The Great Health Care “Surprise”
by The Magical Sky Father

“Going on vacation with the wife I decided I could trust my teenage son with my Porsche so I left him the keys and I know he will not drive it because I told him not to. He is a good kid starting his college interviews so I am sure this will all work out just fine, I mean the kid is still a virgin and runs around singing Bob Seger songs in his underwear what could go wrong?”

The above of course is the opening line to the movie Risky Business if it had been written from the parents perspective. Most of us know how that worked out for them.

For those that wish a cliff notes version he totaled the car ran a brothel with assorted inner city prostitutes to service his high school friends and of course trashed the house, took care of that little virginity problem as well but you may have already guessed that since 1 plus 1 still oddly equals 2. Many teens watched this film and learned that living in a Chicago suburb had many advantages over the sleepy community they were raised in, I mean Rebecca De Mornay was nowhere to be found in the entire state of Indiana in the 90’s and I can personally attest to that fact. A wise friend quickly pointed out the films most important lesson to me while we sat in front of the television watching distractedly for a nude scene while playing Monopoly “know where you can and where you cannot trust people, then you have only yourself to blame when things go badly.”

If that 9 year old is now in politics I know for certain he is not suprised by the current explosion over Health Care Reform.

We have spent a good deal of time whipping the GOP and their supporter’s for their lack of interest in joining the discussion but I think I know why and it has nothing to do with their utter creulty and inhumantiy nor their broken and dysfunctional ideology as many would like to believe. In short, they did not believe us. No, I mean really believe us as in we are doing this right now with or without you, do not make me turn this car around because you will be left home alone while the family is at Disney World, kind of mean it.

This is not even the GOP’s fault. In the 1960’s LBJ shuffled together the remaining social legislation that this country has seen and that was all she wrote. Carter nor Clinton pushed through any major social legislation and Ford, Reagan, Bush and Bush II decided they liked that just fine although Nixon came really close until Ted Kennedy saved him that black eye in the conservative history books by being a jerk.

We had discussed legislation under Carter and Clinton but what was woven did not make it out of the gate. From the GOP perspective the era of social legislation was over, this was the shrinking government era and therefore social legislation could be expected to shrink into sheer nonexistence. During the Carter presidency even the whisper of legislation from the left must have sent shivers down the spines of the GOP and their voters. They still had fresh memories of the New Deal, and the Great Society and they new what the legislation did and how much it cost in stark terms.

When a fresh faced young Arkansas Governer took the oath of office the fear had turned to concern but this time they had a plan, as Clinton sent the giant bill to the legislature they stoked the fears and misgivings of American’s and the hurt and frustration of Democratic lawmakers at the same time. The defeat was so extreme and unquestionable that President Bill Clinton spoke the words that every conservative since 1930 had be dying to hear “the era of big government is over.” He did not sign off with XX’s and OO’s but many conservatives felt the kisses and hugs anyway.

Another election, another fresh faced young president and the same plan or at least a very similar one came to Washington in 2009.

This time the legislature seemed to be much more in the new President’s corner than last time but that could have been due to his different strategy.

The good news for Republicans was that the President was relatively unknown and the economy was in a state some would describe as the apocalypse which should make it much easier to pit the people against the social legislation. In the end they rallied enough voters against the legislation regardless of the individual elements popularity to capture their entire party and half or more of independents. The young President called for bi-partisanship but they ignored it because they took it as a sign of weakness and having learned from the experience in the 90’s the best method was a total shut down of cooperation. Some bucked the party line only to come back to the fold when they could not find a deal that they desired in the end the party lines stayed as static and polarized as the WWI western front, and any that dare poke their heads out of their fox hole quickly found the use of their steel helmet.

With the battle lines drawn and the electorate polarized and turning ugly something strange and inexplicable happened, they passed the bill and worse yet the President signed it.

First they dabbled with the idea of repeal and realized it was a nonstarter as the poll numbers began to show the package suddenly was more popular than unpopular and people did not want to give up certain elements like the new regulations on pre-existing conditions. The GOP had a problem though, the legislation was expensive and if this was a pill they were being forced to swallow they needed to find a way to make it small enough to not choke.

Historically the Republican party has paid the bills and knocked off the excess of the Democratic hopes and dreams for society. That had changed in the Reagan era by ballooning military spending during Republican administrations forcing the Democratic party to pay the bills and be the responsible one while in office which of course would not allow them to create any further social legislation but then Barack Obama called them on it.

Now a funny thing seems to be happening all over the political intertubes, which are similar to tubes in no way whatsoever, GOP and GOP leaning voters suddenly want to discuss the best and most efficient ways to pay for this.

No, not the ideologues and likely not the Tea Party types either but the sober part of the GOP that realizes it is not in a one party country. I know this is usually something to discuss prior to buying something but as I pointed out earlier the GOP gave the keys to Barack Obama and the Democratic legislature but they seem to have had no idea they would actually take the Porsche out and try to get some girls which is of course exactly what they did, exactly what a grown up should have actually expected to be honest.

Some will throw rocks and say the die has been cast but the way to win a war is with arms open wide ready to embrace our brothers as they come home to the truth. The truth being that regardless of what you think should or should not be done by government in theory this is what our government is doing, actually make that has done, the only two choices that remain are trying to find a way to make it work or lighting your cigarette on the smoking pile that will be our nation which would make you many things but a patriot is not one of them.

So to those that are feeling the long cold war of ideology in US politics coming to an end and are actually beginning to discuss what is in the health and best interest of our nation instead of in the interest of one or another party or one or the other ideological extreme I salute you.

I can’t give you the keys because the car seems to be in Lake Michigan but I just put some Bob Seger on and the dance floor is all yours, I will throw in the tidy whities for free because it is the deal makers among us that are the American heroes because it is they that ensure there is always a home to come back to and its the heroes time to dance.

“The Magical Sky Father resides in Portland, OR his own little city on the hill where he longs to work at Powell’s and soaks up the liquid sunshine like a native. Personal politics are Libertarian Socialist or as he likes to put it a balanced extremist. He sits atop his rain cloud typing angry rants into the blogosphere trying to keep the balance in his extreme’s.”