I Guess I'm the Oddball

The New Standard of Patriotism
President Obama never hugged the flag enough

I get it. I understand.

I know why you like trump so much. Whatever he accomplishes or doesn't, it's just the way he says things. He uses that bigly edgy voice to bash Democrats, Illegal Aliens, the Liberal Elite, Government Workers, Godless Scientists, Abortionist Proponents, Muslims, Secular Humanists, Mexicans, it goes on and on.

I get that you are not racist because if only "those" people behaved like you, like real Americans, then they would be OK. That would be like Congresswoman Mia Love living in Saratoga Springs, Utah and acting just like all her neighbors regardless of her darker shade of skin. It's like Raul Labrador, Congressman of Idaho who may have come from a Puerto-Ricana family but went to BYU and goes to church and acts just like all the other Mormons and has conservative credentials for the non-Mormon Idahoans. You love the guy! You're not racist!

I get that you are offended by all the programs to help the poor that don't seem to help the Blacks and Hispanics and all be more American like you think they should be. The ones that don't become like Mia Love or Raul Labrador. I get that you are hurt and offended that things are tough for you when you work so hard and they don't have programs to help the Whites harmed by affirmative action. They don't even have a National Association for the Advancement of White People or White History Month! If you even dare joke about it, they call you a racist!

I had a relative tell me in the midst of political discussion that President Obama was the most divisive President ever on racial issues. However, even though we disagreed, "blood was thicker than water," and I was still family. To heck with that! I don't even understand that concept. What in the world? Why is it only spouses that we can divorce? How do we get out of our blood families for irreconcilable differences?

So I'm not perfect either. Many of you have written me off as one of the self-righteous elites. I was corrupted by law school (although I became a Democrat and what passes for a liberal in Utah when I was attending BYU). I'm a fed. I'm obviously part of the problem because I work for the government.

I can't help it. God made me this way. But as you don't accept that explanation for the Gays, I guess it won't work for my liberal, bleeding heart either.

I can't solve this. It makes me ill. I know I should just act in a loving and kind way and use gentle persuasion and all will be well.

Guess what? Nothing I can ever say. Nothing I can ever explain can convince you to change. And the same goes for you trying to convince or change me.

It's just not going to work out. Maybe a trial separation is in order.
______________
Addendum
Later, same day. The reports are in of Raul Labrador booed at a Town Hall meeting in Lewiston, Idaho, because when challenged on people dying for lack of health care, he said that is a mistaken assumption that anyone dies for lack of health care.

To be as charitable as possible, what Raul was trying to say was that nobody has to die because they can always be treated for free at an emergency room that takes such cases. That's been the general reality in US health care and the Republican answer as to why the poor don't need insurance.

The real reality is that emergency room care is not at all efficient and not the best place for chronic conditions or problems that should have been addressed much sooner with regular, reliable, and affordable health care. That is why poor people need health insurance. And while there is Medicaid for the poorest of the poor, it does not cover the working poor as our economic system is way out of wack that people who work full-time jobs or even more than one, cannot afford the basic necessities of life, housing, food, clothing, and yes, health care. People die all the time because they haven't received adequate health care. Many simply cannot afford it. No free market will fix that.

I hope that politicians like Labrador will help the public at large understand that this problem is much more than Obamacare = bad (because it has "Obama" in it!) We have a societal responsibility to care for the poorest among us. Religious organizations can't do it (Even Jesus explained that with the Priest and Levite walking by the man eventually helped by the pariah Samaritan). As much as we'd like to help a neighbor and can donate to worthy medical charities, we can't pick up those thousands and thousands of dollars in expense a dear neighbor might need. No, the only way to help is to use the power of the people united through government to take responsibility in spreading the risk and expense. It fits right in with the Founders' intent to "provide for the general welfare." It's in the Preamble. Nobody needs to go cherry-picking the Federalist Papers.

Single-Payer, thy name is Good Samaritan.