OurFuture.org Blogs: Terrance Heath

Whether the Stupak amendment ends up in the final health care reform bill or is replaced by the more moderate compromises in the Senate bill, both the passage of the amendment and the almost immediate response that women and pro-choice progressives should "take one for the team" hold a lesson and a warning for both progressives and Democrats.

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Michelle Bachman's "Superbowl of Freedom" (or "Bachmannalia") was not the first protest with such attention grabbing signage, but merely the latest. September saw Glenn Beck's 9/12 marchers descend upon Washington. Again, they brought their message-bearing signs and posters.

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I've used this quote (attributed to Maya Angelou) before: "When people show you who they really are, believe them." I guess in periods of tremendous change people really reveal who they really are. I'll return to this in more detail post, but the news and debate leading up to and following the passage of health care reform in the House is at least worth a quick roundup, if only because it all comes together in a clear context.

First, let me reiterate that I'll be the first to say that the anger directed at the president, Congress, and the policy changes they're trying to make are not entirely rooted in racism, but have deep roots in the economic consequences of the last few decades for the people in some of the reddest states. That said, it's becoming impossible to ignore that a significant amount is also rooted in the racism and ethnocentrism conservatives have used to divert their constituents' attention — and rage — towards more convevient targets.

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(The sixth in of a series of seven.)

Nothing in Common

If the cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words is true, then a couple of images might sum up the debate of over health care reform, and prove representative of the opposing sides.

[Via Preemptive Karma.]

[Via Wikimedia Commons.]

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House Republicans have presented a health care reform "plan" that doesn't fix our broken health care system (but might make it worse), and (according to the CBO) doesn't do much to fix the deficit conservatives say t read more »

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Steve Benen asks a question about the Republican health care reform plan — or lack thereof — that I'm certain I've seen answered already.

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It's was 80 years ago this week that the Crash of 1929 kicked off the Great Depression.

Not quite 79 years later, the fall of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, sent the stock market into a meltdown precipitated by the crises of such Wall Street Giants as Bear Stears and AIG, among others.

Comparisons between now and then are, of course, inevitable.

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As long as we keep the status quo, then answer to the question "Are you a pre-existing condition?" is pretty clear: Yes. We all are, eventually.

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Mike Elk couldn't have been more right in his thinking about what Martin Luther King, Jr. would have thought of the Teabaggers, Birthers, etc. He would have seen that those faces that at first glance seem twisted in anger are really twisted in pain. He would recognize those faces as well as the source of the fear and anger distorting them.

It's not about adopting their politics, compromising our own, or even tolerating their tactics. It's about reclaiming "We" — The same "We" that Dr. King and civil rights workers sang about, and that I remember singing about myself in church, on the occasions when we sang "We Shall Overcome."

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This is something I wish I'd been a part of, and I hope they call me if they need an extra baritone next time. (It's rare that my vocal training and my politics intersect.) Plus, the guy who got "punk'd" was none other than Bill McInturff, the guy who gave us Harry and Louise. (Not to mention killing health care reform and giving us another decade of pre-existing conditions, recissions, etc.)

Republican pollster Bill McInturff was the keynote speaker on the final day of the America's Health Insurance Plans's state issues conference on Friday morning.

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