http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/talking_politics/article/55620/ said:
Why I'll never understand Americans
Fri Aug 14 10:15AM
The hatred the American right has shown the NHS in recent days is just one more reason why I'll never understand our cousins across the Atlantic.
By Ian Dunt
I took an American cousin of mine to Paris once and as we walked around I asked if she thought Britain, where she'd stayed for most of her trip, was more like America or France. 'France,' she replied instantly. It was a far cry from when I had travelled around Latin America, and had French students tell me how they found Brits and Americans interchangeable.
It's one of the effects of Britain's weird, charming relationship with the world. We're a third European, a third American and third something else - something unique to ourselves. But every so often you take a look at what one of your American or French cousins are doing and think: what the hell?
If you've been paying any attention to the debate on President Obama's healthcare reform on the other side of the Atlantic, you'll know what I mean. Personally, it only came across my radar once American right wingers started mocking the NHS.
The charismatic, but extraordinarily foolish Tory MEP Daniel Hannan has been on US television saying he wouldn't "wish the NHS on anyone". Presumably that doesn't include sick, poor people. Or even sick people with some money stashed away. Adverts have been prominently shown making the NHS out to be some sort of death factory, casually condemning people if they fail to meet certain age criteria. Sarah Palin, whose idiocy is so vast she needs no introduction, has branded the NHS "evil". And town hall meeting after town hall meeting - all free to watch on the internet - have seen irate American right-wingers harangue speakers as they describe any move (and Obama's moves are very tentative) to universal healthcare as a Communist coup against the republic.
Watching these debates is like reading National Geographic. It's just impossible, from a European perspective, to understand what these people are on about. Their political views seem as backwards and removed from the world we live in as a shaman casting magic spells.
The angry opponents of Obama's reforms would do well to actually have a debate, rather than spew out foolish lies. The death panel accusation is not politics. It is just a lie. That's all it is. It has no place in political discourse. It's not even worthy of childhood discourse. It should be considered outside of acceptable debate, like racism or physical violence. That right-wing pundits and insurance companies are free to promote this nonsense is a damning indictment on the entire system. Personally, I'd be fairly indifferent, and wouldn't deign to comment on another country's way of doing things, were it not for the fact that they're now telling lies about the NHS, and that is intolerable.
Upsettingly, I have some sympathy for the philosophical origin of many of the argument used by Obama's opponents, in that they originate from a suspicion of government. Government and the state (which are not as distinct in reality as academics will tell you) are together the most dangerous organisation in the world. The American mentality lies in a never-ending attempt to limit government to the smallest possible size. Quite right too. Unfortunately, I'm equally suspicious of the private sector, which, by definition, does not allow for democratic control of power. It's my suspicion of the state and the private sector which ensures, by the way, that I have no political allegiances whatsoever.
But the philosophical argument for limiting government is based on freedom - freedom from state intrusion into our lives. To apply this to universal healthcare is very sloppy thinking.
Freedom applies to all, not just the rich. The freedom of a rich man to pay less tax does not overrule the freedom of the poor to live. This is such an obvious point that no civilised human being should ever need to have it explained to them. It appears they do.
Besides, basic human decency makes a debate over 'socialised healthcare', as the American right calls it, utterly irrelevant. If healthcare isn't a right - rather than a privilege - then I don't know what is. Healthcare isn't a Turkish delight chocolate bar, or a Jacuzzi. Healthcare is life.
Britons are a grumpy and irritable lot. I'm just the same. Whenever I sit in a dinner in America, I end up visibly shuddering in the wake of the meaningless, friendly noises churning endlessly from the person serving me. But we should occasionally take a little look around and realise the things that are great about our country. The NHS is one of those things. It is the cornerstone of Britain. It is the beating, human heart of this country.
The American right is correct. It is socialist. Nothing could be more socialist. It suits Marx's moral maxim perfectly: from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. In this case, the ability is the ability to pay, and the need is the need of care. It is not, in actual fact, the state or the government which is responsible for the NHS. It is us. We pay for it. We use it. The state is merely a prism through which the money and the care must pass. The NHS is us taking care of each other.
We live in a mixed economy. We aim to have enough free market to control the state, and provide the things we want. But we also need enough socialism to ensure we do not live like savages, the weakest amongst us starving to death on the street while a rich woman buys a Gucci handbag. Socialism without capitalism turns to tyranny. Capitalism without socialism turns to barbarism.
The sooner Americans realise the truth of a mixed economy, the better their world will become. In the meantime, their right-wing pundits should learn from the NHS, not mock it.
