I came across a blog entry this morning, by a tea partier. What I thought was very interesting about it, was how much he came to the realization that liberals and tea partiers are actually similar...
I think with a little tweaking, We can help tea partiers understand that their natural enemy is not liberals, but indeed the Republican party.
Al Franken's Health Care Rally, 2010-Feb-21
Today I went to a health care rally in Minneapolis. I decided to go so I could understand what liberals seek from health care reform, and why. So, I went as an observer and not a protester. No signs, no tea bags... just plain old, middle-aged me.
I have to commend this man for being able to simply take aside some of his time to "learn about the enemy" so to speak. I think that in doing so, he might have learned more than he had bargained for.
But here are some of his conclusions:
Keep. The. Message. Simple. It's all the insurance companies' fault! I don’t think they understand that it’s state and federal tinkering that causes problems for insurance companies, which must pass inefficiency and cost on to the insured.
I would, of course, have to completely disagree with John here. The only kind of government tinkering there has been, has been in favor of these insurance companies, because it is their lobbyists who craft the legislation that affects them. And it is, surprise, surprise, mostly republicans and conservadems who are in their pockets.
$1.65B profit for just ONE executive at ONE insurance company for his 'good' work can not be labeled "inefficiency," in my humble opinion.
The insurance companies have made record profits this year, mostly by dropping the coverage on many many people, who have been left out in the street to rot.
Insurance companies have been making a 35% profit on each health dollar that comes in, which means that 35 cents out of each dollar are not actually going to health care, but to "inefficiencies" such as their excessive executive pay, and those gold lined plates they eat off of on their private jets.
Medicare only has about a 3% overhead for administrative purposes.
If we went to true universal health care, like most other civilized nations, we could get administrative costs under 1% because for the most part, there is no paperwork involved in medical care anymore. no entire floors of hospitals dedicated to billing, no huge structures of large staff for each doctor dedicated to fight insurance companies every day.
Then we could actually spend that money on innovations like this one:
George Whitesides: A lab the size of a postage stamp
Just as an aside here, I believe the best way to cut health care costs is through more medical education, and a lot more innovation. Not the huge GE Military contractor style stuff, but smart garage startup style innovation that our country is known for. If I were in charge, I'd encourage as many garage operations as possible... but I digress.
Rally attendees look exactly like the tea party people. Really. The audience was 95% white, well-off and 50ish. The also sound like tea party people, too. Not the things they said, of course, but the chanting and head shaking. Oh, there were a few more ponytails and the t-shirts had very different sayings. Believe it or not, here were actual ‘Wellstone!’ shirts!
This reminds me of the surprising observation, when I was younger, that Russians actually were like regular people, who got up in the morning, went to sleep at night, and basically just want to have a nice life.
I'm guessing our tea partier isn't a Wellstone fan, no matter how much he helped make this country a better place.
I left with mixed feelings. This group's passion equals the tea partiers’. I just cannot see either finding a common cause. One side will lose the health care debate. The smaller side. I wish it wouldn’t be that way.
I think we CAN find common cause, especially if we help the tea partiers understand what they stand for. They know what they stand aganst, at least, but their scapegoating of "big government" is misguided.
If we can demonstrate to them that their real enemy is "big power," whether it is a government that oversteps its bounds, or a large corporation overstepping its bounds and trying to control us for their own profit, then we might get somewhere with these people.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the original Boston tea party occurred because of the melding of big government power and big corporate power, which is the worst of both worlds. It was unfair tax breaks for the East India tea company that provoked the original tea partiers to take action.
Once the current tea partiers understand this simple truth, and stop trying to find their targets through racism and hate, but the simple concept of real freedom, and a fair playing field, then we may be able to count them as our allies.
PS: I'm sure John would appreciate your comments over at his blog.