Republican anger

Republican anger

As one listens to the Republican anger over health care reform, one can imagine an anti-government protester cheerfully paying premiums on insurance policies that cancel you for making a claim, or happily sauntering out of an emergency room that denied them treatment because of a coverage problem. One can imagine a town hall sign-waver enthusiastically forking over most of their pay to bill collectors after suffering a catastrophic injury, thinking, “wow, the free market system is great.” 

No, Republicans are just as affected by health care inequities as anyone else, especially the working-class Republicans who show up armed and dangerous at America’s town hall meetings on the topic.

The accounts of denial of health care that were a part of last year’s campaign?  It wasn’t only Democrats who talked of losing loved ones as a result of the shenanigans of insurance companies.

Republicans, too, cried real tears at the injustices.

So what’s this all about then? The down-with-government shrieking at the town hall meetings, the gun-toting visits to Obama events, the insistence that Obama’s health care reform is inspired by the devil himself?

It’s about shock.

The shock of no longer being in power. Every President since John F. Kennedy has been either conservative or a southerner – every single one. These folks have had it their way for decades. And they don’t want to share.

There’s lots of talk about the opposition to Obama’s health care plans–calling it Communist, assailing it as an elimination of human freedom.

But honestly, where’s the problem? Insurance companies have ethics panels that determine if end-of-life procedures are worth the cost. Republicans don’t call those “death panels.”

Insurance companies limit which expensive medicines are available to their customers, but Republicans don’t call that “health care rationing.”
Only Obama’s plans get such inflammatory labels.

No, these folks are not angry that the next time they apply for health insurance, a government program will also appear in the list of options.

Are these people angry that their children can apply for government school grants as well as private grants? Are they appalled that if they apply for a business loan, they can apply to a mixture of government and private foundations? 

No, the problem they have is with Obama himself, with the color of his skin.
Everything in their cultural makeup tells them that they will not allow themselves to be ruled by a black man. That’s the reason for the shouting and the spitting and the gun-toting. These people are still back in 1963, blocking school entrances. They’ve never given up, and even though the Obama election handed them the ultimate insult to their belief that white people are better, don’t expect them to give up now.

One Kansas Republican Representative is at least honest enough to admit that Republicans are waiting for “The Great White Hope.”

Indeed, gun store owners will tell you that the reason why gun ownership has skyrocketed is the simple existence of a President Obama. And the day after someone in the mob finally takes his best shot, the others will cry in front of the cameras that the arsenals in their closets are in no way responsible for the dead president.

So what do we do about these vigilantes? Simple.

What would we do about them if they were of Middle Eastern descent? What would we do if their leaders were named Mohammad and Jamal, rather than Bud and Joe?
I’m sure America would be responding much more forcefully right now, if that were the case.

Cherry Jimenez
Bloomington resident