Amidst the howls of protest and anguish and anger from opponents to the Affordable Care Act following today's SCOTUS decision, there are many calls for fighting for freedom and liberty against Washingtonian tyranny. Calls that sound a lot like one George Wallace, a few generations back.<\/p>\n
Racism and race prejudice are awful things, of course, and it's hard to conflate those awful things with folks who are "just" against health care coverage reform. But it's not so difficult to connect those dots. In both cases, people are declaring their personal freedom to do what they want (in particular, not be compelled to buy insurance coverage; once upon a time, not be compelled to empower and treat equaly people of color) is presented as trumping the compelling, fundamental needs of others (being able to receive medical care, preventing lives of misery or sickening unto death, or, in that earlier era, the need and right to be treated as an equal citizen and member of society). In both cases those without power are marginalized, treated as less important and less worthy than those who are doing more or less okay under the current system.<\/p>\n
Which makes me wonder how folks 40-50 years from now will look upon our debate over whether we, as a society, should be doing all we can to make sure that people can get the fundamental medical care they need.<\/p>\n
(h\/t Stan)<\/p>\n