Sicko

You know, sometimes I really have to wonder if the right-wing Republican propagandists over at Fox news take themselves seriously, because I have to believe that every time the cameras turn off the "reporters" let loose a devious "Bwaa-Haa-Haa". Check out Fox News' reaction to Sicko, and the way that they use the latest (and completely inept) terror attacks in London as a means to scare Americans away from supporting Universal Health Care

Here's the Paul Krugman article mentioned in the video: Health Care Terror.

These days terrorism is the first refuge of scoundrels. So when British authorities announced that a ring of Muslim doctors working for the National Health Service was behind the recent failed bomb plot, we should have known what was coming.

"National healthcare: Breeding ground for terror?" read the on-screen headline, as the Fox News host Neil Cavuto and the commentator Jerry Bowyer solemnly discussed how universal health care promotes terrorism.

While this was crass even by the standards of Bush-era political discourse, Fox was following in a long tradition. For more than 60 years, the medical-industrial complex and its political allies have used scare tactics to prevent America from following its conscience and making access to health care a right for all its citizens.

...

What outrages people who see "Sicko" is the sheer cruelty and injustice of the American health care system - sick people who can't pay their hospital bills literally dumped on the sidewalk, a child who dies because an emergency room that isn't a participant in her mother's health plan won't treat her, hard-working Americans driven into humiliating poverty by medical bills.

"Sicko" is a powerful call to action - but don't count the defenders of the status quo out. History shows that they're very good at fending off reform by finding new ways to scare us.

These scare tactics have often included over-the-top claims about the dangers of government insurance. "Sicko" plays part of a recording Ronald Reagan once made for the American Medical Association, warning that a proposed program of health insurance for the elderly - the program now known as Medicare - would lead to totalitarianism.

Annie Schectman is our new intern here at Future Majority. She'll be compiling our "Around the Tubes" posts for the summer, as well as helping us have a deeper presence on FaceBook and MySpace. Give her a warm welcome. --Editors

Around the Tubes: An account of the week’s most interesting posts.

• On June 28, Aaron Blake posted on The Hill, illustrating the trends of Republican voters concerning health care, foreign policy, and gays in the military. The post revealed the lack of growth within the party, as millennials tend to be more progressive and ideological divides stratify older voters. According to the poll, “41 percent of Republicans [are] now 55 or older, compared to 28 percent in 1997.” While the Republicans polled self-identified as conservatives, most endorsed candidate Rudy Guliani, who leads the polls with a notoriously checkered background
• YouTube and CNN have partnered up to create Community Counts, an awesome way to make the presidential debates interactive. The democratic site allows voters to post video questions for the candidates like “What is your position on gays in the military?” or “What is your gun control policy?” Anyone can then vote to determine which questions are asked, relieving Anderson Cooper from his position as youth-question moderator -- much to the relief of all young politicos. The videos are all tame, but like everything on YouTube, they are infinitely creative and genuinely young.
• Also on YouTube, a jarring anti-war video featuring portraits of dejected Iraqi children. The propagandist post is hokey but effective.
• Emily Greenhouse of The Nation writes about SAVE (The Student Association for Voter Empowerment), a new for-youth by-youth organization that strives to increase electoral participation among young voters by making the system more accessible. SAVE hopes to permeate college campuses by next fall but needs financial support. As a high school junior eagerly searching for politically active campuses, I am thrilled by organizations like SAVE that bolster my confidence in my generation of progressive voters.
• Generation Debt reviewed Michael Moore’s latest film “Sicko,” focusing specifically on Moore’s comments about the effect of student loans on young voters. Debt, Moore and his interviewees assert, demoralizes and frightens young Americans, effectively subverting voter turnout. The post’s comments were overwhelmingly antagonistic towards Moore (I think unwarrantedly). True, Moore can be crude, sensational, and controversial, but I was pleasantly surprised by the success of Sicko. I found it informative and well-supported. In fact, I thought his reflection on student loans was a slight divergence from his health care narrative but not at all egregious. Besides, when the mainstream media is dominated by Bush-apologists, what’s wrong with a little progressive propaganda?