It's That Time of Year
The GOP likes to portray itself as the party of "Family Values." What does that really mean?
I know it means that the Party that would like to dictate the so-called "appropriate" moral values that we the people should -- no, must -- follow on matters such as pre-marital sex, contraception, abortion. They'd like to say who you can marry and what kind of family you should have.
Yet this is the same gang that says it is "pro-life," but also has limits on protecting life once it comes into being. As I always say the "pro-lifers" will fight for you until you're born, from there on in, you're on your own. And of course "pro-life" is really another way of saying anti-abortion, since pro-life doesn't extend to war, gun control or death penalty. For another interesting take on the "values" party, see the Comments to What a Joke.
The recent controversy over the SCHIP veto is but the latest example of that. As Paul Krugman describes, in Sliming Graeme Frost:
Two weeks ago, the Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio address was delivered by a 12-year-old, Graeme Frost. Graeme, who along with his sister received severe brain injuries in a 2004 car crash and continues to need physical therapy, is a beneficiary of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Mr. Bush has vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have expanded that program to cover millions of children who would otherwise have been uninsured.So, so true. You would think that the Family Values Party would promote children. Little things, like life, education and health. Nothing is further from the truth. The people who have bastardized the word "Christian" are anything but. When I was younger, the term was used to refer to someone who exhibited love, mercy and kindness. Apparently the Born Again Christians have also found a new "Born Again" version of Christ -- one that is cruel, heartless and without compassion for anyone. Save me from the saviors!
What followed should serve as a teaching moment.* * * *Graeme Frost, then, is exactly the kind of child the program is intended to help. But that didn’t stop the right from mounting an all-out smear campaign against him and his family.* * * *All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, and in particular its routine reliance on character assassination in place of honest debate. If service members oppose a Republican war, they’re “phony soldiers”; if Michael J. Fox opposes Bush policy on stem cells, he’s faking his Parkinson’s symptoms; if an injured 12-year-old child makes the case for a government health insurance program, he’s a fraud.
Meanwhile, leading conservative politicians, far from trying to distance themselves from these smears, rush to embrace them. And some people in the news media are still willing to be used as patsies.
Politics aside, the Graeme Frost case demonstrates the true depth of the health care crisis: every other advanced country has universal health insurance, but in America, insurance is now out of reach for many hard-working families, even if they have incomes some might call middle-class.
And there’s one more point that should not be forgotten: ultimately, this isn’t about the Frost parents. It’s about Graeme Frost and his sister.
I don’t know about you, but I think American children who need medical care should get it, period. Even if you think adults have made bad choices — a baseless smear in the case of the Frosts, but put that on one side — only a truly vicious political movement would respond by punishing their injured children.
The reality is that the Righteous Right wants you to be down and out before they'd even consider you worthy of any help. Colin McEnroe of the Current, explains what is at issue at his blog, To Wit, The War on Middle Class Solvency:
It would be a mistake to get caught up in the No Child Left Unsmeared aspect, because it conceals a much more important, substantive issue. If you boil away all the vitriol, what you're left with is a conservative argument that goes like this:That's correct. You need to be poverty-stricken before you should ask for charity. However, once you are, you should realize that the Righteous Right has no time for you then either. If you are down & out, you need to get yourself together and find a job. Look for no handouts here. And, if you are homeless -- we don't want to see you on our streets. After all, we have more important things to deal with -- like Family Values.
These people -- even with their combined income of a VERY modest $45,000 -- have no business turning to the government for help with their medical bills because they haven't been bankrupted yet. They're income is low, but they've managed to hang onto some assets that place them a little closer to the middle class. It's disgusting that they get help from the government if they have anything.
The opposing argument is that middle class existence of this sort is incredibly fragile. We ought to have a system in which families get help before they have lost everything they worked for.
Regarding the sliming of the Frost family, I shudder at the malicious venom visited on these people for having the temerity to express their views -- and appreciation -- for the help they received in a time of need.
It was just about 2 years ago that I last mentioned Michelle Malkin. See The Ghouls are Out. At that time, she was attacking the Quakers, who were observing the 2,000th death in Iraq by holding a candlelight vigil. In her view, the American Friends Service Committee was "partying over the deaths" of the troops.
Malkin, like Ann Coulter and the rest, are vicious people that will only go away when they are treated like they should be -- with scorn and then ignored altogether.
I also have to admit it. I am an elitist. I can't abide stupid* people. And by stupid, I'm not referring to intelligence quotient. I am talking about vile, insipid people like Malkin who thrive on bullying and belittling others. As far as I am concerned, people like that should just be ignored. Attention gives them power. As I said in my last post on her:
Malkin not only should be ignored, she should be shunned.
* I should also mention that my daughter believed for many years that the word "stupid" was a curse word, because I taught her that she was never allowed to use it to describe someone. I think the word is that offensive. That just my way of saying how offensive I feel Malkin truly is.
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