Cross-posted at The Next Hurrah with additional dKos material
I came across this Justin Webb BBC column by happenstance yesterday. It covers the Terri Schiavo story, but with a rather startling twist:
In all the three years that I have been reporting from this country, I do not believe there has been a more important moment in its history than this.
Or an issue that illuminates the complex and vital soul of America as the Terri Schiavo case does.
It transcends the presidential election, the Iraq war, the rows over gay marriage and television nudity and all the other stuff, consequential, inconsequential and downright weird, which counts as "news about America".
The reason the Schiavo case is so important, the reason it has Americans talking and arguing, and the reason it should, in my view, have the rest of us re-assessing our view of this nation, is that Americans were corralled but rebelled.
They were emotionally blackmailed but refused to budge, were told that their deepest held religious beliefs should push them in one direction, but thought for themselves and thought differently.
Oh, how I would like that to be true. But there do seem to be stirrings of a change in the wind, led of course by Bush's Social Security failure, and abetted by his Iraq policy continuing to underachieve. His promises of democracy for the Middle East have bought him a little more time, but sooner or later he's going to have to deliver. And just like on Medicare drug prescriptions, the flim-flam man can only fool the people for so long.
So says the Insider, David Broder:
The
fragile credibility of the Republican Congress faces a severe test in the next two weeks.
Shaken by the fiasco of its misguided intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, the GOP majority that controls the House and Senate now must deal with the less dramatic but more substantive challenge of trying to write a federal budget for next year. [emphasis mine]
And the back story? More from the BBC:
There is plenty of barminess and plenty of nastiness here if you look for it, but for me, the revelation of the Schiavo case was that there is plenty of good sense as well.
Plenty of honest disagreement among reasonable people, religious and non religious, Republican and Democrat.
And in the end a majority who value what we can call, without irony, the American way of life, and believe their politicians and the right-to-life campaigners over-reached themselves in this case.
Well, here's to hoping Webb is right. Want another example? Follow Trapper John's story on the rebellion of the pharmacists, and see how Illinois is dealing with the issue:
Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich (D) issued an emergency rule Friday that requires pharmacies to accept and fill prescriptions for contraceptives without delay, after a growing number of complaints nationwide that some pharmacists are refusing to dispense birth control pills and the "morning-after" pill.
He also established a toll-free number that residents can call to report refusals by pharmacies.
Reproductive-rights groups heralded Blagojevich's action as the first statewide regulation to address the issue.
Keep overreaching, Mr. DeLay and Mr. Bush and Dr. Frist. You just may be helping your country more than you know.