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Political reflections
15 years ago
This is a political reflection made from the perspective of a somewhat liberal scientist who believes in equality and rational thinking. I don't do this often, but apologies all the same.
In 2009 the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a ban on same-sex marriage was in violation of the state Constitution's promise of equal treatment under the law. The same decision most courts have made whenever the issue has been brought to them, based on rational interpretation of the laws our country was founded on. Yesterday these judges were ousted by popular vote, thanks in no small part to the millions of dollars spent by the ironically-named National Organization for Marriage on a campaign to smear them as biased, liberal 'activist judges' as opposed to people, you know, just doing their actual job.
I consider NOM's name ironic because the Organization exists essentially for the sole purpose of funneling large amounts of money from conservative religious groups into political campaigns at all levels of government, with the intent to manipulate and frighten people into -banning- same sex marriage. Which seems rather more against marriage than for it, to my thinking. Their tactics, like every argument against marriage equality I've ever encountered in my time, are based entirely on hyperbole, emotional manipulation, fear, and outright lies that never hold up to any attempt at rational justification.
The retention or dismissal of the Iowa Supreme Court judges was a local issue of importance to me, so seeing fear and bigotry win out over equality and reason and once more shove our backward little country a bit further into a shameful past of outdated thinking was a major disappointment. The other elections weren't much better for one with my leanings. We've spent the last two years watching the Obama administration try as hard as possible to make positive changes and be blocked at every turn by the Republicans. Despite the way it gets spun, I believe quite a lot of good was achieved. But the majority of the voting masses have been successfully convinced that all our woes are the fault of the current administration, rather than being inherited from the one before it, and so we see the balance of power shift again. It's just the way things go back and forth in the system we have, but I can't help feeling a bit like Obama's presidency is effectively over and the best chance we had to make progressive changes to our country is ended. At best, the Republican-controlled House will block any further moves from being made to bring the US into the 21st century. At worst they'll manage to undo what's been done and in a couple years time we'll be back to a country where the medical insurance industry is free to decide who they feel like offering coverage to, and the banks and global corporations are free to gamble with our investments and economic stability as they see fit to line their own pockets.
And we'll somehow be certain that everything's been Obama's fault, too. Because apparently the majority of us are just that easy to convince.
In 2009 the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a ban on same-sex marriage was in violation of the state Constitution's promise of equal treatment under the law. The same decision most courts have made whenever the issue has been brought to them, based on rational interpretation of the laws our country was founded on. Yesterday these judges were ousted by popular vote, thanks in no small part to the millions of dollars spent by the ironically-named National Organization for Marriage on a campaign to smear them as biased, liberal 'activist judges' as opposed to people, you know, just doing their actual job.
I consider NOM's name ironic because the Organization exists essentially for the sole purpose of funneling large amounts of money from conservative religious groups into political campaigns at all levels of government, with the intent to manipulate and frighten people into -banning- same sex marriage. Which seems rather more against marriage than for it, to my thinking. Their tactics, like every argument against marriage equality I've ever encountered in my time, are based entirely on hyperbole, emotional manipulation, fear, and outright lies that never hold up to any attempt at rational justification.
The retention or dismissal of the Iowa Supreme Court judges was a local issue of importance to me, so seeing fear and bigotry win out over equality and reason and once more shove our backward little country a bit further into a shameful past of outdated thinking was a major disappointment. The other elections weren't much better for one with my leanings. We've spent the last two years watching the Obama administration try as hard as possible to make positive changes and be blocked at every turn by the Republicans. Despite the way it gets spun, I believe quite a lot of good was achieved. But the majority of the voting masses have been successfully convinced that all our woes are the fault of the current administration, rather than being inherited from the one before it, and so we see the balance of power shift again. It's just the way things go back and forth in the system we have, but I can't help feeling a bit like Obama's presidency is effectively over and the best chance we had to make progressive changes to our country is ended. At best, the Republican-controlled House will block any further moves from being made to bring the US into the 21st century. At worst they'll manage to undo what's been done and in a couple years time we'll be back to a country where the medical insurance industry is free to decide who they feel like offering coverage to, and the banks and global corporations are free to gamble with our investments and economic stability as they see fit to line their own pockets.
And we'll somehow be certain that everything's been Obama's fault, too. Because apparently the majority of us are just that easy to convince.
I thought the "Obamacare" had a public option meant to give more steady competition to insurance companies, and death panels if you believed the rumours. The bill that passed, which looks more like "Romneycare", "Reidcare" or "Pelosicare" actually has none of those.
And as for those, "I'm not paying for other peoples' operations!" Well, you've already been doing so for years and have apparently not noticed - What happens when someone without insurance goes to the hospital? They charge insurance companies for it all. This is not the government's fault, nor is it the fault of other insurance companies, but someone has to cover the costs, especially those that don't go directly to their own pocket. Why do you think it was so high?
The 'death panel' thing was a complete lie made up by Sarah Palin with no basis in reality whatsoever. She made it up as a buzz word, Fox News picked it up and ran with it and proceeded to manipulate half the country with it. Five minutes of fact checking will confirm this.
As far as things go with people being willing to use taxes and the government to help support those less fortunate than themselves? It's the same issue that comes up in a lot of different places, and a major part of why we have government in the first place. Many things we want people to be able to sell to one another, and for those goods and services the natural market forces do well enough. For things that we believe everyone should have fair and equal access to, as much as we can manage anyway, we need taxes and government regulation. Nobody likes paying taxes, but most of us can agree we're somewhat fond of having fire departments and police and roads and public sewage and water supply systems and public education, and most people with any sort of ethical base at all will agree those aren't things that should only be available to the super rich while everyone else scrapes by without any of them. Why, in one of the major superpower nations of the world today, should adequate medical care be any different?
Businesses's job? Make as much money as possible. Government's job? Make sure they aren't violating rights and are actually playing fair. Especially when it comes to the environment - it's easier to just say "Eff off" to the environment and use it as a dump.
Apparently, it's supposed to be "freedom". Apparently "Freedom" only applies to freedom from religion and government - I'd gladly pick Freedom from freeloaders jacking up MY rates because they don't have insurance for one reason or another. (ie, they're one of those people who are like "oh I'm okay now why do I need insurance?" and then get sent to the ER by default or only buy insurance when they get diabetes or something chronic.)
And yes... people seem to be very selective about what freedom means to them. Freedom is the ability for me to reach out and extend my arms in any direction as far as I can, provided it doesn't rob anyone else of THEIR ABILITY TO DO THE SAME. Freedom does NOT mean the freedom to force one's way of life on everybody else. And when it comes to same-sex marriage, I'm sorry but same sex couples wanting to marry is NOT damaging the freedom of heterosexual couples. People wanting to use the government to ban same-sex marriage IS damaging people's freedom. The notion that things are the other way around baffles and infuriates me.
I think they need to do some changing stuff - Namely say "Liberty and Justice for all - except gays, minorities, women, minors, middle class, lower class, non-celebrities, Muslims, Jewish people...."