to Europe. They wanted changed, damn it.
Then the debates started. On one side, we had well organized opposition led by right wing Republicans and funded by all manner of big businesss. This was the country's introduction to that nutcase Palin (funny how she is almost considered sane by today's standards). Conservatives flooded the airwaves with feel-good stories about how great out current healthcare system is while at the same time spooking voters that some kind of universal coverage would bring with it "Death Panels" and usher in communism and socialism and socialized-communism (whatever the fuck any of that is).
And it worked.
Those spook tactics had support for universal coverage almost collapse overnight. There were tons of protests in support of our current terrible system funded by Republican groups, but where were the counter-protests in support of universal coverage? POOF it vanished. I remember driving downtown with one of my buddies after work and we would find where people were gathering. It was mostly a bunch of stoners and college kids with zero direction and no cohesive message. It was a mess. We went down there a bunch of nights trying to rile up the troops but it was downright pathetic.
And except for some hotspots (like NYC) a lot of this just died down real quick. Obama was a pragmatist above all else. He could see the writing on the wall. He knew he couldn't get the support he needed to push for some kind of universal coverage like many claimed they wanted. We were not getting healthcare like Europe and that's all because Americans are just unwilling to lift a finger to help themselves. They are more afraid of an unknown healthcare system than the terrible one we currently have. They were willing to live with the devil they knew than the devil they didn't know. So in the end, Obama had to settle for the system that now bares his name. It falls far from being a universal system like Europe, but even with it's flaws, it is better than what we had before. He could still claim some level of victory.
So I am really annoyed when I see people today claiming online that we need Medicare4All or some other universal coverage. I'm annoyed, not because I disagree with those people, but rather because I know if we started up a national debate again to reform healthcare, those very same people who are adamant about needing change will sit on their asses on the toilet flipping through TikToks rather than going out there and protesting or calling their representatives or even voting for politicians who might support these reforms.
Sorry for the massively long post, but this issues triggers the fuck out of me. I'm sure zero.zero people read it.
let peopleThatReadIt +=;