The Tears of the Clowns

It's been nearly 2 days now since Chief Justice Roberts, in a moment of epilepsy drug fueled psychosis, betrayed the will of TEA Party Jesus and handed the country over to the Kenyon Devil body and soul.  That's BODY AND SOUL I tell you!  In that time, the wretched Michelle Malkin (the original anchor baby) has continued her whine about the KD's lack of spending precious precious middle class dollars to help her specifically with a little fire problem she's having.  Speaker 'Darrelle'  Boehner and the contemptible other brother Darrelle Issa got a 'Dear John' letter from the Justice department saying 'Kindly fuck yourself. Signed: All my Love,  the Ghost of Ronald Reagan'.  The EPA has been Constitutionally cleared to actually do their job.  Students will not have to serve longer in their financial indenture for learning that Maiasaurs were not the babysitters of Babylonian young un's. Candidate Mittens has vowed to repeal National Romneycare, though he has not, nor ever will, any power or authority to do so.

It has not been a nice couple of days to be a wingnut clown, and everyone is around to see those tears.

Still, celebration is premature and there's a buttload of work left to do.  This is what I'm getting at.  In business, regardless of a plan or proposition, there will always be someone of some authority who says 'let's take a step back and look at other options'.  And there will always be that one who says that after the plan is inevitable or has been implemented.  Stepping back on Health Care reform is not an option.  The ACA is the law, and it will not be repealed.  I do not credit Obama for this, though I could, but the American people have learned more actual facts about the ACA in two days then they have since it's passage.  Outrage is a great megaphone.  It may not be what 'we' want, but it is a step in the right direction.  There is no reason to step backwards.

Yet strangely, there are those not of the wingnut variety who wish we had.  Every single historical indicator points to how that would be a terrible thing for the progress towards 'Medicare for all', commonly called 'single-payer'.  Before Justice Roberts' brain-dysfunction upholding the ACA, almost every single lefty in the land was prepared to either crow about the failure of corporate will or lament the idea that the goal was that much farther away.  Hmm.  We don't have to do either.  There doesn't need to be any stepping back.  There won't be any stepping back.  Yet still some wail that there should be.

Read that first paragraph again.  The right has been rope-a-doped to the point that Malkin is screaming for socialist help, and Romney is clearly arguing against himself.  Even CJ Roberts is joking about hiding in a bunker against the wailing of wingnuttia.  This is the time to strike.  In a metaphor my brother will appreciate, the American metal is the right kind of hot.  Use the hammer now, before it becomes brittle.  This is the time to take back this country from the rightward shift.  That's all there is to it.

I fully accept that others may not accept my plea here.  Okay.  John Cole said it better than I could have anyway.

Just keep Pushing My Love Over The Border Line

Comments

[Moorcat]

I like the blacksmithing reference.

I actually agree with you on this one. You know that I REALLY don't like the ACA (though I have maintained since it's passage that it was constitutional). You have continually told me that it is a starting point and I have tried to keep that in mind. I have not argued for stepping back but I damn sure want to see the abortion that is the ACA fixed so it actually DOES effect the cost of health care.

As an aside, you should check out Jim Wright's take on the ACA at Stonekettle Station. He said basically the same thing you did.

[Wulfgar]

Jim is spot on target, and of course, so am I. ;-)

It's easy to get caught up in the losing game of comparing the ACA to what other first world countries have. That's a comparison I know you've spent a great deal of time on, and in that light the ACA totally sucks rocks. But both Obama and Baucus (*spit*) said we needed an American solution. That's what the ACA is, a 'solution' that when compared to what America had before is hands down superior. Where they're wrong, Baucus far more than Obama, is that this isn't a 'solution', but rather one of many steps in the process of a REAL solution. And this step has been one helluva long time coming.

The exchanges are where the whole thing will get fun. Vermont is already well on it's way in effort to implement a single payer exchange. California is proposing a similar path, though honestly I doubt that state could implement a leash law without fucking it up somehow. In the little that Schweitzer has said concerning the possibilities for Montana's state exchange, he's back on his hobby-horse about negotiating price for pharmaceuticals, and good on him for it. None of these proposals were even possible without the SCOTUS ruling of the legality of the ACA. And all of them would (will) significantly affect the real cost of health care.

So, put your tray tables and seat backs in the upright position. Fasten your seat belts. This flight is moving forward as long as we keep the political will to make it do such.

[Turner]

What I fear most is that, by siding with "liberals" in this decision, Roberts has immunized himself against attacks from the left when he sides later with the reactionaries on the court to, say, reverse Roe v. Wade.

Despite this decision, Roberts is a hard-core right-winger. I think from now on we'll see this more clearly than ever.

[Wulfgar]

Turner, I agree and disagree. Agreed, Roberts is no less a wingnut than he was a week ago. And I seriously doubt that anyone has been duped into thinking otherwise, save the wingnuts themselves. That's one of the most delicious parts of this whole thing.