Barack Obama’s Waterloo

The Republican party leadership still has some wild fantasy about turning back the clock to "the good old days" to paraphrase Glenn Beck. That’s wishful thinking. The majority of Americans –Blacks, Whites, Latinos and Asians– especially the young are ready for the new dawn.

[Black Star News Editorial]

The Republicans were right. The healthcare reform bill –which finally passed– would become President Barack Obama’s Waterloo.

The only problem was that they didn’t know that Mitch McConnell & co. would be in Napoleon’s boots.

The bill will eventually allow the more than 32 million Americans who currently don’t have coverage to be able to afford health insurance. Thousands of Americans die each year through lack of coverage. In a sane country healthcare coverage should be
a matter of human rights.

Most importantly, the bill will begin to control the abuses of the insurance industry. It’s unregulated and it acts like an insatiable
vampire. Abuses include refusal to extend policy for people with “pre-existing conditions” or denying treatment to policy holders once they become sick or dropping their coverage. Some companies enjoy 500% superprofits.

Low income people will benefit from the expansion of Medicaid. And by requiring almost all Americans –and legal residents– to obtain coverage, a large pool from which private insurers can also draw from will also be created. Young Americans can remain on their parent’s coverage up to age 26 immediately, even before near universal coverage kicks in.

So all the nonsense about a “government takeover” and “ObamaCare socialism” should now be put to rest. The Republicans were essentially exposed as a party that would stop at nothing to retain the current status quo, where many of the lawmakers continue to parrot lines passed down from the insurance industry, in return for big money.

They resorted to ugly tactics that brought back memories of some of the worst days of the 1960s during the marches and protests that paved the way for Civil Rights legislation when progressive Americans were attacked, beaten or killed. The so-called “Tea Party” acted as the Republican party’s storm troopers; members -disrupted healthcare reform debates at Town hall meetings starting last summer. They succeeded in stifling open discussion –to examine the merits or lack thereof of
healthcare reform with some showing up with weapons.

The gatherings were reduced to witch hunts where some nasty Tea Party members displayed ugly banners demonizing President Obama with racist slurs. This past weekend anyone who still lived on fantasy island got to see Tea Party members at their best. They gathered in Washington, D.C., before the votes with signs that read “Kill, The Bill!” (hint, hint) and hurled racist slurs at a Black member of Congress and a gay slur at Rep. Barney Frank. One can only imagine what they might have done had the Police not been there; or had they encountered the Black lawmakers in the middle of night somewhere.

For the Republican party it never really was about healthcare reform.

What’s really at stake is the soul of America. Will we build an America of the future –health care and decent jobs and education for all– or retain the status quo? Americans answered that question when Obama was elected president.

The Republican party leadership still has some wild fantasy about turning back the clock to “the good old days” to paraphrase Glenn Beck. That’s wishful thinking. The majority of Americans –Blacks, Whites, Latinos and Asians– especially the young, are ready for the new dawn.

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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