OFA, Buh-Bye...

By John Ballard

I just unsubscribed to the Obama For America emails that have been coming to my Yahoo address since before the election. At first I read them with excited anticipation. Then I read them just to stay informed. Then I started scanning and glancing at them to catch the gist of what they were about. Then I quit reading them altogether.For the last several months I have deleted them unopened.

The "unsubscribe" link asked for a reason and I wish I had made a copy of what I wrote. It really doesn't matter, though. The die is cast and I'm no longer looking for a set jaw and gritted teeth from this administration. Paleo-conservatives, reactionaries, climate zombies and nut cases who would never have made headlines a few years ago have become the New Center. Fox and friends continue to serve the swill du jour and in the same way that McDonald's now peddles ersatz Starbucks. Similarly, most of the rest of broadcast media pull their best punches rather than risk anything going against the popular grain.

Last night ABC evening news had a feature on the dramatic rise in health insurance premiums. It was all so cute how they called a few companies on the phone to demonstrate how no one wanted to speak on the record to defend the increases. Such increases are industry-wide but they were picking on Blue Shield of California (59 percent increase). They contacted the White House and broached the subject of price controls (without using that inflammatory term) and Kathleen Sebelius advised them to tell people to confront insurance commissioners and/or governors in the states to address the problem.

I listened closely to see if anyone had the intelligence or insight to point out the obvious: insurance premiums reflect actual and anticipated medical costs, not the cost of risk management. Health care inflation has been, is and will continue to be the economic reality which will sink the American boat unless it is brought under control, and soon.  I was waiting for someone to take the ball and run with it. What a perfect opening to drive home the most importnt economic reality of the last few years! And did anyone even hint at the point? I'm left wondering if anyone ever got it. What does it take to connect the dots?

Speaking truth to power isn't working. And in an advertisement driven world it's not realistic to expect the broadcast media to stick out their necks, especially when there are so many calls for Julian Assange's blood. The media people are either scared to death or joining the outcry, selling popcorn and beer to the screaming fans. It's time for responsible leaders to speak reality to their constituents but I'm not optimistic they would be heard. I'm reminded of that line -- The avalanche has already started. It's too late for pebbles to vote.

I watched the negotiations closely as the PPACA was being crafted. I watched Senators Grassley and Baucus both as they did their individual best to get it right. But it was clear that the insurance interests had them by the nads. Both of them. Those big campaign donations plus the fires of ignorance, fear and cascading disinformation gripping their constituents, fed in no small part by those pitiful Tea Party people (still innocent puppets back then, not the Koch-funded political force being birthed), had these two good men trembling in fear. You could see it in the nervous, forced smiles of Senator Baucus and read the same tea leaves the poor old Senator Grassley saw back in Iowa. Both were pawns of forces greater than they could control and to confront them would have been politically self-destructive.

In one of the most impressive town hall meetings of the season, it was clear that Representative Bart Stupak was totally informed and understood exactly why health care reform was and continues to be perhaps more important than national defense to American security. He gets my vote as one of the most important people to help get the final bill passed by crafting an essentially meaningless amendment worded to mollify single-issue anti-choice extremists holding some fourteen of his peers hostage. His decision to quit Washington is a sad loss but totally understandable. It's not a place for people not wanting scar tissue.

I will still glance at the emails coming to my personal email account but I'm not expecting much. I routinely delete a string of stuff there in the same way we toss the junk snail mail. But when my mind is on blogging instead of sorting through junk mail it only frustrates me and makes me angry. The one voice that might drown out all the rest is working on how best to win a few more pissy little points with his State of the Union Speech rather than reprimanding both houses of Congress for shirking their constitutional responsibilities, acting like petulant, spoiled children instead. I heard he's even set up an interview with Bill O'Reilly on Super Bowl Sunday. Makes me wonder who will interview whom.