By John W. Lillpop
In a recent column titled, The Rage Is Not about Health Care, (1) New York Times columnist Frank Rich showcased his heretofore unheralded abilities as a seer, psychiatrist, and mourning moralist to set the record straight about the motives fueling those with the audacity to oppose ObamaCare.
According to Rich, the threats, angry town hall meetings, and Tea Party disruptions have nothing whatsoever to do with health care. Instead, it is all about disgruntled white Republicans agonizing over their diminishing numbers and future status as a minority.
From the referenced column, this:
“Demographics are avatars of a change bigger than any bill contemplated by Obama or Congress. The week before the health care vote, the Times reported that births to Asian, black and Hispanic women accounted for 48 percent of all births in America in the 12 months ending in July 2008. By 2012, the next presidential election year, non-Hispanic white births will be in the minority. The Tea Party movement is virtually all white. The Republicans haven’t had a single African-American in the Senate or the House since 2003 and have had only three in total since 1935. Their anxieties about a rapidly changing America are well-grounded.”
Reading Rich’s diatribe, one would never guess that he himself is white. He makes being white sound like a terrible, terrible thing and something to avoid, if at all possible.
As to the fact that Non-Hispanic white births will be in the minority by 2012, my reaction: OH MY GOD! What to do? Sell the home and move to---???
According to Rich, that factoid explains everything that is wrong with America, from the Tea Party movement to Sarah Palin, to Glenn Beck, to the drive to repeal the bill and various and sundry other evils from the Right.
Forget the fact that ObamaCare was passed despite the wishes of 53 percent of the American people. Does government “by and for the people” no longer hold its allure, Mr. Rich?
Forget the fact that ObamaCare is undeniably a socialized take over of 17 percent of the American economy, a change that most Americans do NOT support.
Forget the fact that President Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi got their way by engaging in legislative gimmickry, bribery and corruption common in third-world banana republics, but hardly the norm in a sophisticated democracy when rule of law and Constitutional order are supposed to mean something.
Forget the fact that ObamaCare will INCREASE the federal deficit, despite campaign promises made by Candidate Obama.
Forget the fact that corporations such as ATT, Caterpillar, and Verizon are already reporting that ObamaCare will cost scores of billions to implement. (Wait until those firms pass on those extra costs to the consumer. The perennial truth, “There is no free lunch!” will finally dawn on Moon Bats who voted for Obama and who support his fascist seizure of the best health care system in the world.)
Forget the fact that forcing the American people to purchase health care may, in fact, be unconstitutional.
Forget the fact that ObamaCare fails to address tort reform, a non-negotiable requirement to anyone really concerned with containing control health care costs.
Forget the fact that 30 or so Democrats in the U.S. House voted NO and that Howard Dean, former chair of the DNC, was vehemently opposed.
Still, there is no denying that race IS a factor, not only with respect to health care, but as concerns all issues faced by America’s first African-America president.
For instance, take the reaction of that extremist Tea Bagger from Arkansas, former President Bill Clinton. During the campaign, Slick opined that the Obama candidacy was based on a “fairy tale.” He also put the phenomenon in perspective by noting that “just recently, Obama was bringing us coffee.”
Way to go, you Tea Bagging, right-wing bigot!
Then we have Senate Majority leader Harry Reid who trumpeted Obama’s ascension into presidential politics by noting that the young senator from Illinois was blessed by not having a “Negro dialect.”
Again, another liberal caught in the act of being a closeted Tea Bagger.
Do not forget the fact that, to date, the only confirmed violence on an elected official was waged against Republican Eric Cantor of South Carolina.
Golly, I thought Cantor voted against ObamaCare, Mr. Rich?
Frank Rich’s biased perspective fails in another major regard: He places all the blame for conflict on Caucasians. No where does Rich acknowledge the fact that many African- Americans, including (in my opinion) President Obama, harbor deep, abiding resentments (hatred?) against America and white people in general.
How much of Obama’s CHANGE mantra is based on his fierce desire to tear down institutions created by white people? How much of his “spread the wealth” obsession originates with Obama’s belief that white America owes African-Americans financially, perhaps even to the point of reparations?
Finally, Rich fails to understand that the dynamics of race relations are not about to be completely over turned: Even when non-Hispanic white births become the minority, there will still be hundreds of millions of white people that people of color are going to have to get along with in order for our grand experiment to survive.
That fact will not change this century, or even next.
The future of America is contingent on achieving at least some racial harmony, including meeting the needs and desires of Caucasians, that dreadful demographic that Frank Rich loves to hate.
After all, Mr. Rich, it still takes two to tango!
(1)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28rich.html
