Positive vs. Negative

I don't know why I keep ruminating on politics. It's all rhetoric and talking points. It's argument for the sake of argument. The actual change or impact to my daily routine is usually minimal. In the recent case of the health care reform, though, it's gotten crazy.

Here's what the DNC proposes for my congressional district:

According to our records, in your district alone, reform would:

-- Ban discrimination against 12,400 residents with pre-existing conditions;

-- Provide tax credits and other assistance for up to 151,000 families;

-- Extend coverage to 45,000 uninsured residents;

-- Save 1,600 families from health care related bankruptcy; and

-- Get full prescription drug coverage for 87,000 seniors on Medicare.

Now, there's a flip side to every argument, and there are parts of the bill that make me a little uncomfortable, too. However, if only a few of the bullets above are true, my concerns are not as important as those of my neighbors who are having trouble getting or staying healthy.

The reaction is what disheartens me. Death threats for helping people to get insurance? I don't get it. How is throwing a brick through a window of an elected official or leaving a death threat not considered (or treated by the media) as a terrorist attack? Protest is a right, but terrorism is obviously not.

All of this aggression for the particular permutation of a bill that got passed - not on the idea of health care reform itself. Everyone, presumably the death threat makers and brick throwers included, agree that this needed to get going at some point.

What's most perplexing is that during the presidential campaigns, the GOP took a fear-mongering and threatening stance to win, but lost. They propagated concerns about Obama's nationality, intentions, and political affiliations, and likened him to Hitler (still can't believe that's happening). Despite the barrage of attacks, Obama stayed on his positive message, which was to directly help the working class and rebuild infrastructure in America, and he won the election.

Since taking office, he's done just that. His message has been uniform and ambitious, and while all of the stuff he's done so far hasn't been 100% perfectly implemented, considering how much he's trying to do, it's very impressive. More so in the face of all of the opposition he's faced.

I mean, if the world doesn't come to an end, there's the possibility that the banks could repay the money they got last year, unemployment could go down because a number of small businesses could suddenly afford insurance for its people, or 1600 families in my congressional district won't have to move into poverty conditions because of an illness or injury. That would be fantastic, although I doubt some folks would be able to accept it.

The Onion, as usual, nails it.