Charlie Bicycle » vitriolic politics http://www.charliebicycle.com Suck My Left Wing Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:00:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Why healthcare at hyperspeed? http://www.charliebicycle.com/2009/12/why-healthcare-at-hyperspeed/ http://www.charliebicycle.com/2009/12/why-healthcare-at-hyperspeed/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:08:34 +0000 Charlie http://www.charliebicycle.com/?p=151 If you don’t have concerns over this healthcare bill, check your pulse. While discussing it the other day, I finally conceded that I just didn’t know what was happening. This bill is so complex, and so involved, if you know exactly what’s in it, you’re lying. I’ve been asked by several people recently why this has to rushed through? Why does it have to happen right now? As many misgivings as I have about how this bill was formulated and picked to death, I’d still have to put my support behind it. It’s a bit of a leap of faith. But the alternatives have been laid out in front of liberals in very dramatic fashion. Historically speaking, healthcare has been dead in the water before it’s even grown legs. It’s indicative of how powerful healthcare insurers have become. This has been going on for a century. Democrats attempt to provide real change to a broken system, and the powers that be use their money and influence to make sure that it never happens. This is why we now face a watered down bill that offers some important regulations, but little true reform. Conservatives have legitimate points of disagreement. Unfortunately, those points have been overshadowed by the dog whistle that was blown by congressmen like Jim DeMint. What progressives face is an opposition that wants nothing more than to see this bill killed. Some on the right would actually be very open to working for a true healthcare reform bill, but the people on the right that see this as a black and white issue have destroyed any opportunity for moderates to be heard and forced Democrats to take action on a bill that’s far from perfect. The truth be told, if the far right and the insurance lobby are allowed to continue to misrepresent, vilify and lie about this bill, they’ll succeed AGAIN. And then the American public is left exactly where we left off with no opportunity in sight to reintroduce change to healthcare. I’ve watched commercial after commercial after commercial recently scaring viewers of a looming government takeover of their healthcare. This after the public option and anything vaguely resembling one, have been stripped. Most people in this country feel the same way about this bill. It would be great to debate it’s merits for an extended period of time, but I’m beginning to think that’s not even important to many conservatives. It has been stalled over an over again. And yet, many conservative lawmakers still have nothing more to add to the bill than “kill it”. If nothing else, this bill has put a chink in the armor of the healthcare monopoly and given an opportunity in the future to amend and improve what’s about to be passed. Unfortunately if this is they way business must be done, then so be it. It will anger many, but I ask everyone to look at your role in this process and recognize that both sides have acted like spoiled children.

]]> http://www.charliebicycle.com/2009/12/why-healthcare-at-hyperspeed/feed/ 0 Calming Political Waters http://www.charliebicycle.com/2009/09/calming-political-waters/ http://www.charliebicycle.com/2009/09/calming-political-waters/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:59:20 +0000 Charlie http://www.charliebicycle.com/?p=58 It seems that the more I get in touch with my “everyday-on-the-street-energy”, the more I see the extreme points of view in politics fading from legitimacy. I was so angry with people yelling down alternative points of view in the healthcare debate that I felt stubborn and unyielding. And then, after much thought, I just kind of felt sorry for the right. They’ve been hijacked by the people who live at their edges.

If we can get beyond the talking heads and the media born controversies, imagine what we can actually get done. So many in our media today are feeding the fires of malcontent to feed their advertising bottom lines. At what point do people start to shut down and realize that their willing acceptance of these fallacies do nothing but drum up a nasty little feeling in our guts without giving us the hope to truly reach solutions that we can all be happy with (or somewhat happy). If everyone’s happy, the legislation didn’t do anything.

The more I watch Obama, the more I realize what his strategy is. Let them scream, let them pout, let them lie and distort. In the morning, everyone wakes up, grabs their head and realizes that they acted like real asses the night before.

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