IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST?
To what extent is it in the public interest to
defund the federal government? Who
benefits? Who loses?
As a sociologist, or a student of social
relationships between and within institutions and organizations, I’m trained to
ask different kinds of questions and to look for intervening variables. For example, given the outspoken opposition
to three national public interest-type laws - Social Security (1935), Medicare
(1965), Affordable Care Act (2013) –
what is different this time? The
question is not why did 535 members of Congress fail at keeping the people’s
government running. For to focus on a government “shutdown” is to become too
distracted to see history being made in another area, a political party
becoming less relevant, and the outstanding success of the nation’s first
president of color.
www.healthcare.gov
Young adults under 26 may be eligible to be covered under parent’s health plan
Americans with pre-existing conditions may be eligible for health coverage under the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan
Guarantees right to ask that your plan reconsider denial of payment
Go beyond the rhetoric (Obamacare) and metaphors (socialized medicine) and you begin to
grasp the muddled thinking of a small group of Republicans who believe they
achieved their goal by making government smaller. Some even appeared on the
nightly news saying shutting down the government has been a three year goal
because the public would then get to see it doesn’t really need as much
government as it thinks. Such convenient
ideology shouldn’t be surprising from a party which traditionally prefers
marketplace solutions (competition) for health care issues. The very political party that also calls for fiscal
responsibility, now sees itself as a champion of the people, even, as it
downsizes the economy via furloughs or shirks responsibility to govern.
Yet, the 80 Republicans, a vocal minority, who announced on TV they were “gitty” about “shutting down the government,” are not representative of racial progress in America. In fact, this gang of 80 became the intervening
variable with calls for “massive resistance” to a law they were the first to label - “Obamacare.” So the answer to the question about what has change since implementation of Social Security and Medicare is rather obvious: RACE! The battle was no longer just between Republicans and Democrats but between a Black president and a growing number of Republicans who couldn't see beyond his race.
Using a campaign of confusion and misinformation, this gang of 80 pushed a different kind of ideological
agenda, one reminiscent of the civil rights struggle in the 1960s. Instead of
compromise and conversations, the new strategy became to kill the Affordable Care Act by any means necessary! According to media, reports, the gang of 80 comes from Gerrymandered districts, deliberately consisting of mostly
white, conservative, anti-government constituents who already believe shutting down the government is in the public interest.
But there's a problem because there's a growing perception that Republicans are not sharing the pain of the
American people. Even if the GOP did actually believe that furloughed
federal workers would not suffer and that downsizing government is good for the economy, the gang of 80’s insistence on using the federal budget to defeat
health care reform was not the a smart strategy; it has, in fact, paved the way for what is likely to be a massive implosion within the
Republican Party.
In sociology we call the gang of 80’s style of thinking:
cognitive dissonance. The phrase
means something more than contradictions; it represents the holding on to two
opposing ideas at the same time. Such a paradox is apparent when the very group that depicts itself as “patriots” or protectors
of freedoms, also attempt to limit freedoms by dismantling the government that
produced the freedoms or tampering with the freedoms of those who might benefit from a democratically passed law, such as the Affordable
Care Act (ACA).
Hence, by linking non-budget (health reform) and budget issues (government funding), the GOP ended up holding Americans and the economy hostage.
Even if the gang of 80 had decided
to tie representation for the District
of Columbia in Congress to not funding the federal government, the results would still be
the same: distracting, insane, unpopular, and un-American.
So what exactly does the shutdown of government
accomplish for the Republican Party? Not much.
The majority of Americans (72%) did not support holding the ACA hostage strategy.
Carrying out such a scheme for a narrow-minded, racially-identifiable group of
constituents demonstrates the extent to which the GOP does not and will not represent
a diversity-changed America. But the
most extraordinary result of the Republican Party’s success
in "slimming down" the federal government is the extent to which the President of
the United States won.
On October 1, 2013, President Barack Obama accomplished
what no other president was able to do over a 100 year period – reform the nation’s health care system. The implementation of the law passed by Congress in 2010 marked a stunning victory for a president and the American people. That Mr. Obama was able to do so with the full
support of those who had historically opposed such change - physicians,
insurance companies, and businesses – is nothing short of revolutionary. That an
African-American president will go down in history for the Affordable Care Act, in
spite of ongoing incipient racist efforts to defeat it, reflects a significant turning point and singular
achievement in the 21st century.
And finally, like the great social and economic changes, opposed by many
Republicans in the past - Social Security,
Medicare, and Medicaid - OBAMACARE is already showing signs it is going to work in the long-run.
No wonder
some people nearly went crazy trying to defeat Obama's potentially historical accomplishment. In the end, it can be argued that the ideological or "hard" wing of the GOP lost the battle both on the economic and social fronts. Check and checkmate! Putting political egos ahead of the needs of most Americans, especially in the age of social media, is not play well around the country. That shot heard around the country on September 30 turns out to be an injury to the foot/base of the Republican Party. As William Shakespeare would say... it merely amounted to a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing, as the GOP hobbles along more slowly in a nation its makeup doesn't reflect. The question now is how long before the GOP explodes within.
Look for the orchestrated government shutdown to be like a 72-hour hold on a mental ward, Given the impotent results, there's no reason to keep it going past three days or Thursday, October 3, 2013. After all, governing by default or organized chaos is not usually a winning strategy. The American people deserve better. Did someone forget to tell the gang of 80 that we are the government!
DrGlo says: BLOOM Where You Are Planted... w/ daily 
CNN International March 25, 2019 
Chris Murphy Chris Murphy Retweeted Daniela Altimari
