Just sick about health care

[dreamshark]

I originally posted this in a comment to someone else's LJ, but it deserves its own post. Health care reform (or health insurance reform, as the Democrats have cleverly started repositioning it) has been at the absolute top of my political priority list for years, but there was no politician willing to take it on. I was so relieved when Obama stepped forward. Watching his efforts be derailed by cynical lies is just horrifying. Everything he says is so sensible, but too many people aren't even listening, they're just acting like mindless dittoheads. And nobody, even Obama, is willing to identify the elephant in the room: the 30% of our health care dollar that is simply burned by the insurance industry.

I know I should do something, but I can hardly bear to even read about it anymore. I haven't been posting about it in my LJ because I'm pretty sure I'd just be preaching to the choir.

Should I be trying to attend those horrible Town Meetings to balance out the orchestrated protests? Writing my own congressional representatives and senators seems like the place to start: is an email enough or do they still pay more attention to snail mail? Is there any point writing senators and congressmen from other regions who may have more power in the process? Does anybody have any suggestions on the best place to start?

Comments

[lakeboy-55.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Me too!

Attending your Reps/Senators Town Meetings couldn't hurt (Representative Ellison is having one on August 24, IIRC).

Mail to Representatives/Senators couldn't hurt, although I suspect that letters to Ellison and Franken would be preaching to the choir. Klobuchar could probably stand to get mail that tries to move her in a progressive direction.

What's odd, to me, is that maintaining the status quo is really a killer to the competitiveness of American businesses that are *not* part of the current Health Care Cartel - and yet I don't really see much of a pushback from American business against the cartels and the crazies...

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Go to your representatives offices. That's my plan.

K.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I'm totally with you on this, especially about the insurance companies. And, having listened to about thirty seconds of "angry people" (the ones who DON'T want the reform) at one of the town meetings reported on NPR, I'm afraid that if I attended one someone would have to bail me out the next day.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

A paper letter, a phone call, or turning up in person is better than email. They've discovered that most email is sent with one click from a pressure group site :-).

Showing the flag at town meetings is definitely good. Also, check the news coverage; if they misrepresent what you saw go on, write THEM, and write about it on your blog.

Talking to any people who aren't members of the choir that you know is potentially valuable, though pushing that into work space is likely to be resented and possibly cause trouble. But people are much more likely to listen to people they already respect.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

The key questions here are "Why do you fear free speech?" and "Why do you hate democracy?" :-)

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"A paper letter, a phone call, or turning up in person is better than email."

I've been hearing that for some years, but I wonder if it is still true. I'm pretty sure that online petitions are still pretty worthless, but I think there are tools easily available for sorting out boilerplate email from a genuine letter that happens to be sent via email. Anybody have current info on how Senators and Congresspeople actually tally their mail these days? minnehaha?

[barondave.livejournal.com]

If you go to a Town Hall meeting (and I may go with you), go early and get a seat in front. The highly-paid for and extremely well organized "spontaneous" disruptors like to sit close to pretend that they're representative.

Aside from direct confrontation during meetings, the best strategy is to speak the truth as loudly as they're lying. Don't play their game, don't let them control the debate. Just speak your mind, forcefully, and stick to the facts.

Calling them 'Commies' is fun and more or less true (they're fighting against the policies of Churchill and FDR, among others, and promoting soviet-style oligarchies), but is only to be used when 'fucking morons' doesn't get a rise out of them...

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Heh. :) Short and concise even stands a chance of being heard before it's shouted down.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I cringe at the thought of going to a meeting like this. I hate crowds, I hate meetings and I don't want anything to do with these asshole professional disrupters.

I'm more likely to actually GO to one if somebody would go with me. On the other hand, if you're planning to go and get in arguments, you can sit down front and do that. I'll skulk in the back and watch.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

If you go to one, I would (depending upon time and location and any prior commitments) be willing to go with.