"What America Needs Now!"

It's time to Break It Down!

Among the latest flaps in Washington is a tiff that began Monday when Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, Democrat, Nevada, stood within the hallowed halls of the United States Senate and likened Republican tactics to stall Healthcare reform to efforts to forestall enacting Civil Rights and Women’s Suffrage legislation. Republicans recoiled immediately. Party Chairman Michael Steele accused Senator Reid of “Cracking under the pressure” of the Healthcare debate, and said of the Senator’s remarks, “It was an ignorant moment for Harry Reid.” Painting with a broad stroke, Mr. Steele accused Democrats of resorting to “Playing the race card, the slavery card, and the civil rights card” when they get in trouble.

Mr. Jim Manley, Senator Reid’s spokesman countered by calling Mr. Steele’s statement “feigned outrage.”

In related developments, former GOP Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, Republican, Arizona, said he was “Astonished and taken aback” by Senator Reid’s remarks. He went on to express the opinion the Senator Reid should come to the Senate and, if not apologize, clarify his comments.

And clarify he did. In a subsequent statement, Senator Reid signaled there would be no retraction. He noted:

• “At pivotal points in American history, the tactics of distortion and
delay have certainly been present.”
• “They’ve certainly been used to stop progress.”
• “That’s what we’re talking about here. That’s what’s happening here.
It’s very clear.”
• “That’s the point I made — no more, no less. Anyone who willingly
distorts my comments is only proving my point.”

Of course Senator Reid is not operating in a rhetoric-enriched vacuum. This kind of intensely volatile commentary used to describe “The other Party’s position” is par for the course. Just a day earlier, Senator John Cornyn, (R-Texas), Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), while on Fox News, invoked Stalin-era Soviet prison to portray Senator Reid’s reform plan. He argued:

• “It will limit people's choices to, in many cases, to a government-run
program like Medicaid which is essentially a health care gulag”
• “People will not have any choices but to take that poorly performing
government plan”

In fact, the GOP passed a resolution this past spring condemning President Obama and the Democrats for leading the United States toward socialism. As far back as the Presidential campaign, GOP candidate for Vice President, Sarah Palin, issued virulent denunciations of then Senator Obama, calling him a socialist. Presidential candidate, John McCain made frequent allusions to Mr. Obama’s associations with terrorists, even though he disavowed similar assertions by some members of the GOP.

So while there is a long and storied history of partisan sparring over a variety of issues, it is apparent the Healthcare debate is escalating inter-party rancor in a sort of juvenile, you are; no, you are, way. Each side appears predestined to default to a polar-positioned space, 180-degrees removed from the opponent. The unfortunate result of investing irrevocably in such an ideologically comfortable space is that we the people are ill-served.

Alas, for many, the process has been reduced to a spectator sport; one in which the masses file into the political “arena” to observe the action. It is time to get a grip. This is life; not recreation. Our continued national health and well-being depend on deriving a thoughtful and suitable outcome to this thorny challenge.

Ultimately, it will be neither sufficient, nor acceptable to simply be against everything. At some point, if we are to remain a prosperous society, and rekindle our collective mojo, our valiant members of congress must trade their adversarial armor for the banner of statesmanship. It’s “What America Needs Now!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Steele

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Pelosi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cornyn

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j_r37b1Vzj0JN8ye8HroFJiZsGrwD9CF4CCO1

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/08/calls-mount-reid-apologize-slavery-remark/

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/dec/08/health-care-debate-heats-reid-slavery-remarks-and-/

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/12/08/gop-blasts-harry-reid-for-slavery-remark/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Republican_Senatorial_Committee

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1209/Reid_compares_health_care_foes_to_slavery_supporters.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/21/gop-condemns-socialist-obama-democrats/

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/mcca-o10.shtml