PoliticusUSA (Politics)

Why Ferguson Is Also, And Again, About Guns (November 26, 2014)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

Ferguson Guns

A colleague who travels in opinionated and passionate social justice agitation circles asked me this week what I thought of the Michael Brown verdict. He wanted a reaction to the decision by a Grand Jury not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for, well anything. I replied truthfully. It’s hard to know where to begin sorting through the micro tragedies that culminate in this disappointing outcome for justice of every kind.

What’s happening in Ferguson, and rattling the cages of strained municipalities throughout the country, is, of course, about our complicated and corrosive attitudes about race. But it’s also about economic and educational inopportunity and inequality. It’s about a broken justice system that Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump rightfully concludes, “needs to be indicted.” And yes, always and forever when it comes to public safety and the senseless loss of life on American streets, it’s about guns.

No one disputes Officer Wilson’s legal right to arms on August 9, 2014. He is an enforcer of Ferguson’s laws, a servant of the public. However, the chain of events and the necessity of Wilson’s use of lethal force on the unarmed teen remain very much in question. In part what the tragedy points to is a fear-driven, trigger-happy culture promoted and profited from by forces such as the NRA and the gun manufacturers it represents. Whatever happened, as another colleague of mine asked this week, “to shooting in leg?” That’s if we accept just cause for firing in the first place.

What happened is that we have been listening to men like National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre tell us for too long that “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.” With their smug and swaggering delivery, the old white cowboys have taken over the messaging machine of an organization that was founded with relatively admirable goals: to advance rifle marksmanship and teach firearm competency and safety.

What’s happened is that the old Wild West trope of a lone man protecting home and hearth has been perverted into a “Me first. Take ’em in dead or alive” mindset. More than the gun itself, there’s no greater threat than a mildly powerful individual afraid of losing his or her place in a fragmented, unstable society. And for whatever reason, the white male Officer Wilson was threatened enough outside the proportionately overrepresentedconfines of the Caucasian-run Ferguson police station, that he opened fire six times on a young black man.

Did that fear stem from the historical tyranny of white male patriarchal ideology and the growing threat of its disappearance in a diversified 21st Century global community? Undoubtedly, it was an influence. Is the tragedy of Brown’s death magnified by the fundamental injustices of our criminal and legal systems, which disproportionately target people of color? Most definitely. And there’s no way we can separate the incident from the settling in of a new Gilded Age that is destroying opportunity for the middle and working classes, as well as the social safety net.

But also. Also. It’s the gun problem. Few will admit it out loud because it’s too unpopular, politically disadvantageous or career threatening. But dissemination does not change reality. We’re all afraid of getting shot – and with good reason. The US firearm homicide rate is over 10 times higher than that of the second ranking high-income nation on a Humanosphere chart (oddly, Portugal). Writer Kate Leach-Kemon summarizes the data: “When it comes to gun violence, the United States stands out.”

A few months ago while visiting Vancouver, it took me a full weekend to pinpoint exactly why I felt safer traversing the streets of the beautiful mountain town. Then I remembered Canadian gun laws. They go like this: “In Canada, civilians are not allowed to possess automatic firearms except those registered before 1978, handguns with a barrel of 105mm or less in length, and specifically modified handguns, rifles or shotguns.”

In the absence of fear for life and safety, the high internal alert that US gun culture forces most of us to adopt in our schools, neighborhoods and homes took a powder. And it was wonderful. For so many reasons, including nationalized health care, education and sensible gun laws, there aren’t Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin catastrophes north of our border.

Cynical individuals and agencies with dubious agendas have spent decades convincing us we can’t have that kind of relative peace here. So we stand by and shake our heads while young man fall. But they’re not telling the truth and we don’t have to tolerate the status quo.

Get Covered Illinois Uses Humor To Upend Republican Obamacare Lies (November 19, 2014)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

OP19OBAMACARE2

A report issued this week by the U.N. Population Fund estimates that 1.8 billion people worldwide are between the ages of 10 to 24 years old. This is the largest number of global youths in world history. In a New York Times story about the data, writer Somini Sengupta summarizes most important conclusion: “Whether [the young people] lift their nations to prosperity — or tear them to shreds — will depend…on how swiftly governments can respond to their demands for decent education, health care and jobs.”

While a majority of the surging youth population is concentrated in the impoverished countries of Southeast Asia and other hubs (with 350 million in India alone), the United States boasts a full fifth of its residents in this age group. Reiterating that these numbers are more than just informational, Sengupta urges, “Countries that do not tend to their young people now are likely to see higher fertility rates and poorly skilled work forces. The report calls on countries to pay particular attention to the needs of girls and young women, including the need for sexual and reproductive health services.”

Thus, the timing seems like it couldn’t be better for this clever ad from Get Covered Illinois, the Land of Lincoln’s health insurance marketplace. In an effort to boost lagging Obamacare enrollment for the young and healthy, which also provides the vital risk pool balance necessary to contain costs, the commercial takes aim at the invincibility trope of youth. It targets the under 30-somethings using a healthy dose of realistic fear, mitigated with humor.

At the same time, the tag line of Get Covered’s ad, “You’ll be OK, probably,” could and should have been highlighted by Democrats in the run-up to this month’s mid-term Gubernatorial and Congressional elections, as the actual Republican alternative to Obamacare. The commercial features young Illinois adults frolicking in spring meadows (clearly the footage was shot WELL before open enrollment as the daytime high is 16 degrees in Chicago at present). These happy people are sporting neck braces, eye patches and casts formed of bubble wrap, cardboard and duct tape as they promote and celebrate a “Luck” health care plan made just for them!

Cute antics aside, I wish the commercial would go farther in acknowledging the malevolent forces at work in the other ear of America’s youth. Take this headline from conservative writer John Fund at the National Review: Young People Should Say No to Obamacare. One of Fund’s more dubious arguments is that, “whether they are slackers, students, or software engineers, young people are smart enough to figure out that they can easily wait to sign up for coverage until after they get sick.”

Really? Coming down with the common cold is one thing, but according to costhelperhealth.com, “Without health insurance, non-surgical treatment for a broken leg typically costs up to $2,500 or more for a fracture that requires a cast.” I don’t know many 20-somethings that have $2,500 on them at a given time. I don’t know many 40 or 50-somethings that do either. The cynical advice to America’s youth from GOP leadership amounts to this: We’d rather have you in bankruptcy court than participating in a successful program that provides access to quality care for millions more people. Because Obama hates job creators. Or something.

To go a step further, I also wish Get Covered would send a more forceful message to the young women of Illinois. While the U.N. Population Fund report acknowledges that “sexual and reproductive health services” are critical to the socioeconomic stability of a nation, the GOP willfully sticks its collective fingers in its ears. Illini ladies: no matter which Republican tries to tell you that repealing Obamacare will result in easier access to birth control, it’s just not true.

In an era of cynical and disingenuous political branding and advertising, I appreciate the Get Covered efforts to break a dangerous Republican stranglehold on the young public. Refusing to buy health insurance via the Affordable Care Act exchanges isn’t cool and rebellious. It doesn’t make you edgy. It just puts everyone at needless risk, and makes our country less affluent, productive and healthy.

Uh Oh! Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Meeting Spells Trouble For GOP Energy Platform (November 15, 2014)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

cry_baby

I have a smart friend who could have her own career as a political writer, were she not pursuing a PhD in another field. Earlier this week, she observed:

“So… that joint press conference with the Presidents of the U.S. and China at the [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting] was sort of a big deal.

If I were in charge of an oil or natural gas company, and I had not yet read the writing on the wall and made the switch to investing less in oil and more in renewable…I’d be freaking out right now. I’d be up all night trying to figure out how to divest from carbon-based energy sources and move to renewables ASAP.”

Her assessment of the summit echoes that of a highly credible source, New York Times Nobel Prize-winning economist and Op-Ed contributor Paul Krugman. In a piece published this week, entitled “China, Coal, Climate,” the celebrated thought leader writes, “It’s easy to be cynical about summit meetings. Often they’re just photo op… At best — almost always — they’re just occasions to formally announce agreements already worked out by lower-level officials. Once in a while, however, something really important emerges. And this is one of those times.”

Pundits and lay people alike seem to agree that while we shouldn’t expect an overnight turnaround in global energy policy, the oil and coal syndicate which controls the Republican party, and to a great extent, the conversation about America’s non-approach to climate change, is on notice. Just one little public display requires a shift from the world’s oligarchs from offense to defense. For the first time since the Carter administration, us “tree hugging hippies” have reason to hope that humanity’s high-speed chase toward Earth’s destruction might be derailed.

Baby steps will be taken, but taken they will be. No matter how vague the language or undefined the qualitative steps forward, as Krugman notes, “we have it straight from the source: China has declared its intention to limit carbon emissions.”

Although there is clearly more at stake here than politics, a move like this can fast track the seismic cultural shift Americans are currently experiencing with other issues such as marriage equality or recreational marijuana legalization. As little as 10 days ago, when less than half of the electorate limped to the ballot box to vote red in the midterm elections, the specter of evolution (pun intended) seemed wildly impossible. Headlines such as this followed GOP victory almost immediately:Republicans Vow to Fight E.P.A. and Approve Keystone Pipeline. The party of scientific repudiation announced that infamous climate change denier Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma will lead the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The situation looked bleak. “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel…” impotent.

Of course we’ll have to be patient and assess China’s follow through against its stated intentions. After all, not much time has passed since Hong Kong rebelled against the mainland’srevocation of promised free, fair and independent elections. And it’s not as though the United States has a blemish-free track records for the alignment of words and actions (a slavery infected “Land of the Free” comes to mind). But perhaps in the perverse way situations like this sometimes play out, China and America will keep each other honest. Neither country is a fan of being publicly embarrassed by the other. If the protection of a nation’s sociopolitical reputation is a motivator in upending decades of cynical energy policy, I’ll suppress a wish for better human impulses and concur with Krugman. It’s another long-term setback for the Republican agenda and “a good week for the planet.”

Democratic Governor Pat Quinn’s Loss The Headline For A Rough Election Night In Illinois (November 5, 2014)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

Pat-Quinn

Nine hour voting lines in my hometown city of Chicago wasn’t the only unfortunate news coming out of the Land of Lincoln this morning. For the first time since 1998, with 99 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, Illinois has a Republican Governor. Although he has declined to issue a concession, Pat Quinn remains 180,000 votes behind his opponent with early, mail-in and provisional votes left to be counted. I wish I could share Quinn’s desperate optimism.

If there is a bright side to the situation, Quinn is the first Illinois Chief Executive since the late 1990s to anticipate a life in the private sector, rather than prison. He was first sworn into office in 2009 after the humiliating (for the state and its voters) impeachment of Democratic predecessor Rod Blagojevich. Quinn was elected to his own full term in 2010 following a tough battle with Republican State Senator Bill Brady, and despite a low approval rating.

Having survived life in the lowlights as Blagojevich’s Lieutenant Governor and a 2011 “Illinois is Broke” viral and traditional media campaign regarding the poor condition of the state’s finances, social services and pension funding plans, there was good reason to believe that Quinn could tough it out this round. In areport this morning, the Chicago Tribune describes Governor-elect Bruce Rauner as “untested…a wealthy equity investor making his first bid for public office.” His inexperience didn’t stop the conservative-leaning paper from publicly endorsing the candidate on October 10 however.

A late October scandal also seemed to bode well for the incumbent’s chances of holding onto office. Mid last month,Republican News Watch reported that the Tribune’s liberal rival, “the Chicago Sun-Times published a devastating article which includes alarming allegations that Bruce Rauner himself personally threatened a female executive and her family.” Subsequently, writes Doug Ibendahl, “The newspaper has been reminding readers for three years that it’s not in the endorsement business anymore. But they’re making an exception for Rauner this year, and the governor’s race is the only race in which they endorse.”

Things that make Illinois voters go hmmm….compared to the relatively benign Pat Quinn. But perhaps that was Quinn’s ultimate undoing. The experienced, dull bureaucrat failed to offer voters enough striking change. A March 2014 Crain’s Chicago Business article entitled State in deepest financial hole ever put it succinctly: “Illinois is far and away in worse shape than any state in the country, although the red ink is flowing more slowly.”

So instead, Illini voters get the untried one percenter. One of the national electorate’s great failings is an inability to connect that a Chief Executive from any party only has so much power when faced with a majority opposition. In this case, Rauner is going to have to try to work with a Democratic-led State Senate and House, the very same people “he vilified during the campaign as part of a ‘corrupt’ political system controlling Springfield.” The $46.5 million that Rauner is reported to have spent on his victory isn’t going to amount to much after he takes office.

It could have been worse. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan successfully fended off Republican efforts to infiltrate Democrats’ veto-proof hold on the state legislature, and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D) was comfortably re-elected to a record fourth term. But with Rauner set to try to unleash a predictable anti-tax agenda in an already broke state, frustrated voters who decided to send Pat Quinn a message last night are reminded that wishes come true are often less enjoyable in the experience

A Week Before Midterms, GOP Devastated By The Fact That The Affordable Care Act’s Working (October 27, 2014)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

affordable-care-act-obamacare-665x385

Though the paper of record does its frustrating best to bury the implications in an innocuous headline, this week The New York Times published an assortment of answers to the question, “Is the Affordable Care Act Working?” Leveraging seven specific subqueries, a variety of writers evaluate the data one year from the official rollout of Obamacare, assessing the legislation’s early efficacy.

If readers are able to get past the meaningless non-reporting of the piece’s opening summary, there is plenty of good news to be found:

“After a year fully in place, the Affordable Care Act has largely succeeded in delivering on President Obama’s main promises, an analysis by a team of reporters and data researchers shows. But it has also fallen short in some ways and given rise to a powerful conservative backlash.”

Let’s take a step back from the inexplicably conflicted tone of this summation and jump right into question one, asked and answered by writer Margot Sanger-Katz. The legislation’s first and most important goal was deceptively simple: lower the number of the hardworking uninsured, who live just one accident or illness away from financial ruin. So, “Has the percentage of uninsured people been reduced?”

The answer just 12 months later is a resounding yes. Per Sanger-Katz, “The number of Americans without health insurance has been reduced by about 25 percent this year — or eight million to 11 million people.” The detailed response offers a number of facts, figures and charts that elaborate on the myriad ways in which formerly shutout people are now able to avail themselves of at least basic coverage – the extension of benefits to young adults attached to parental policies, expansion of Medicaid (despite 23 red states rejecting the aid for purely shameful, partisan reasons), etc.

Honestly, were the analysis to stop there, it would be material enough for supportive Democratic candidates to tout in the last few days of midterm campaigning. At the same time, the unbendable numbers should leave obstinate Republicans who did everything possible to stop Obamacare’s implementation with a lot of ‘splaining to do. We know by now, of course, that neither of these scenarios will occur. I propose a new slogan for the Affordable Care Act: Obamacare -The Most Successful Legislation in Recorded History for Which No One Wants Credit.

In the interest of brevity, I am going to skip a few other answered questions in the Times piece that point to significant patient benefits – expanded coverage at mostly affordable costs, and an end to the pre-existing conditions nightmare. Right about now you may be asking yourself: This is the 21st Century and corporations are people! How have the lowly insurers fared in this great sea change? I give you the piece’s fifth question and answer:

“Has the health care industry been helped or hurt by the law? Wall Street Analysts See Financial Boon Across the Health Care Spectrum.”

How is this possible given the immense howling we heard from the right about the threats to private sector and business growth? Writer Reed Abelson observes, “From the beginning, opponents of the Affordable Care Act have warned that it represented a ‘government takeover’ of the health care system that would lead to crippling regulations on both for-profit companies and nonprofit players. But to the contrary, Wall Street analysts and health care experts say, the industry appears to be largely flourishing, in part because of the additional business the law created.”

In another words, exactly NONE of the oft-shouted objections to reforming America’s broken health care system came to fruition. Not a one. Everyone wins except for the low-income uninsured, who remain so thanks to the cruelty of their Republican governors. This should be a huge asset to struggling Democratic candidates and a kick in the teeth to overconfident Repubs. But it won’t be. And why? Because somewhere along the way, almost every single legislator as well as the mass media decided to buy into the GOP’s narrative. Obamacare is a very bad thing.

Even the “liberal rag” New York Times offers no assistance in righting this ideological injustice. How to else to explain the throwaway last sentence of the article’s opening summary: “[Obamacare] has also fallen short in some ways and given rise to a powerful conservative backlash.” Um, so what? Show me a piece of perfect legislation and I’ll show you a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Also, here’s a short list of other forces that have given rise to “powerful conservative backlash:” a woman’s right to make family planning choices, the normal functioning of government and the living and breathing of one Barack Obama.

The numbers are out. Will they make a dent in the collective ACA dithering, hair-splitting and denial in time to make a difference at the polls?