Nonplus:
a state of bafflement or perplexity : quandary
… reducing the young man to a nonplus … — Leigh Hunt
… appear to be at a nonplus … — George Borrow
[Merriam-Webster]
Talked about it yesterday with my Arts Editor as one of my mystery words. A mystery no longer. Sorry, dear, there is a present tense.
The conversation of a state-based single payer health system continues:
Congruent with reality was a clever and accurate turn of phrase. However, when I read her article, I paired it with what I know, about what’s going on, and how people behave. It’s not some vast conspiracy on the part of the 1%. But just as with corporations, the sum total of many small decisions result in a general trend towards greed, towards consolidating power, towards amoral and unethical choices, towards grinding the poor underfoot. I happen to think she’s very much — but not solely — right.
Yes. Sometimes I wonder if these individuals who continually are looking to make more money, or consolidate power, might fall into the OCD category of mental illness. Not all of them, of course, but at least some of them. I mean, I’m not impressed with Bill Gates or Sheldon Adelson or George Soros or Warren Buffet – not for their money.
As for state-level single payer, sure, there’s lots of hurdles. I can’t speak for California, not knowing the complexities of their laws. But where there is a will, there is a way. Minnesota could do it alone, perhaps, but a state with 5.5 million people is pretty small potatoes to swim against that current. Clearly any state is NOT going to simply pay for it out of current revenues (hence the example of California that Kevin Drum is really bogus). But if a state said “we cover everyone at a very modest *means-tested* rate” and increased general taxes (income, primarily, but perhaps sales and excise) to do so, it might work.
While I appreciate the impulse of … where there is a will, there is a way, literally it’s not true, and it’s worth recognizing that some dreams are out of reach – and maybe this is one of them.
And I disagree that Kevin’s example is bogus. If you have to double the state budget, as Kevin suggests, that implies a hefty tax jump. A really hefty tax jump. And while I think it’s a proven case that taxes, to a certain point, enhance the economy, there’s also a point where they’re a drag.
If just one state did it successfully, the rest would become dominoes and the Feds would be helpless to stop it.
And turn that around. If one state tried and failed, would that not provide ammunition to the forces opposed to single payer? That would worry me.
I’d like to use the example of the ACA to prove that getting people better care reduces the cost of medical care per capita, and then evolve towards single payer.
As I feared, the left side of the political spectrum is “learning” from the right wing extremists in the GOP who’ve begun labeling “reasonable” Republicans such as Paul Ryan as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only, in case you’re new to UMB – see the link to Speaker Ryan for more info on both). In reality, it’s a regression to primitive tribalism, wherein each member must demonstrate their loyalty to the tribe through extreme adherence to some arbitrary tenet, or be ejected at high velocity from the safety of the tribe. And who’s the victim?
The single biggest proponent of SB562, California’s single-payer health care bill, is the California Nurses Association. But here’s something I didn’t know until yesterday: the CNA is aggressively using support for SB562 as a litmus test for being a true progressive. The bill is basically unpassable, but it’s being used as a way of whipping up the Bernie wing of the Democratic Party against traitors who fail to support it.
Apparently this applies even to B-list bloggers. I got an email today from Chuck Idelson, communications director for CNA’s umbrella organization, National Nurses United. Here’s how it ended:
Having seen two years of your hatred for Bernie Sanders, it’s not surprising you would be equally hostile to ideas he champions like single payer, but it would be nice if you were a little more honest with your readers, or maybe you can recommend the name of your magazine be changed from Mother Jones – who actually fought for working people – to Milton Friedman, which would better reflect your class sympathies.
I’m not sure what Kevin feels for Bernie – I can’t say I clearly remember Kevin even mentioning Bernie, although I’m sure he has. But I suspect this has more to do with Kevin’s off-hand analysis of the future of SB562, as I just happened to cite in this post. It wasn’t even the bill itself in question, but rather the environment in which it existed, which was existentially hostile.
But the real problem here is the rise of some of the worst elements of politics to the top in the Democrats. For all the finger pointing, neither the left nor the right can claim to be lily-white in family, what with the right being saddled with the National Socialists, while the left has the bloody spectre of Stalin, Mao, and full-throated Communism looking over their shoulder. Neither association is entirely fair to either side, but there they are, and they do serve an important function:
The VoteMatch graphic for Senator Amy Klobuchar.
They illuminate the fact that not all behavioral characteristics belong to one side or the other of the political spectrum. Neither side is pacifist; neither side is inherently violent. We all knows this, really, but it’s worth sitting back and contemplating it. Indeed, it might make sense to construct a two dimensional chart, much like the one used by On The Issues (example to the left), but measuring the tendency to use violence to enforce their political views. That would give us “gentle” Republicans and Democrats in opposite corners, and National Socialists and Soviet Communists in the other corners.
I rather suspect Kevin’s interlocutor would end up in a less than desirable corner. Perhaps they’d even be offended.
It might also serve to provide a platform to refute the latest laughable remarks from the National Rifle Association (thanks to Vox for the transcription):
They use their media to assassinate real news. They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler. They use their movie stars and singers and comedy shows and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again. And then they use their ex-president to endorse “the resistance.”
All to make them march. Make them protest. Make them scream racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia. To smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law-abiding — until the only option left is for the police to do their jobs and stop the madness.
And when that happens, they’ll use it as an excuse for their outrage. The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.
I’m the National Rifle Association of America. And I’m freedom’s safest place.
The clenched fist of truth? Perhaps the NRA is transforming into another half-baked militia outfit – a sad ending for a once honorable organization.
The long time reader will have no doubt long connected this post to one of my bugaboos, which I only just realized was connected – team politics. Enforcement of team discipline is an important facet, and that’s the essence of this clumsy bit of mail to Kevin. It’s an isolated bit of evidence of something that may come true for the rest of the Democratic rabble – no more critiques and creativity, either get in line or out the door with you!
And that’ll really kill good politics in America.
So long as they’re not mobile you’re not in trouble.
And some potted plants.
