They say the U.S.A. has become polarized, but I don’t see it that way. Polarization implies balance of extremes, and we are anything but balanced. There is a significant vocal minority at the right extreme (e.g., Tea Party), trying to dominate the traditional right-wing moderates and the so-called “left” (who are really centrists, per 20th century definitions).
The Affordable Care act is a centrist, highly compromised health plan for a nation dealing with a healthcare crisis. As others have said, a more helpful solution would’ve been a single-payer plan where everyone pays in taxes (as they can afford) and then all citizens get health care, rather than filtering (and diluting) everyone’s money through for-profit insurance carriers. However, it’s better than nothing and it restricts the most egregious profiteering (e.g., dropping or refusing sick patients from coverage).
The Congress-led partial government shutdown based on their demand to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act (on the verge of its going into full effect) is infuriating, unfair and brilliant. This is a brilliant strategy because in the best-case scenario, they succeed and the ACA will be powerless or even repealed and the largest legacy of President Obama (their sworn enemy) will have been said to fail. If they don’t succeed at reducing the ACA to dust, they’ve still severely hurt the government and potentially the economy, also making President Obama look bad (because people attribute health of government / economy to the president, even though presidential powers are no greater than that of the other 2 branches of government) AND they make their opposition look bad.
It’s a sad fact of human psychology that when observed from afar, an argument between two parties will make both parties look as bad as the worst party. If one party takes an extreme and intractable position, the opposing party, even if reasonable and willing to compromise [but not concede everything] will end up looking extreme and intractable. So, while the government shutdown looks bad for the right-wingers who initiated it, the public perception is actually that “both parties” are causing it and that “both parties” are unwilling to compromise (or “holding government hostage” or whatever metaphor you like). This makes the liberal Democrats look equally culpable, when they’re only trying to be reasonable and maintain some integrity. Just look at most of the [non-extremist source] news headlines and listen to the moderate/mainstream pundits – it’s always about “both sides” being “unwilling to compromise” or similar.
Anyways, that’s (gaps in) government. In personal governance (gaps), I’ve been away from the writing for a long while, due to near-obsession with planning my “fake wedding” / “insteading” / “Commitment Party” / “Wedding Apocalypse” that is to occur next month. I hope to be back with monthly(ish) missives after that.
On a date-specific point on gaps, you can “discover” more about the myth of Christopher Columbus here: How Columbus Sailed into U.S. History, Thanks to Italians (on NPR.org). Hint: Columbus Day was more of a political invention than a celebration of a “hero”.
