Reverse Nazism And The Healthcare War

(The Nation)  The spinmeisters of the right have done quite a job with what used to be straightforward English etymology. Thanks to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, "integration" was inverted to mean "takeover" and "colorblindness" is code for abandoning the advances of the civil rights movement, which itself is synonymous with an "industry" of exclusion. It's no surprise, then, that whenever a piece of progressive legislation comes to the table, the same manipulations come into play from right-wing pundits who shamelessly profess their desire to see the Obama presidency fail. Thus it is that America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 is being turned upside down as the neat equivalent of Germany's Bankrupting Forced Death Act of 1939.

If you are watching the healthcare town-hall ruckuses with only common dictionary meanings in your head, you will be struck by the protesters' general incoherence and outright nonsense, bearing no rational connection to the actual draft of the healthcare bill. As Representative Barney Frank demanded of one constituent who likened the bill to Nazism, "On what planet do you spend most of your time?"

But if you listen as though deciphering pig Latin and realize that this demographic is speaking from a well-managed, near-hypnotic looking-glass world where every word from the mouth of a Democrat (or a liberal, or a Latina, or a Canadian) is a lie, a betrayal... then it all makes sense. Their world truly has been turned inside out, by the election, by the economy, by the precarious conditions that threaten us all. But for those whose sense of identity has been premised on a raced, masculinist, conservative Christian hierarchy of American power, the world must seem even more emotionally terrifying than any actual facts would indicate.

So reversal is key to understanding what's going on. It's not just "lies"; it's the expressive angst of people whose felt power relations have been turned upside down. It's not factually accurate, but this is how they feel. Obama is Hitler! Health insurance for all means euthanasia for me! "My" country is suddenly "their" country.

Of course, there are special interests who profit from the magnification of these fears. Betsy McCaughey, a former shill for a medical instruments company, is the original source of the "death panel" rumors. From the beginning, big pharmaceutical and insurance companies, with an almost inconceivable amount of money to spend, have been muddying the waters. Think about the recent revelation that Merck secretly financed the publication of a fake medical journal that was designed to look objective but merely touted the supposed benefits of its products--and included "paid advertisements" for the company's drugs. What is truth in such a corrupt hall of mirrors?

But what does the bill actually say? A quick summary of the most contentious point: the act would provide reimbursement if you seek medical counseling about end-of-life decisions. This option allows you to plan what you would like to have done in the case of catastrophic or terminal illness--nothing forced about it. All extraordinary measures will continue to be used to resuscitate someone whose wishes are unknown: feeding tube, intubation, cracking ribs to defibrillate, whatever it takes. By contrast, it is private, profit-motivated insurance companies--which deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions and restrict one's choice of doctor, medical treatments and length of hospital stays (based on actuarial tables)--that bear the greatest resemblance to a mulching euthanasia machine. When nearly 50 million US citizens live without any health coverage, how on earth could a purely voluntary public option be considered throwing people under the bus?

Let me acknowledge the genuine ideological and moral misgivings behind some of the protests. Many libertarians hate anything the government does, no matter how monopolistic or quasi-governmental the power of pharmaceutical and insurance companies. But they are a minority and not generally the bloc using the language of reversal and code. Similarly, there are those with genuine moral or religious qualms: "prolifers" who, if they believe that life begins at the molecular moment of conception, could also think that any end-of-life consultation is against God's will. This would be the same line of reasoning followed by those who wanted Congress to keep Terri Schiavo on life support no matter what. While I can certainly respect that as a belief, it is clearly even more of a minority position than libertarianism. In addition, it requires strong-armed government intrusion over the wishes of patients or family; and it is totally unsustainable as national public policy.

All of this is complicated but surely, with a bit of listening, comprehensible to the average citizen. So how do we connect the reality of our dismal life-expectancy and health-cost statistics to the hysterical sobbing of people who come to town-hall meetings furious that "the insurance companies won't be able to make a profit"? Much of the epic woe is not about healthcare or public options. It's about roiling resentments that need to be dressed up as something else, the coded mummery of Halloween monsters hybridized into new chimeras of hate. It's about fear that precious resources are being transferred to "alien" others. Fear that the gains of others are ill-gotten, leaving the lonely patriot survivalist as victim, "thrown away," trash. In these fiery monologues, even our president is figured as conspiratorially alien-birthed, from a galaxy far, far away, who's just pretending to be one of "us."

This morning I saw a picture of President Obama dressed as Hitler, complete with little mustache, tacked high on a tree trunk. At first it seemed jaw-droppingly ridiculous, sociopathically paranoid. But if the rule of reversal is what's encoded in that image, all people of good will must worry that what's really at stake for some of our gun-toting, demagogic fellow citizens is nothing less than America's very own Weimar moment.


Patricia J. Williams, a professor of law at Columbia University, writes The Nation column "Diary of a Mad Law Professor."

By Patricia J. Williams:
Reprinted with permission from The Nation

[thebob-bob]

Seeking the overthrow of the government by force and violence?? Why bother with elections? Why do Republicans hate democracy? Are the Governors of states prepared to intervene?

[TurnAmericaAround]

OK...anyone who doesn't want government-sponsored universal healthcare...please don't file your Medi-Care Claims. Be a patriot and pay out of your pocket.

[proudscot]

and if you cant afford it? nobody gives a ****! But then, this is America

[TurnAmericaAround]

I guess the country only seems divided when you're on the side that's out of power. That apparently drives you to tell the most inane stories. Get mental health assistance....NOW.....if you have insurance.

[jwmj50]

Why would anybody want the goverment to takeover another part of our lives.When was the last time anything cost what they said it would?
At this rate why not send in your pay check and big brother can send some small part of it back.Yes we need some health care reform, but if you took all the profit from all the insurance company its not enough to fix the problem.So lets not stop with the insurance company let take all the profit from all doctors,nurses,hospitals,drug company.Also lets not forget the Lawyers. It's not the insurance company that cause the high cost for medical care. It's the medical delivery system and that we all want to live as long as possible.Most of us now have great medical care with private companies.I wonder how many of you have even read any of the bills.How can anybody know what is in any of the bills,All I have heard is if you like your insurance then you can keep it. That not what is in the bills.$500,000,000.00 in cuts to our senior and you do not think they will be losing something. If you believe this I have some property you mite want to look at.

[Artimus101]

Its amazing how quick the left is to jump on the right over the use of nazi imagery they seep to for get it was the left that brought the use back to vogue proof is here.

http://thereluctantconspiracytheorist.blogspot.com/2009/08/bush-as-hitler-remember-when.html

Im sure the left felt justified at the time as does the right now. Its funny that the left has such a hard time recognizing its own tactics. I imagine that the rage comes from the embarrassment that the right has used their own tactics against them and in a much more effective manner.

[JohnBryansFontaine01]

To all those who associate Adolf Hitler with the left, the right-wing Pat Buchanan's recent apologia for Hitler once again proves which side of the political spectrum he and the nazis were on.

[jasarack1]

Yes, let's deal with this socialist menace. Here are some immediate steps:

1. Get rid of Medicare. Private ensurers have demonstrated their keen interest in insuring people who need medical care.

2. Get rid of Social Security. The stock market is always a better bet.

3. Get rid of the public schools and colleges and universities. Home schooling would do the job better.

4. Get rid of the police departments. Vigilante justice worked in the 1800s!

5. Get rid of the fire departments. You can buy really long hoses at Home Depot.

6. Get rid of the military. Mercenaries worked in the French foreign legion. Or perhaps a no-bid contract to Blackwater or Halliburton would work.

7. Get rid of the post office. Surely UPS and FedEx won't raise their rates.

8. Get rid of the public libraries. Certainly you can find everything you want to know on internet sites or Facebook.

This is just a start!

[rational_1]

I'm all for #2 - I'd love it if they scrapped social security (today please). At my age I'm pretty sure I won't ever again see much of the money that I'm forced to pay into this Ponzi scheme (those last in always lose big). Should be insolvent by the time I retire. I'd much rather risk it in the stock market.

Regarding your points in general, I doubt anyone would argue that over the years the U.S. has increasingly adopted a more socialist stance. However that doesn't provide any evidence that yet more socialism will improve things further. In fact I could make the counter-argument that the crippling debt our children and grandchildren will certainly inherit is a bad thing arising from our indulging ourselves in a few too many entitlement programs. We call the WWII generation the "Greatest Generation". Our kids and grandkids will probably be calling us the greatest freeloader generation while they struggle to pay off all the debts we're accumulating for them.

[BigDaddy908]

Ms Williams should get out of New York more often and experience what is going on in this country. Only someone from the far left would see a Nazi conspiracy behind the public's outrage over the current administration's policies.

[Stop_the_crying]

Do the public option. As a small business I support the plan. Lets bring the cost of healthcare down. Git er done, or get out.

[janicesellem]

to rafterman1: During the Bush administration, my phone was tapped because I was a military mom that was very concerned about what was happening in Iraq. So, I don't know where you're living but the Bush administration was not friendly to free speech. And furthermore, at a July 4 parade, a group was passing out copies of the Bill of Rights and a right-wing Christian group started screaming "God, not the Bill of Rights!" I asked them if they thought they were opposites and they just kept screaming at me ... "God, not the Bill of Rights!" You call that freedom? This is getting so ugly and hateful.

[hologram5]

The freedom of speech thing has NOT gotten any better under the currnet administration either. Obama's thugs are suppressing free speech just as much as the Bushevichs, don't fool yourself. The FED GOV do not want people stating what they want, it doesn't matte what administration is in power, it is Gov in general.