Lying
The only thing that has changed in politics is that lying has become acceptable as a way of doing business. This isn't new. Recently I had lunch with a young woman who has an MBA from Yale. I've know her since she was born and respect her ethics and intelligence. She has the remarkable job of a helping resolve conflicts or problems within programs at the Oregon Health Sciences University. We had lunch because I wanted to hear how business principles were applied when money wasn't the main issue.
During my career in medicine which began in 1968 and ended in 2012, I saw business people come into the profession and remake it into a cash cow. We had many salary and structural negotiations with the 'businessmen' hired to run the hospital and the system. They often lied to us. I thought maybe it was part of what was taught in business school. So, my last question during my lunch with my businesswoman friend was whether they taught MBA students at Yale to lie during negotiations. She was a little surprised and perhaps a little offended at the question but I asked it anyway. Of course her answer was NO.
Now we have Trump. Paul Krugman said today that Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star has documented that Trump has publicly lied 4,682 times since he became president. The Washington Post is tallying this also, but since they are a left leaning paper it was interesting to hear the same statistics from a more neutral Canadian source. Krugman's column was about the institutionalization of lying within the Republican Party in regard to healthcare. The Republican healthcare plan, the American Health Care Act, will allow insurance companies to refuse to insure people with pre-existing conditions and about 23 million Americans will, once again, not have health insurance. And once again the medical establishment will care for them - later in the course of their illness rather than earlier - for "free" and the costs will be passed on to all of us through increased premiums.
But actually things haven't changed in American politics. Democrats want government to do more to take care of people, especially the disenfranchised. The Republicans want everyone to take care of themselves, even if they can't. What doesn't kill you will make you stronger. Self-reliance. Success in the face of adversity. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But they have run out of arguments to support this opinion. All the facts that have come from economics, social science, political science, business, and history tell the same story. Governments work when they are democratic and honest.
Since the Republicans have no reasonable arguments based on fact to support their call for smaller government and reduced help for the disenfranchised, they have emulated Trump and lie about the results of their proposals. Even when independent agencies like the CBO refute their lies, they continue to mislead their constituents. They are struggling, back against the wall, to hold on to an ideology that has failed. And only lies can support it. That failing ideology is the 'rugged individualism and the supremacy of the white tribe'.
Bernie Sanders finally introduced the word socialism into American politics again. Let's hope we hear more of it. The evidence from the world's experiments of how to live together successfully is clear. We need more governmental support for the poor, we need universal health care, we need affordable education, we need higher wages for the 99%, and we need to upgrade out country's infrastructure. These things do not fit into the Republican ideology and lies are their only argument against them. The people of America, as a whole, are smart and will figure this out eventually. I hope they figure it out soon for my children and my grandchildren's sake.
During my career in medicine which began in 1968 and ended in 2012, I saw business people come into the profession and remake it into a cash cow. We had many salary and structural negotiations with the 'businessmen' hired to run the hospital and the system. They often lied to us. I thought maybe it was part of what was taught in business school. So, my last question during my lunch with my businesswoman friend was whether they taught MBA students at Yale to lie during negotiations. She was a little surprised and perhaps a little offended at the question but I asked it anyway. Of course her answer was NO.
Now we have Trump. Paul Krugman said today that Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star has documented that Trump has publicly lied 4,682 times since he became president. The Washington Post is tallying this also, but since they are a left leaning paper it was interesting to hear the same statistics from a more neutral Canadian source. Krugman's column was about the institutionalization of lying within the Republican Party in regard to healthcare. The Republican healthcare plan, the American Health Care Act, will allow insurance companies to refuse to insure people with pre-existing conditions and about 23 million Americans will, once again, not have health insurance. And once again the medical establishment will care for them - later in the course of their illness rather than earlier - for "free" and the costs will be passed on to all of us through increased premiums.
But actually things haven't changed in American politics. Democrats want government to do more to take care of people, especially the disenfranchised. The Republicans want everyone to take care of themselves, even if they can't. What doesn't kill you will make you stronger. Self-reliance. Success in the face of adversity. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But they have run out of arguments to support this opinion. All the facts that have come from economics, social science, political science, business, and history tell the same story. Governments work when they are democratic and honest.
Since the Republicans have no reasonable arguments based on fact to support their call for smaller government and reduced help for the disenfranchised, they have emulated Trump and lie about the results of their proposals. Even when independent agencies like the CBO refute their lies, they continue to mislead their constituents. They are struggling, back against the wall, to hold on to an ideology that has failed. And only lies can support it. That failing ideology is the 'rugged individualism and the supremacy of the white tribe'.
Bernie Sanders finally introduced the word socialism into American politics again. Let's hope we hear more of it. The evidence from the world's experiments of how to live together successfully is clear. We need more governmental support for the poor, we need universal health care, we need affordable education, we need higher wages for the 99%, and we need to upgrade out country's infrastructure. These things do not fit into the Republican ideology and lies are their only argument against them. The people of America, as a whole, are smart and will figure this out eventually. I hope they figure it out soon for my children and my grandchildren's sake.
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