The Propaganda Perspective: On-Going Battle in Health Care Reform

Watching Bill MaherBill Maher these last few weeks, and with the recent outburst during Obama's televised speech to Congress, it seems people are starting to think the Democratic party is quickly losing ground on what could be the one defining (for lack of better words) 'thing' of Obama's presidency in years to come - the health care reform.

Not only has Republican propaganda like coverage for illegal aliens, 'death panels,' and the like, suddenly become 'the truth' causing Obama to be compared to Hitler as of late, but this extreme campaign of propaganda from people like Sarah PalinSarah Palin (on Facebook, mind you) has apparently helped the Republican party gain the offensive ground.

Last time I checked, heckling was something I saw in televised sessions of Parliament - not during a presidential address. In all truth, it shows nothing more than a lack of dignity for the Republican cause. More deplorable, however, is the fact that the American people think this kind of behavior (from the people we elect to act responsibly in our interests) is appropriate - or that the rumors surrounding our 'communist' take on health care are remotely true.

During the day, when I am not moonlighting as a nighttime super hero or pretending to be a decent writer, I am a waitress. A part from being a thankless job, I tend to hear a lot of the conspiracy theories that still, to this day, surround our elected president. I will add here that, in addition to being a huge military hub, Colorado Springs is pretty much the Evangelist epicenter of America (do not ask me how I got here). So, being the weak minded, heathen woman that I am, I get bombarded with the often ludicrous beliefs from those who hate (for one reason or another) that Obama won. I add here that it is my utmost pleasure to challenge those theories because most of them assume I have no education - let alone one that focused on history and political science.

My point, any way, is that I heard a man the other day comparing Obama and Hitler (which, for whatever reason, totally caught me off guard). I guess, being naive and a proud social historian, I would never have thought Hitler would be compared to anyone for anything other than mass murder. Strange, I know.

As Bill Maher has been highlighting on his show, this crazed paranoia seems to have taken hold in the darkest corners of the most extreme Republicans minds and the Democrats have seemingly done little to combat it. The most important pieces of the health care reform - the pieces that would cause the most change and help the most people - have been embarassingly reduced to placate the loud Republican agenda. The Obama who campaigned for office, the revolutionary man who made history by inspiring his election, has slipped from our fingers. People like myself, who are loud and revolutionary and could care less about the people who do not like the sound, are starting to become disappointed. Disappointed in a party who cannot seem to stand its groud for fear of a fight; disappointed in the fact that, even Obama, cannot seem to give the Democrats reason to fight back against the crazed ramblings of a party that is (obviously) scared of the change.

More importantly, Obama has stopped speaking to the people. A reason, I fear, for his opposition's recent gain in public opinion; the key to winning the battle, I think. The problem? Hazy, hard-to-define political talk; words like 'public option' and 'private payer.' Both ideas that follow socialistic models, both things that would greatly improve health care without changing the system entirely. Both words that 'normal' people struggle to understand and, as a result, both things the Republican party latch onto for 'fear tactics' like 'death panels,' and the like.

I am being patient. I am trying to remain hopeful. All I can hope for is that my president, the one I elected to challenge the norm and try to fix the broken pieces, will stand strong and not back down for fear of public backlash. Bill Maher said something that made perfect sense on one of his 'Real Time' shows, something to juxtapose the current administration with the last (and I suppose he meant to juxtapose public response to both administrations as well). He pointed out that, in an interview during which Dick CheneyDick Cheney was told that a significant portion of the country no longer agreed with America's war in Iraq, Dick Cheney simply said, "So?"

In the face of a health care system that hurts more than it helps, in a health care system that already has 'death panels' - in the form of insurance companies that will not accept pre-existing conditions and hospitals that will not treat you if you cannot afford the treatment - maybe Obama should adopt a smidgen of the Dick Cheney attitude and stop backing down to ridiculous propaganda. I mean, 18% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth, many of them cannot name a single branch of government.

Grow some cajones.