{"id":538,"date":"2010-03-20T13:56:40","date_gmt":"2010-03-20T13:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/the-reason-for-so-many-lies-over-health-care-reform.html"},"modified":"2010-03-20T13:56:40","modified_gmt":"2010-03-20T13:56:40","slug":"the-reason-for-so-many-lies-over-health-care-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/the-reason-for-so-many-lies-over-health-care-reform.html","title":{"rendered":"The Reason for So Many Lies Over Health Care Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I have been perplexed at the
\nvicious intensity of Republican and ‘conservative’ attacks on health care
\nreform, even in its rather minimal form. 
\n<\/span>They have lied about “death panels<\/a>,”  lied about their interest in “bipartisanship<\/a>,” lied about its impact on abortion<\/a>,  lied about fraudulent memos <\/a>  <\/span> <\/span>(see video<\/a>)  and lied about imaginary studies in medical journals<\/a>.   <\/span>They have even attacked children whose
\nmothers died<\/a> from lack of care when they became unemployed,  and attacked the seriously ill<\/a> for daring to use their personal suffering as a reason for advocating
\nreform.  <\/span>Such bestial acts have
\nbecome defining features of the battle against health care
\nreform.  <\/span>Political and media
\nleaders have been at the forefront of this campaign of deception and intimidation.
\nMany of the Republican Party’s and ‘conservatism’s’ leading lights have removed themselves
\nfrom all contact with civil discussion and reasoned argument over this issue.
\n(As the lies keep coming, check at Factcheck.org<\/a>  to find the truth.)  In politics everyone exaggerates, but this is unique.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

At first take these constant lies
\nand depraved attacks on the weak and needy are really rather weird.  <\/span>We are talking health care<\/i>.  <\/span>We are
\ntalking health care when the American system by every objective criteria is
\ndoing an inferior job at greater expense than the systems in many other countries
\nin the world.  <\/span>We are talking
\nhealth care reform that guarantees insurance companies lots of new clients (which I do
\nnot like, but is certainly a price worth paying to get some real aid to so many
\nmillions). We are describing a bill that addresses <\/span>horrendous abuses<\/a> any normal person would condemn.  This is hardly an attack on business.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I think the reason for this
\notherwise inexplicably atrocious behavior boils down to fear.  <\/span>Not so much fear on their part (the
\npolitical leaders already have very good government-provided health care).  <\/span>The leaders of reform’s right-wing opponents in
\npolitics, the media, and elsewhere know they are telling lies and acting well
\nbeyond the boundaries of civilized behavior. Their fear is about something other than worry about bad policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think for them much more is at
\nstake than  health care reform. 
\n<\/span>These people have long attempted to make fear<\/b> the dominant theme
\nin American culture, and with some success.  R<\/span>ight-wingers have a basic political problem, and that
\nis that the majority of Americans have never been on their side except<\/i> when
\nthey are frightened.  <\/span>Fearful
\npeople instinctively look for ‘strong leaders’ to lead them into safety.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Along with promoting a state of
\nconstant fear, ‘conservatives’ and Republican leaders consistently represent
\ntheir opponents as weak men and mannish women. Simultaneously they themselves
\nprance and preen in a caricature of manliness, whether the faux manliness of
\nmedia figures like Bill Kristol<\/a>, so eager to send other
\npeople to war while drawing enormous paychecks for their bravery, the academic
\ncheerleaders claiming to be experts on ‘Manliness,” like Harvey Mansfield<\/a>, or
\nthose trying to associate themselves with false images of heroism by men who  avoided service while better men did not – like John Wayne<\/a>.  <\/span>The ‘conservative’ paean to manhood is
\nfraudulent to the core<\/a>.  All of it. In fact the evidence suggests that liberal leaders have a better record of serving their country<\/a> in uniform than do right wing ones. But so long as they appear strong to people, and make their opponents seem weak, frightened voters will gravitate to their camp.<\/p>\n

I believe the same is true for
\nthe right-wing versions of ‘traditional’ religion. 
\n<\/span>Their god is a god of threat and punishment for any who do not knuckle
\nunder.  <\/span>And those who do knuckle
\nunder are threatened with eternal suffering if they ever deviate or doubt.  <\/span>Even the saved live fearful lives
\nconstantly aware of their fate should they fall away.  <\/span>I gave my book Pagans and Christians<\/a><\/i> to some conservative religious people and <\/span>they
\nwere afraid to read it.<\/i>  <\/span>Again, we see the centrality of a state
\nof constant nagging fear, fear that is actively promoted.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pay off for the promoters of fear is
\nhuge.<\/p>\n

When a person is on the edge of
\ntotal vulnerability she is likely to vote for the promised protection of
\n‘manly’ conservative Republicans and cling to their ‘manly’ bully-deity.   <\/span>Just to be safe.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Health care is perhaps the biggest
\nsource of generalized uneasiness and fear for many Americans.  <\/span>Even people with good insurance policies
\nare often tied to their jobs,  <\/span>vulnerable
\nto disaster should any unemployment be prolonged.  <\/span>Many people hold to jobs they hate only because of this
\nbenefit.  <\/span>Many of these people have a family to protect.  <\/span>They are
\npainfully aware of just how insecure their position in life, and also those who depend on them, really is. It’s scary.<\/p>\n

Health care reform, even in the
\nmodest version that may soon pass, removes one of the biggest sources of
\nnagging fear and constant insecurity in many Americans’ personal lives.  <\/span>With its departure those who fatten
\nthemselves through others’ fear and insecurity will have lost a major
\npsychological resource in their work. 
\n<\/span>The less threatening our environment, the more we can look reasonably at
\nthe threats that really exist.  <\/span>The
\nmore we feel safe, and so can look carefully at reports of threats, the harder we
\nare to manipulate.  <\/span>The more
\nthreatening our environment the more we will be tempted by the “Daddy Party.”<\/p>\n

I suspect that a number of
\nprivately financed psychological studies by the intellectual whores who rent
\ntheir minds and creativity out to the highest bidders without regard to ethical
\nconsiderations have shown the centrality of fear and personal insecurity in
\nwinning support for right-wing causes. 
\n<\/span>Anything that lowers people’s level of fear and insecurity strikes at
\nthe center of their appeal, and so, of their power.  <\/span>And so health care reform is an enormous threat to the
\nright-wing agenda, as well as their ideological supporters who falsely imagine
\nthemselves defending free markets. (I suspect this is also why they want student loans for college to put graduates deeply in debt. But that’s another story.)<\/p>\n

Consequently right-wingers and
\nRepublican leaders lie, lie and lie again. 
\n<\/span>The less we are motivated by fear, the less Americans will find them
\nappealing so, to preserve their chances to wield power, these people have become the
\nreal enemies of the American people. That they lie to us so constantly is the
\nbest evidence this is true, for we will reject them totally if they ever tell the truth. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been perplexed at the vicious intensity of Republican and ‘conservative’ attacks on health care reform, even in its rather minimal form.  They have lied about “death panels,”  lied about their interest in “bipartisanship,” lied about its impact on abortion,  lied about fraudulent memos    (see video)  and lied about imaginary studies in medical journals.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-social-and-political-theory"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Reason for So Many Lies Over Health Care Reform - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/the-reason-for-so-many-lies-over-health-care-reform.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Reason for So Many Lies Over Health Care Reform - 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