Opponents of Obama's health care initiative frequently mention their opposition to socialism and what they call socialized medicine. A common theme in their statements is that they 
worked hard for the health care that they currently enjoy and that they're not willing to risk compromising the quality of their hard earned health care to benefit people who can't afford it. A secondary theme is the fear of increased taxes. Oddly enough they don't seem to believe that the uninsured will take a tax hit.
The song below exemplifies this point of view. It's a vaudeville number from the mists of time here interpreted and transmogrified by Frank Stokes.
Frank Stok
es was an entertainer based in Memphis, TN. Born in 1888 his career predates recorded blues. In the late 1920s when he was a veteran of black show business he made a number of records, some as a solo artist and some with partner Dan Sane as the Beale Street Sheiks. His recordings included both blues and vaudeville/medicine show novelty numbers. Stokes had a powerful voice and impassioned delivery.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 35
I have said it before and I will say it now.
If Jesus were here today and supporting socialized healthcare the Christian GOP would call him lazy, tell him to get a job and a haircut.
There would also be a birther movement demanding a copy of his birth certificate and questionning his father's citizenship.
(that is how they did things for everybody else back then)
As a military retiree I'm covered under TRIcare, and the proposed changes will have no effect on that program. I support expanded health care coverage for every one else, even if that means an increase in my taxes - a position that appears to baffle all of the right-leaning people I know. I've tried explaining the concept of "enlightened self interest" to them, to no avail. I think it's simply beyond their mental capacity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKw9RHd9YAo
I believe my mother used to call it, 'biting off one's nose to spite one's face.'
Almost everyone I've talked to in real life isn't very happy with the direction health care has taken in the last 20 years or so. At one time people seriously discussed the merits of different types of insurance coverage. Now you hear people saying "It sucks."
In my dreams I see suicide bombers taking out Blue Cross, and Big Pharma. I awake refreshed.
Heh, heh.
(If I don't wind up in jail for assault first.)
"At this point, all that stands in the way of universal health care in America are the greed of the medical-industrial complex, the lies of the right-wing propaganda machine, and the gullibility of voters who believe those lies."
It's funny how people on the right dismissed Krugman as a lightweight when he won the Nobel Prize.