Has anyone else noticed all the hypothetical bodies piling up next Ron Paul’s podium? What about the real ones in the Texas prison system? Well, the crowds at the endless series of GOP debates have, and they seem to approve.
They cheered loudly on September 8th when Brian mentioned that Rick Perry oversaw 234 executions. They loved it at the next debate when Ron Paul said a dying man without health insurance should have to face the consequences of his choice.
One member of the audience even shouted “Yeah!” before Paul even answered.
So is this mob mentality or just good ol’ conservative values?
I’m definitely impressed by how ideologically pure the GOP base is. Unlike the conservatives of the past, (see Romneycare) they’re so committed to shrinking government and the prison population that they’re willing to let people die.
I’m also impressed by the number of people who disagree with candidates who take such positions but admire them for “sticking to their guns.”
The debates over health care and the death penalty are incredibly similar. They’re polarizing, liberal vs. conservative, life vs. death debates that disproportionately affect those too poor to afford health insurance or a good lawyer.
They also need to be had in Texas more so than anywhere else, where Republicans who control every level of state government are not interested in having them. Texas leads the nation in both its annual number of executions and its percentage of uninsured people; two statistics that Governor Perry isn’t exactly ashamed of.
There are things these crowds don’t like. For example, gay soldiers. The crowd at the September 22nd debate booed one who (luckily) was on the other end of a webcam when asking Rick Santorum a question.
So when someone dies from a toothache and a lack of health insurance, it’s a good thing. But when a soldier wants to reenlist in a military that discriminates against him to protect a country that does the same, it’s deplorable.
That’s what happens when everyone in a room full of a couple hundred conservatives wants to be the most conservative. Someone may win (like that guy who shouted “Yeah!” from earlier), but anyone who can’t afford health insurance will lose.
Trevor Christian
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I have read somewhere on the news that something like “Penny Health” is offering lowest health insurance rate for low and middle income families so search online and find them.
I generally lean toward the progressive side of things. In so doing, I have learned to keep an open mind to ideas. It does not matter the source of the ideas, only if they have merit.
There are people in the GOP that have some very good ideas. The unfortunate thing is that these folks are marginalized by their party. Much like, say, Sen. Sanders would be if he were running against Obama and Clinton. The two party system produces these effects by its nature. Party politics is not about governance it is about re-election, compromising ideas for power.
Try to learn by looking back to George Washington and John Adams’ opinions on party politics and by looking forward to what it could be if ideas were given their due diligence instead of the mythical party platform. Somewhere in there you may find how a republic is supposed to operate.
Enjoy the fireworks.
“They loved it at the next debate when Ron Paul said a dying man without health insurance should have to face the consequences of his choice.”
I would like to note this as being slightly misleading. It is easy to interpret this as Ron Paul agreed with the audience that the hypothetical man should die, when the opposite is true.
His position is that the state or individual charities would do a better job providing for those without insurance than a federal program, which due to inherent corruption and mismanagement is one of the least effective ways of providing for the uninsured with scarce resources.
He went on to cite his own experience working as a doctor at a charity hospital before Medicare or Medicaid – relating how the hospital never turned anyone away.