It seems all you hear about lately concerning politics is associated with President Obama and how millions of Americans (mainly conservatives, go figure) are throwing fits of rage against the president’s every move, especially with the issue of healthcare.
Ever since Obama announced his plan a few months ago to reform health care (which, during election season, seemed to be a very popular idea among both his supporters and even some non-supporters), there have been occasional riots all over the country.
It always amuses me to hear people cry "Socialism!," "Tyranny!," or better yet, "Evil!" when they are directed at Obama. Here we have a president, who is working tirelessly (unlike our previous one, who hardly took his position seriously) to at least try to help fix an ailing health care system. If there is anything certain, it is that our healthcare system needs to be fixed. Something really needs to be done or the system will continue rotting, and with it, the economy, because health care and the economy go hand-in-hand. If people are spending thousands of dollars a year on their health care plan, it will evidently hold them back from spending. As most people hopefully know, less spending equals less profit for businesses and the less profit a business makes, the more people there are who will become unemployed. It’s simple economics.
Of course, opposition by the people to any political idea is what makes this country so beautiful. We need those to remind us of the opposite ends of the spectrum, so that every argument has at least two sides. However, I have yet to see an intellectual argument against the health care plan. All I’ve been hearing is "This just won’t work," or "We don’t want to be like Canada or Great Britain," and better yet "Health care is fine the way it is. Keep government out," as well as all the immature ranting among civilians in protests and town hall meetings, opposition I deem depressing and insignificant.
Even if our first attempt to fix health care doesn’t work or fix all the issues it was meant to solve, it would not necessarily be considered a government failure, but rather an opportunity to improve the bill and correct on itself. Even if it takes us a couple of tries, we will get it right eventually. It’s like I said before, we can no longer leave health care alone to rot, reform must take place.
As far as the socialized health care systems of Canada and Great Britain are concerned, Obama made it clear that he wants a unique "American" system, one to fit in with American ideals and at the same time, social convenience.
What scares me the most about the opposition to health care reform is having our own conservative politicians preach lies to the people, giving them false ideas of what having a reformed health care system means for them. They try to explain different parts of the bill, yet as they do so they impose implications and assumptions to citizens to make them misinformed. This is why we have people screaming bloody murder, believing this bill is just another step to taking their rights away, while in reality it will grant them the right to stay and remain healthy. Or perhaps leaving health care as it is and letting citizens continue to suffer is more ideal?
I say give this president a chance. It takes time to clean up a mess, but eventually the mess will be cleaned and Obama has shown he is optimistic and energetic enough to clean as much as he can within his power. Change never comes easy.
