My politics are simple and mulishly dull these days. An unjust war on two fronts has been for six years the ugly avatar of our arrogance, and it lies recursively at the root of almost every other major problem in the United States. As infrastructure totters on aging legs, as basic health care is treated as a luxury whose expense cannot possibly be ensured, and as the largest debt in the history of the world mounts, nearly a trillion dollars have been allocated for two wars of illegitimate initiation and illegal prosecution. New York’s Senator Schumer informed the Congress more than a year ago that the two-pronged invasions and eternal occupations were rented at a rate of some four hundred and thirty million dollars a day.
Right now more than one person very close to me is suffering from a minor illness, or a dental discomfort, or some other small problem from which they will certainly recover but for which they won’t see a doctor, because they don’t have basic health insurance. To a man, they work their jobs and somehow manage to pay bills, but the one from Blue Cross or whichever insurer-cum-acturial care dictator is one they can’t afford to add, or to maintain. All across the country, each of those cases is a minor tragedy. Too many of those cases are major catastrophes. In the agregate, they are an offense to the industry and faithfulness of we, the people. We deserve better, if only in return for our most base national service, as we, the producers.
The myriad compromise and complexity of the unfolding debate about health care is not surprising; it is a complicated issue with so many interests vested. But it rankles when considered with the cost of these doomed wars we began on the barest lies and continue even in the face of their foregone strategic, and increasing tactical, failure. Perhaps greater change than I expect can still emerge — on any matter I might entertain here. President Obama is in large part responsible for renewing the health care argument, and I won’t deprive him of that credit.
In the last two months, I have spoken determinedly and harshly against this President, for whom I hopefully voted. The war — one war, in two places specifically brought low, Iraq and Afghanistan, but more than that, the war as the general posture of an enduring and corrosive aggressiveness — is the defining matter. This President needs loyal and insistent opposition, because for the moment he remains the best chance we have. That is why I insist he do better. Every other compromise may be accepted, but the war must stop.
Check back in nine months for my next cheerful column on current events.
