Author: Cynthia Samuels

KEEPING OUR EYES ON THE PRIZE: HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC SECURITY: THIS IS A LIFE OR DEATH ELECTION

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It’s fun to write about politics; this blog has always been about many things but has pretty much been all politics all the time for the past three months.  Even so, once in a while all that handicapping and general outrage and idealism and hope crashes smack into the basic realities of what’s at stake here. 

For example, just this month:

  • I had a medical test which costs money, (and which not all insurance companies cover,) that found and dealt with something that was not important today but, if not detected, could someday have been way more important than I even want to think about.
  • A friend I really admire was diagnosed with Lupus – costly and complicated to treat.
  • Another friend’s child was born a month premature, miles away from home during a vacation.  After some very scary post-delivery bleeding, she and her baby are fine now.  Their health insurance guaranteed easy access to capable, coordinated care.
  • A story appeared, in various forms in several papers, reporting "Many Cancer Patients Forgo Health Care Due to Soaring Cost of Medication" and including these other facts:

"25 percent of families with a cancer patient spent their lifetime savings for the treatment.  The same survey said 10% of these families had to forego some basic needs like food, heat and housing" and

"20% of Americans have big problems paying their medical bills."

  • Another, in newspapers and Scientific American, reported that "the United States has slipped from 24th to 29th in infant mortality rates in developed countries," meaning that 28 "first world" countries are doing better than we are in keeping newborn infants alive.

This is the reality in our country today.  And that’s just one issue in just one month. The same is true for education, climate change and our basic civil rights.  And that doesn’t count Iraq, Guantanamo, candidates who want to ban books, threatened legal access to contraception and other women’s rights issues, the growing income gap and the current terrifying economic crises.

I know you know this.  As my rabbi likes to say, "I’m talking to myself here" but as we monitor polls and the endless talk show and newscast chatter, we need to remember.  As I was awakened by a very lovely nurse offering me cranberry juice, with a view of colorful fall leaves on the trees outside the window of a clean, well-lit recovery room, the first thing that came into my mind was how lucky I was to be there.  This election is about winners and losers and parties in control, yes.  But even more, this time, it’s life and death.

Oh, and if you want to get upset about the campaign itself anyway, try this.

                  

BARACK OBAMA, JOHN MCCAIN AND “THE HEALTH OF THE MOTHER”

I’m so used to horrible attitudes toward abortion that I didn’t adequately react to John McCain’s debate response last night.  Did you see it?  Mocking the idea of "health of the mother" in hand gestures and a voice of dismissal.  I don’t think I need to say anything except to thank, for probably the only time in my life, Fox News, for the best edit on YouTube.  It speaks for itself.

WOULD YOU HIRE JOHN MCCAIN OR SARAH PALIN? SERIOUSLY

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This image was just removed from the Sacramento County Republican Party website, according to its Google source. And it’s very disturbing, but  I’m tired.  I admit it.  All these days of Jewish holiday cooking and praying * (not necessarily in that order) have left me frazzled.  So maybe I’m just cranky.  But when I saw this on a search for something else all the anxiety and sadness overcame me. There is hate out there – and the Republicans seem to be finding it useful.

No, the McCain supporters aren’t all like this; capable of dreaming up and posting such a terrible thing.  But they’ve been ginning their crowds into a frenzy and so this "free speech" issue is becoming a life-threatening undertaking.  Generating that kind of distaste so familiar to so many young people will make a big difference.  How that difference plays out will depend on the stars.

I want to write so much more but it has to be tomorrow.  This is a very nervous election; I and many friends get more nervous the larger the margin is.  There’s lots to talk about, although where the debate ranks, not much more than has been said after  But if I don’t go to sleep you won’t want to read what I write; neither of us will understand what the hell I’m trying to say.  More tomorrow.  For now you may want to take a look at the live blog transcript on Writes Like She Talks or the one on BlogHer.

*a post on the same subject from last year.

 

SCARY TIMES: DO WE FACE A NEW GREAT DEPRESSION (AND DOES SARAH PALIN STILL MATTER?)

Depression1Every decision my parents ever made was influenced by the Depression.  What we ate, what we wore, where we shopped, when and how we took vacations, what we "needed" vs what we "wanted" and, in their own lives, what careers they followed and where we all lived.  They had been teenagers in the Depression, and although both went to college (on scholarships and several jobs at once) neither studied what they’d wanted to.  I’ve talked about all this before – my mother refusing even to talk about her life then, my dad so concerned when any of us made a job change or took any professional risk.

I felt it too.  I still read menus from the price to the item, skipping the ones that are too expensive.  Ditto with price tags on clothes.  I’ve always clipped coupons and bought things on sale, shopped at big box stores and always, always read the unit prices of things. And, as an American Studies major I took several courses dealing with the Depression.  I needed to know more about it not only as a student but as a daughter.

I know that this is not the Great Depression.  I know that there are more protections in place, even if too many of them have been removed in the past eight years.  But the economic chaos of the past week has been scary on more than one level.  Of course I worry about us, getting near retirement age.  But my bigger worry is the impact such a colossal change will have on the lives of the younger people we love.  Our sons, first of all, at the beginning of their careers.  And all the families in this community who mean so much to us – just starting families and facing years of tuitions and outgrown winter coats and activity fees.  I also think about just-retired or nearly retired "elders" so well represented by Ronni Bennett’s blog, and all the people living from paycheck to paycheck — who will be endangered by cuts in hours and devastated by the loss of their jobs. 

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And this is where Sarah Palin comes in.  And John McCain.  Because every day the level of negative language rises, the indulgent response to enraged constituents yelling things that should not be spoken in an American election or any other time: threats and  bigoted characterizations and more.  This kind of language is far more dangerous in a bad economy.  Hitler was successful partially because the German economy had so badly frightened people, men like "Father Coughlin" (that’s his picture) preached racism and anti-Semitism on the radio during the Depression with substantial response.  There other, less prominent hate-mongers too – and they had a real following.  People needed someone to be angry at and were vulnerable to that sort of demagogery.  It’s a very scary shadow over the economic crisis, the campaign, and the souls of the American people.   NOW, go read Josh Marshall on why the ghost of Father Coughlin haunts him, too.  And read this very thoughtful post about a tough electoral decision.

The consider what sort of leader allows such things – and doesn’t stand up and tell his/her supporters to cut it out?  What does that say about their leadership once they’re in office?

BARACK OBAMA, SARAH SILVERMAN, FLORIDA AND A COUPLE OF QUICK MEDIA THINGIES

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The first one is this poster, which I found on Jason Rosenberg’s Facebook page.  It’s not quite as good as "I am a community organizer" but it’s kind of cool.
The other thing is today’s New York Times story about The Great Schlep and Sarah Silverman video, which apparently has been screened more than 7 million times in the two weeks since it appeared!  Basically, it urges Jewish grandchildren to lean on their grandparents in Florida to vote for Obama or risk the end of loving visits from the grand kids.  Given her occasional forays into yukkiness, it’s actually pretty cute. 

The Jewish Council for Education and Research, and co-executive director Ari Wallach, are creative, agile and smart and they’ve done a great job both of creating and promoting a very good idea.  Even if few kids can afford to hit the beaches of Hallandale and Miami, they’ll get on the phone and make their case.  And the press has loved it.  If you missed the video, here it is.

Oh Oh Obama – McCain Was So Bad it Was Hard to Watch

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The Ohio uncommitted focus group dials on CNN during tonight’s debate were riveting.  Among other things, almost every time Obama stood up to respond the dials went up.  Almost every time McCain stood up, the dials went down.  If they are at all accurate McCain was having a terrible night.  I would give my right (well, maybe my left) arm to be in the spin room tonight and hear what the McCain people are saying to justify this.

The big problem is that it was so uncomfortable to watch.  McCain was — well — icky.  You didn’t feel sorry for him you just wanted him to stop so you didn’t have to look.  Obama was excellent but the thing was so hard to watch that I don’t know if it’s possible to feel good about it.  When McCain says you need a strong hand on the tiller it sounded like a commercial for the other guy.    I’m just kind of grossed out by pitiful McCainitude.  Nobody on TV is saying what I’m seeing though; Buchanan says Obama was being presidential but he didn’t see McCain as pathetic as I did. 

The Republican commentators on CNN were actually being pretty hard on McCain’s "looking to the past" and was also "condescending to voters" according to the Republican consultants.  They’re being really hard on him.  AND they all seem to be assuming that Obama won – "had to stand toe to toe with John McCain and surpass him — and he did." says Gloria Borger.  David Gergen says he was "very presidential" BUT "he is black and the polls may not be accurate."  He’s talking about the "Bradley effect" issues – people misleading pollsters because they’re embarrassed to say that they won’t vote for an African American. It will be tragic if that’s the case.

Finally, the CNN post-debate poll tonight of 38% D/ 31% R indicates a rout:  54% of independents say Obama won the debate.  30% said McCain so that’s not even all the Republicans.  Oh and CBS’s poll has 59% saying Obama won.
The details tell a lot.  Here’s a breakdown:
Who did best job?                         Obama 54%  McCain 30%   
Who did better on the economy?    Obama 59%  McCain 37%.   
Who expressed his views more clearly? Obama 60% -McCain 30%
Who was more likable?                  Obama 65%-McCain 28% 
Who would better handle Iraq?       Obama 54 %  McCain 47%    
Your opinion of Obama:                 Positive went from 60% to 64%   
                                                    Negatives went down — from 38% to 34%
McCain’s favorables stayed at 51% and unfavorables at 46% but he DID win one category:  Who would better handle terrorism?  McCain 51%  Obama 46%.   The results are astonishing – Obama in almost every category.

I’m still frightened about race though; I think Gergen is right.  These results look great.  But when you canvas in Virginia and see how people respond — the reasons they give for "not liking" Obama, you can see it; feel it.  And we don’t know how many intentionally didn’t answer the door; how many are better actors and keeping their true feelings hidden.  What happens with those voters will determine our future, internationally, politically, economically and racially.  This time, more than usual, we’re not just electing a president here – we’re redefining our country. 

Sarah Palin, Rape Kits and Birth Control

When you first heard that Wasilla, AK and its then-mayor Sarah Palin were charging rape victims for the cost of their rape kits (evidence collecting) you didn’t quite believe it, right?  This video is the first of a series being produced by "The Wasilla Project" and was called to my attention by Nerdette, a sharp cookie whose blog "Not My Gal" is usually on top of these things.  After I watched it I went back to this CNN version of the story: 

It’s kind of slippery but, partly because I’ve been working on the issue of very scary threats to the right to planning ones pregnancies, and to actual birth control and family planning, I’ve very aware of the Palin perspective on these important life decisions.  Watch both videos and see what you think.  And if you want to learn more, stop by Birth Control Watch and see for yourself what informs a lot of the thinking behind Sarah Palin and that guy she’s running with.