Health Flare August 22, 2009

I had it in my head, before Barney Frank dropped the ice bucket of satire onto the flame of ignorance, that I was going to write some sort of burning criticism of American culture as the teeming uninformed masses have somehow chosen the moment of The Great Health Care Debate to rear their heads once more, displaying that while America has some unbelievable features to be proud of (history of innovation, liberty, the highway system, Beyonce’s hips, Gordon Beckham), its backside is tainted by the sort of cultural hemorrhoids even Arnold Klein wouldn’t be be able to do anything about.

Banksy, somewhere, is probably finding the omnipresent, crude copying of his style quite hilarious. Why wouldn’t he? Suburbanite nerf bats are taking to the streets, frothing with anger and waving their homemade banners of the president with blood dripping from his mouth, in clown make-up, or looking like that old bag of chuckles himself, the Führer. And of course it was the latter exhibition that became internet-famous when some know-nothing shat the bed when she had her 15 seconds to really ask the tough questions and, as a constituent, grill her democratically elected representative. Instead, Mr. Frank shot her down and all of these recently smug bed wetting centre-left wingers waved it in everyone’s face on their Twitter feeds.

For me, that should really be the end of it, but there’s still something inside that leads me to ask: Hitler? Why? Is it because that is the only shocking historical figure that Americans can really associate with something that’s bad? I know I’m a day late and an idea short, but the analogy is so feckless it really does beggar belief. On one hand, you have a guy who, whether he is right or not, whether you agree with him or not, is trying to change the way people get medical assistance in a way that he believes is for the better. On the other hand, you had a guy who wanted to give people he viewed culturally and genetically superior more Lebensraum by murdering everybody else. That comparison’s the kind of farce that the Iannuccis, the Moffats, the Linehans couldn’t ever possibly write. It’s just beyond absurd.

And of course, yes, it’s offensive. But what’s most offensive isn’t the metaphor. What’s offensive is that the people who are raging with a sense of injustice (to a proposed change to a facet of the way they live their life), are by and large completely unable to actually take a second and learn the facts. That they, when faced with the opportunity to give their representatives an informed piece of what of they think, decide to instead halfheartedly wave a crudely photoshopped image around and shout allusions to the Third Reich, a term they probably couldn’t even spell nevermind describe, and one of the words comprising it is in English.

What’s offensive in this day and age is that those who are so wound up with anger about something that might or might not impact their health and well being were nowhere to be seen when thousands of their countrymen were taking a vacation to the other side of the world and coming home in coffins. And what’s amazing is that ten years ago, any average idiot could peddle hate and gain a following while hiding behind their keyboard. Now you can do it while influencing thousands of your compatriots from the sanctity and safety of a major network studio, and no one’s going to think twice because who has time when they could be playing The Sims?

Or is it no one except Olbermann and Maddow, the supposed “great white hopes” of sane thinking that have had their bollocks chopped off by the fact that instead of reporting with any shred of dignity, they have chosen to present their programs for entertainment’s sake. And when you do that, you lose cred, you’re no different than the Becks and O’Reillys. You’re the other side of the same coin. Because it’s about ratings and therefore, it isn’t about those who laugh last laughing best, it’s about those who laugh at all bringing ad revenue. Hell, if Bush had introduced this plan, who’s to say we wouldn’t see the same folks waving a photoshopped image of him at Orrin Hatch from a printout they got off Rachel Maddow’s website?

Anyhow, I was going to level some sort of thought out critique of what this all really means and how we’re lurching into some sort of 21st Century Trailerpark McCarthyism but frankly I can’t really be fucked. At this point, Obama should just get on with it, grow out a little moustache and with a wry smile tell everyone he was actually inspired by Charlie Chaplin, the old commie pinko. Now that’d really get their goat.