Amazing to me anyway.
An amazing thing happened to me today.
I won an argument against my father.
If that doesn’t melt your brain, then this might: I won an argument against my lifelong Republican voting father and convinced him to call his Republican Congressman in support of HCR. If that doesn’t absolutely blow your mind then understand that my father and Lynn Westmoreland (our Congressman) are lifelong friends and privileged white people.
I’m no liberal. I don’t know how you guys do it. If I cared so deeply about so many issues, I’d lose my hair and my sanity. I like my hair and sanity. If you were to give me a liberal “checklist”, I probably wouldn’t have very many boxes checked. I probably fall somewhere in the center, whereas most of my family and friends are registered Republicans, Limbaugh fans, and Beck Heads.
The two issues that I’m adamant and damn near psycho about are Healthcare Reform and Gay Rights. To me these two issues go way past the politics of the times, and into our morality. We take pride in the fact that our civil rights movement was so grassroots and so passionately fought that we forgot that we’re still blatantly discriminating against gay people. “Sorry gays, we believe in life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness but just not for you. Because your gay. Don’t even think about getting married, you fairies.”
Back to my father.
I really wanted to get his take on Healthcare Reform. He’s an extremely smart and decent man, who also happens to NOT watch network news. So he’s unsullied and thinks for himself, as opposed to my mother who has the TV tuned into Fox News 16 hours per day. Don’t get me wrong: He is a true conservative and Republican, but he hates politics, politicians, pundits, and commentators. According to him, it’s useless to worry about politics because politicians are too far removed from reality.
It’s amazing how easy it is to have an intelligent conversation when you exclude everything you hear on the news. You take out the pundits, the vitriol, the hyperbole, and the beaten to death “talking points”, and then you’re just talking. We talked for literally two hours about Healthcare. I think it’s the longest conversation I’ve ever had with him. I wanted the conversation to be fruitful and compelling. Although, I had to keep it simple because he’s much deadlier with the “logic” weapon than I am.
Me: “So what you’re saying is that all of these people who have lost their jobs, many through no fault of their own, shouldn’t have access to health insurance?”
Dad: “They can buy COBRA.”
Me: “Funny thing about COBRA, Dad. You have to actually have a job in order to afford it. “
Dad: “Why should I subsidize someone else’s health, when I have no control over their health habits? Besides, there are tribes of Indians in Mexico and South America that have never seen a doctor, and they have longer life expectancies than us.”
(He almost killed my entire argument here. I thought the conversation was over. So I played one last desperate card.)
Me: “What would Jesus do?”
Yep, I went there.
The conversation began, and I’ll save the details. I had to go Theological Bruce Lee on his ass, but I won. I asked him to call Lynn Westmoreland, and he did.
Now, everybody knows that Republicans are going to vote “NO” on whatever version of the healthcare bill comes out of congress. They don’t care about voting by their conscience, only about defeating Democrats when and where they can. I’d like to think that my father calling him will at least weigh on Westmoreland’s conscience when he votes against the bill. And maybe it will even sink in that the GOP doesn’t reflect the values of many conservative people.
One can dream.