Do you remember when Rush Limbaugh insisted that the Affordable Care Act was a form of reparations?
As silly as this argument sounds, it’s quite likely that many Republican members of the House and Senate actually believe this, which explains why the GOP has been so vigilant about trying to obliterate Obamacare. In the right-wing mind, the Affordable Care Act is little more than a politically correct handout to the undeserving; House and Senate Republicans cannot stand the thought of the folks Ronald Reagan viciously smeared as “welfare queens” and “young bucks” having access to decent, even semi-decent, health care.
You may recall the Denzel Washington film John Q, which was released just a month before Washington won the Best Actor Oscar for his iconic performance in Training Day. Washington also merited a nomination for John Q, in which he played a working-class, destitute African-American man desperate to obtain a heart transplant for his sick son. The film’s plot was generally regarded as somewhat far-fetched when it was released; the late Roger Ebert, despite agreeing with the film’s message that “the richest nation in history should be able to afford national health insurance,” declared that the picture was “so earnest, so overwrought and so wildly implausible that it begs to be parodied.” Of course, had John Q been released today, Washington and director Nick Cassavetes would be assailed on Twitter for “playing the race card” and making “leftist propaganda” to advance the cause of “socialized medicine.”
There will be a lot of “John Qs,” of all colors and backgrounds, who will be severely screwed if Republicans eviscerate the Affordable Care Act. Some of those “John Qs” may have voted for Trump and Republican House and Senate candidates; God help them, because the GOP certainly won’t. Will the US mainstream media–specifically our broadcast and cable entities–report on the “John Qs” whose families are destroyed in the aftermath of the Affordable Care Act’s repeal? Or would that be considered a form of “liberal bias”?
You may also recall when former Rep. Alan Grayson accurately analyzed the Republican vision on health care:
How can any rational mind deny the sociopathic nature of the Republican Party and the larger conservative movement after bearing witness to this obsession with stripping health care protections from millions of vulnerable Americans? The GOP is indeed a “pro-life” entity; if you’re of the right background, the party will support your right to live. If not, sucks to be you!
I’m sure many of these right-wingers consider themselves good Christians. They’re surely praying that the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act is successful. That’s one pathetic prayer, no? After witnessing this sad effort to screw over their fellow Americans, it seems obvious that if Jesus Christ did in fact come back today, and called for health care to be provided to every American…and also called for all men and women created in God’s image to be treated equally under the law…and also called for the Earth God created to be protected from pollution…these right-wingers would, in all likelihood, tell him to go to hell.
