One thing about election season in the U.S. is that it provides an inside look at what’s brewing in the darker pockets of America’s collective unconscious. And those dark pockets are profoundly troubling.
During the Republican debate on September 7, NBC host Brian Williams was addressing Governor Rick Perry about the number of executions in Texas: “Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?”
The audience exploded with applause at the mention of the number of executions and again following Perry’s unabashed support for executing people.
“No, sir, I’ve never struggled with that at all. In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you’re involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is you will be executed.”
That phrase, ultimate justice, got the loudest ovation of the evening. Rob and I just looked at each other in disbelief. Gov.Perry, you might recall, preceded his campaign by sponsoring and leading a Christian prayer vigil in Houston’s Reliant Stadium. Hypocrisy anyone?
On September 12, during the CNN-hosted tea party debate, Wolf Blitzer posed a hypothetical situation to Ron Paul. You have a 30-year-old man who has a good job, but doesn’t have health insurance. He doesn’t want to pay the $200-$300 a month for major medical insurance. He gets sick, goes into coma, and needs extensive care. Who pays for his coverage? “Are you saying society should just let him die?” Blitzer asked.
People in the audience shouted, “Yeah!”
Whatever happened to empathy and compassion? When did the hearts of Americans turn to stone? How did a faction of this society become so cold-hearted that these questions drew cheers?
Right now, fifty million Americans lacks health insurance and 1 in 6 Americans – or 46 million – live in poverty. And that lasts figure is undoubtedly much higher since the figures are based on the same standards used in the 1960s. According to the Census Bureau, the government safety-net programs – that the Republicans and tea party candidates hope to dismantle – lifted nearly 25 million Americans out of poverty. Unemployment compensation put food on the table for 3.2 million Americans and Social Security kept 20.3 million out of poverty. Then there are Medicare and Medicaid, the medical insurance programs for the elderly and the poor that the Republicans hope to rip apart.
The real tragedy is that Perry, who is considered the GOP front runner, is actually too liberal for many of the tea party hard core believers. Can you just imagine this country if that group selects the Republican candidate and that person goes on to become president? Costa Rica, the country which has more American in residence than another other – except the U.S. of course – might get a new surge of ex-patriots.
And, hey Wolf Blitzer, where can you get major medical insurance for $200-$300 a month?
What I thought when Wolf asked his question that Perry didn’t answer the question as asked. Wolf wanted to know what happens if an innocent person is executed. Perry then more or less said that because the person was convicted he/she had to be guilty. Look at all the overturned convictions in Illinois because of the Innocence Project.
One commentor said that if Perry gets elected we may be wishing for the days of George Bush.
We are living in an us and others world. If people are not like us they are others and thus deserving condemnation. The world has always been like this. It is just that now there is the fiction that the world has gotten beyond hatred.
I get Medicare for $115.40 a month and my wife pays the same. TRICARE for Life is free and pays the copays. My daughter pays $57.50 every three months for TRICARE Prime and a $12 copay. Maybe CNN pays all but $300 for Wolf. When I was working and had insurance premiums that started at $150 and went to $350. The last month I worked the rate went to $700 so I dropped it and went to TRICARE until I reached 65. Then it was Medicare & TRICARE.
Ray
If perry gets elected, it’s grounds for leaving the country. Ditto for Bachman, but I don’t think she has a chance.
I haven’t heard of Tricare, Ray. Is it a local insurance company?? Good rates.
TRICARE is insurance for the military, retired and dependents.
Ray
OK, thanks for the clarification. I’m glad there’s something like this for retired military. Bottom line, though, is that it should all be free.
Hope your wife is on the mend, Ray.
Perry cut the funding for firefighters by 75%. The now have to pay for their own equipment and fuel. His state is devastated by the recent fires. So what does he do? He doesn’t reinstate the appropriate budget: he wrote Obama asking for federal money.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/09/rick-perry-fire-department-cuts-texas-wild-fires_n_956307.html
Perry also said he is proud of the record of Texas and health care. Texas has the highest uninsured population in the country.
As for the death penalty…. it’s well know that his administration killed an innocent man, Anthony Graves.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/07/rick-perry-death-penalty-gop-debate_n_953214.html
He is also a secessionist who believes Texas should leave the US.
Do We-The -People want such a person as president? He is a threat to our nation and would expedite the dismantling of our culture.
The crowd responses mentioned in the blog post made me feel sick. If this is the face of the future of America, we are going backwards and downwards very fast. The lack of conscience, empathy, and compassion does not bode well at all.
Last night I watched a 2hr show on Jacqueline Kennedy detailing 8 hours of audio tapes she left behind before she died. She made the tapes 4 months after Pres. Kennedy was killed.
During his administration, she became very active in working towards communicating with other countries and cultures. She said she learned that a great nation is not made through military power alone. A great nation is defined by it’s culture. By “culture” she means the lives of The People.
Debra, I guess that’s what American exceptionalism is all about in the eyes of the far right – lack of empathy and compassion.
I loved Bill Maher’s comment to Jay Leno about Rick Perry: “Here’s a guy who has a drought in his state, so he held a rally to pray for rain and now the state is on fire!”
Kind of makes me think of a near death experience someone wrote, which said that God does not hear the prayers of the vain or the vengeful.
If Rick Perry was around during the time of Christ, I’m sure that he would be the first to hammer the nail into Jesus’ hands and feet.
Mike, the Bible actually says this, words from Jesus to His disciples, and the born-again radicals omit this and take it out of context…Jesus said, “VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, IT HAS BEEN SAID OF OLD, AN EYE FOR AN EYE AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH. BUT I SAY UNTO YOU NAY. VENGEANCE IS MINE SAYETH THE LORD MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN.” In other words, Jesus said NO to an eye for an eye, etc. He said God is in charge of vengeance. Christians tend to twist the words in their Book to suit their own beliefs.
I’ve always had a big problem with the idea of a vengeful god. The biblical concept of god just seems so angry all the time.
Agree entirely. It’s what I tried to say. Vengeance is God’s job and for me that is what karma is.
P.S. A beautiful story in the news yesterday that may somehow balance the horrors….did you see the group of strangers who came together and as a unit, managed to lift a burning SUV off of a severely injured man whose motorcycle had been hit by the SUV, and one of the folks grabbed the injured man and got him out from under the vehicle that could have exploded any minute? THAT is goodness. THAT is coming together as a human family. Strangers, not knowing each others’ names, or the injured man, yet rushing with no thought of self-presrvation to rescue the hurt man. That is the Spirit of kindness. Of compassion. Of the stuff that connects us. Heroes all, those strangers!
Yeah, no one asked the motorcyclist if he had health insurance – at least not until he reached the hospital.
We saw that story and thought the same thing!
saw it – and thought the same thing – what incredible character of strangers – but not strangers when it came to caring for another human in need! a beautiful story!
Not just a 30-year-old man with a good job, but what about the tens of thousands of homeless, jobless poor in this country who must live under the bridges and in the woods behind the malls or wherever they can put their cardboard box shelters, outside in subfreezing and/or three-digit temperatures, getting sick with flu, pneumonia, etc? And many of these now are children living with good, hard-working, responsible parents who have lost everything, including work-provided insurance, due to the economy. Are we to remain silent and leave these unfortunates to simply fall through the ever-widening cracks in the system and DIE…especially considering the unthinkable amounts of money we send to foreign countries in aid, instead of taking care of our own? This is an enormous thorn in my side, because when I worked trauma ER and patients came in without insurance, by law we were required to take care of them. Under proposed new laws, these people will be sent away to suffer and die. AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER? Yes, I accept that responsibility to assist those who cannot assist themselves. IMO, to do otherwise is to commit karmic sins of ommission. But that’s just me and my personal convictions. I stand with my cousin….I am appalled and horrified by the direction in which we collectively are headed. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.00. Shame on them. And shame on us if we allow this to continue without doing all we can to stop it.
When my husband wasn’t working our major medical was $1,400 per month. That covered nothing except not taking our home if we got cancer or something else requiring a hospital stay.
The people yelling the loudest are probably the ones taking everything they can get from the government. In my experience with friends and family members that are very right wing – they have children on food stamps, unemployment, medicaid, and help from the government to care for elderly family members. Absolutely NONE of these people stand on their own. What I wonder is where the disconnect happens that they do not see themselves as recipients of the very programs that they rail against? I would bet the people in the audience who yelled “yeah” to letting the man die – are taking some kind of government assistance.
1400 a month! And wolf thinks major medical costs a few hundred bucks a month.
The ones who yell the loudest are using benefiting from what they rail against. So true.
How can a man who says he’s a Christian agree with executuions. The Bible does say an eye for an eye – but this is for ‘God’ to do, not mankind – a lot of us would call this karma.
50,000,000 don’t have medical insurance – wow, that’s scary. And if these people are sick some people want them to die?! Unbelievable.
i am so glad you all have done this post – addressed these unconscionable remarks and responses – i saw these incidents and was left speechless in the literal sense [and it takes a lot to leave me speechless]! – for all those cheering on perry and paul [hmmm…the two “P’s” in a pod so to speak] these ghastly scenarios, those of us with even a scintilla of consciousness about us would hope that they never find themselves and/or a loved one in such a situation – however, even if they did, one has to wonder IF their perspective would change – there is something so cold and crass about all this as to defy belief – almost – but we better believe them! because if we don’t – and if we as a collective group of voters don’t get up off our fannies and see to it that their political agendas are defeated, then the physical climate on this planet will be just a secondary issue compared to the political climate that this bunch would bring in –
and you’ve heard all the stuff of perry’s deep financial ties to the merck group/cervical cancer vaccine –
such a sad commentary for this country!
costa rica…………….
I’m thinking that Romney will tough it out and take the nomination. The tea party will lose some wind, and Obama will squeeze through – though barely – for a second term. (Ads showing Romney telling a crowd in Iowa that corporations are people too and the crowd laughing take him down in the end.)
one can hope – however, perry rides that cowboy “let’s go git’em” flamboyant big horse that appeals to so many – he talks the talk that so many want to hear – it’s no longer just important that we each stand up and be counted politically in this coming election – it’s critical –
again – thanks for posting –