The Left's Idiocy on Health Reform, By Joe Klein

[jefferson_dem]

The Left's Idiocy on Health Reform
By Joe Klein Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009

In the snarkier precincts of the left-wing blogosphere, mainstream journalists like me are often called villagers. The reference, so far as I can tell, has to do with isolation: we live in this little village on the Potomac — actually, I don't, but no matter — constantly intermingling over hors d'oeuvres, deciding who is "serious" (a term of derision in the blogosphere) and who is not, regurgitating spin spoon-fed by our sources or conjuring a witless conventional wisdom that has nothing to do with reality as it is lived outside the village. There is, of course, some truth to this. Washington is insular; certain local shamans are celebrated beyond all logic; some of my columnar colleagues have lost touch with everything beyond their armchairs and egos.

But there is a great irony here: villagery is a trope more applicable to those making the accusation than to those being snarked upon. The left-wing blogosphere, at its worst, is a claustrophobic hamlet of the well educated, less interested in meaningful debate than the "village" it mocks. (At its best, it is a source of clever and well-informed anti-Establishment commentary.) Indeed, it resembles nothing so much as that other, more populous hamlet, the right-wing Fox News and Limbaugh slum. Hilariously, as we stagger from one awful decade into the next, there has been a coagulation of these extremes — a united front against the turgid ceremonies of legislative democracy, like compromise, and disdain for the politician most responsible for nudging our snarled checks and balances toward action, Barack Obama. The issue that has brought them together is opposition to the Senate's health care–reform bill, which makes some sense on the right, but none at all on the left.

<SNIP>

Actually, both the left and right opponents of health care reform are drinking from the same watercooler. Activists on both sides — consulting their focus groups, no doubt — found that the message that most roused their troops was the same: a government takeover of health care. The tidbit in the plan that came closest to embodying that message was a worthy but relatively minor provision called the public option, which would offer something like Medicare as one of a menu of choices for several million Americans not receiving health insurance from their employers. For the right, this was socialism. For the left, it was a step toward stripping private insurers of their choke hold on the system. When the public option was killed — by Lieberman, of all people — the left saw Iraq redux and rebelled. Not only was there no public option, but people would also be mandated — forced! — to patronize the same insurance companies that exploit them now. There would be a windfall of 30 million new customers for the insurers and drug companies. What a sellout! Bloggers at sites like Daily Kos, the Huffington Post (including Arianna herself) and FireDogLake held a village bonfire. Dean materialized to help fan the flames.
(Read "Forcing Insurers to Spend Enough on Health Care.")

To be sure, the bill that emerged from the Senate has problems. But it is landmark social legislation that guarantees and subsidizes health care coverage for 30 million Americans who don't have it now. Yes, this means a lot of new customers for the insurance companies — but the insurers will face strict new regulations, and many of their new customers will be people they refused to cover in the past. Ultimately, it means an annual income redistribution of $200 billion to help the working poor pay for insurance, which is why Republicans oppose the bill. But Jacob Hacker, the leading promoter of the public option, favors it. Every Democratic Senator, including those like Ohio's Sherrod Brown who have impeccable liberal records, favors it.

The denizens of the left blogosphere consider themselves the Democratic Party's base. But they are not. For Democrats, as opposed to Republicans, the wing is not the base; the legions of loyal African Americans, union members, Jews, women and Latinos are. In the end, the sillier left-village practitioners are stoking the same populist exaggeration — the idea that Washington is controlled by crooks and sellouts — that conservative strategists like Bill Kristol believe will bring the Republicans back to power. The perversity of this is beyond comprehension.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1950575,00.html#ixzz0bDGFBXVd

[beachmom]

1. ......

:popcorn:

[PBS Poll-435]

3. ....

:popcorn: :toast:

[beachmom]

8. Oh, I forgot the beer. Thanks!

[PBS Poll-435]

11. It's five o'clock somewhere...

:)

[HughMoran]

23. 5:30

:)

[PBS Poll-435]

9. .

[Adelante]

4. .

:popcorn:

[jefferson_dem]

6. ...

Pass it over... :popcorn:

It's only what needs to be said. :)

[Avalux]

2. I expect you will get a lot of unrec's, but not from me. K&R.

I agree with Joe Klein in this instance. :thumbsup:

[Clio the Leo]

5. Nor from me. NT

[Armstead]

57. Yes those horrible liberals

:eyes:

[grantcart]

7. One of Klein's better efforts and am shocked, shocked to hear that there is mocking of

the President in the left-wing blogoshpere but


no matter how good the first paragraph is I don't think it needs to be repeated in the OP!!

[jefferson_dem]

10. Ya.

Copy/paste faux pas. Thanks. Fixed now.

[depakid]

12. Woo hoo another vacuous piece from Joe Klien

Here's news:

When one has to tout the likes of Joe Klein for regurgitated "analysis" and "sharp tongued" criticism- one's position on the merits is tenuous at best.

Who next? Elanor Clift? Richard Cohen?

:rofl:

[jefferson_dem]

14. The piece stung, eh?

Sorry. :nopity:

[depakid]

LOL-Joe "liberals hate America" Klien has never had an original thought in his life!

Far from "stinging" I find it amusing that anyone (at least anyone with half a memory of the past decade) would hang their hats on any column by that doofus.

Credibility = zero.

[Ken Burch]

31. It's what you'd expect from Joe "This is a center-right country" Klein.

A man who, forty years later, is probably STILL shocked that the Depression turned Woody Guthrie into a red.

[tblue]

19. I'm sure marginalizing people will make everyone like this bill.

I'm not at either extreme. I see both sides of this bill. I just think it's useless to tell people to stifle their opinions, or to like something they don't like.

[Armstead]

47. It stung with the venom of pure idiocy

[SoxFan]

15. Proving Klein's point...

[SoxFan]

13. Amen, brother

:fistbump: and recc'd

[jefferson_dem]

17. This bit belongs in my sig line:

"In the end, the sillier left-village practitioners are stoking the same populist exaggeration — the idea that Washington is controlled by crooks and sellouts — that conservative strategists like Bill Kristol believe will bring the Republicans back to power. The perversity of this is beyond comprehension."

[SoxFan]

20. It amazes me

I got into an argument on another Dem board. Several people with little understanding of Louisiana politics were insisting that Mary Landrieu be defeated by a more progressive primary challenger. I tried to point out that the Landrieus (Mary and her Lt Gov brother, Mitch) are about as liberal as you can get and still be electable in Louisiana, but that was met with scoffing.

[Armstead]

48. Please explain that in plain English...You DON'T think that Washington is corrupt?

Someone should give you a tour of K Street sometime.


:shrug:

[THUNDER HANDS]

55. its not that its corrupt

it's that there are competing interests at stake, but the other side knows that the left tends to take its ball and stop playing after it loses a few innings.

[Armstead]

58. Washington is corrupt -- Not all of it, but enough to muck things up pretty bad

And the left (whatever that is) has been hanging in for years and years trying to change things. Problem is they don't get any back up from the political elites who listen more to the money people.

[jefferson_dem]

70. Washington is not corrupt.

The fact that you suggest a place - our nation's capital - is corrupt speaks to my point.

Sure, there are corrupt politicians and lobbyists. But the American political system is not corrupt in an of itself and to shower that false outrage whenever one doesn't like a political outcome is asinine. The right does it by marching out ACORN. The left does it by marching out CORPORATISM. Both are hollow exercises in reductionism and does nothing but make the accuser look...like an idiot (to play off of Klein's characterization).

If you think the health care reform bill is a corrupt product, then you must also believe that every single Democratic Senator is complicit. Good luck with that.

[Voltaire]

72. Okay then. . .

I think the health care reform bill is a corrupt product and I believe that every single Democratic Senator is complicit. Feel free to call me all the immature idiots who want a pony as you care to. The truth will out in the slimy details. We fringe lefties will try to refrain from saying "I Told You So" AGAIN when it all shakes out.

I weep for this immature mess of a country. Compromise. The Democrats did not compromise. They CAPITULATED. Check the dictionary for the difference.

[Armstead]

74. Health Care reform is a corrupt bill.---As for Washington, you are half right

I used to live in Washington. Right on Capital Hill about four blocks from the dome. As a city Washington is like any other city as a mix of a large mass of people from all sorts with all the variety that implies.

As for Government being corrupt, I will agree with you -- but only to a point. There are plenty of good things about our government and the way it operates. That's why I'm a liberal. I will agree that blanket accusations like "big government is bad" is a GOP meme. And the media meme that the whole system sucks is often used to score cheap points and leads to dead-end "they're all the same" cynicism (as exemplified by Lou Dobbs).

However, realistic cynicism about the current institutions of government -- coupled with a belief that it can be fixed -- is different and is a necessary step I believe. It is difficult to deny that our government has been corrupted and broken over the last 35 years for a whole combination of reasons. In my own opinion, when Democrats do things that begin to fix it, I'm for them. But when they benefit from the corruption and/or say "there's nothing we can do to change things" then I'm not going to support that.

This HCR bill IS thoroughly corrupt. The fact that a tiny minority of Democrats who are bought and sold by Big Insurance were able to shape the bill in a way that even most of the bills "supporters" don't like is ample evidence. Most democrats wanted some form of public option or Medicare buy in. But they lost as much as the open critics did. They just have to pretend otherwise in public.

ALSO if this were simply a matter of one bill, I might be better able to shrug my sholders and say "Oh well. Lost that one. I'll just look at whatever silver linings there are, and hope we do better next time."

But this bill is just the latest in a long string of sellouts and cave in by the Democrats over the last two decades. Its a pattwern in which they have been part of the problem, not the solution.I could give you a lot of specifics, but that wiuold be a verrrrry long post.

Maybe that makes me an "idiot" but after three decades of having a conservative party (GOP) and one semi-conbservative party (Democrats) I'm fed up and tired of even moderate liberalism being unrepresented (and now demonized) by the Democratic Party.

[tblue]

16. "Shut up and eat your spinach! And smile while you're eating it, too!"

Meh. Everybody's entitled to their opinion.

[cry baby]

18. knr

[Bjorn Against]

21. When Joe Klein gets so pissed that he resorts to using name calling against you....

It is usually a good suggestion that you are on the right track.

[Ken Burch]

32. true dat x 10,000,000!

:thumbsup:

[HughMoran]

22. I tend to agree with Joe

Nothing else to add to what he said - it's all been said before.

[BeyondGeography]

24. The point about Iraq is interesting

and valid, too. I was amazed how many of the bill killers brought up their prescience on Iraq as part of their rationale for opposing the Senate's HCR. Made no sense at all to me, a fellow right-about-it-from-the-starter on IWR, at the time. Still doesn't.

[struggle4progress]

25. Yawn: Another attack on "leftists" from rightwing Time magazine.

[Cha]

36. So? Why is pointing out what they stand for, attacking?

Any lies in there?

[struggle4progress]

42. A useful analysis exposes political architecture by identifying specific interest groups

indicating the underlying material motives and consciousness, supported by factual details. In contrast to such analysis, the corporate media here typically focuses on opinion-based discourse that encourages emotional reaction without providing the factual underpinnings or any useful conceptual framework that would provide understanding. Klein's discussion is of the latter variety. Your defense, that Klein is merely "pointing out what they stand for," illustrates the problem precisely, because it is entirely unclear who "they" are or how one determines "what they stand for" (since the group is ill-defined) -- and on that basis it is impossible to make any sense of why "they" stand for whatever it is "they stand for." No real insight can result: one can emotionally agree with Klein, or can emotionally disagree with him, but nothing more. It is empty noise

[Atticus]

45. Thank you! Thank you! If there were five posts a night as concise and well-considered as yours,

some of the thoughtless snark would be shamed by the comparison and either step up or shut up.

[Cha]

51. Yeah, like the empty noise the so-called left screams

at President Obama..gotcha.

jane hamsher is the worst so far with her "Marching With The Teabaggers" and her cozy freakshow with grover norquist.

[struggle4progress]

53. Frankly, I have no idea what you mean by "the Left." There is an widespread American style of

pseudo-politics, where people feel they have done their duty by expressing opinions: it's common across the political spectrum here, and it doesn't really go very far in effecting any change. I learned practical politics from a mixed group of folk, all of whom would have called themselves Leftists, and all of whom were ten or twenty or thirty years older than me: they were interested in actual nuts and bolts organizing, based on detailed examination of existing power structures, and they taught me to make whatever alliances I could make in good conscience with the aim of winning

With Obama, we have a former community organizer in the White House, who will understand how to cooperate with disciplined grassroots movements, if we can organize such movements. If we can't organize such movements, existing establishment pressures from economic groups and the corporate media will predictably push him steadily towards the right. The problem is not that "Leftists" are unhappy about this state of affairs (because they should be unhappy about it), the problem is that most people have no real clue how to fight back except by expressing unhappiness

I'll agree with you that the tantrums about Obama are tiresome and childish, but it's predictable considering the venue and the cultural context: this is a message board, populated by Americans, many of whom have no grasp of political action, beyond expressing their opinions. The task is first, to provide people here with useful facts and helpful analytic tools and next, to motivate them to reach out and become involved in real (rather than virtual) political organizations and to become involved in the hard long-term work that will be necessary for progressives to win essential fights

[Armstead]

44. A lot of mischaracterizations...and probably a few lies too

This is the same guy who wrote an anonymous book about the Clintons and never had the balls to admit it until he was outed.

[Ikonoklast]

26. I was skeptical. I wanted the public option.

But if Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown can get behind this bill, I think I can, too.

[TheKentuckian]

27. Same lame arguments that ignore the actual bill, it's structure, it's enforcement systems,

and how it gets paid for with even lamer insults to anyone who thinks this bill is garbage. Mix me up with Hamsher or a teabagger at your own risk.

[inna]

28. lol, what sick drivel.

isn't this considered a flamebait?

[SoxFan]

60. Posting something you disagree with is flamebait?

BURN THE HERETICS! BURN THEM!

[Hello_Kitty]

29. I could swear Nate Silver wrote this same article.

As did Ezra Klein, Paul Krugman, Ronald Brownstein, and others from among that small group of pundits who quote each other all the time.

[Ken Burch]

30. Ok, Joe, it's unfair to call you a "villager"

You should properly be called "The Villager Idiot".

And you illustrated, with the elitist, arrogant, and out-of-touch tone of your post exactly WHY the blogosphere feels the way it does about people like you.

Was there a REASON you thought it would be a good idea to write this little piece?

[Armstead]

49. It gets attenti9on. he gets to be called "controversial" and gets invioted on talk shows

His speaking fees go up.

It's his act.

A journalistic PT Barnum.

[Orsino]

75. He was on deadline, yet again, staring at a blank page...

...and reverted to empty-headed vitriol, yet again.

It's Kleinertown, Jake.

[27inCali]

33. rings true to me

[burning rain]

34. Wow, a major US journalist takes the fiscal moderate conservative/social liberal view.

Oh wait... that's the official ideology of mainstream media in the US. When and if a robust and unambiguously economic liberal measure--say, EFCA--comes up, Klein will have nothing nice to say about it, and that should provide a clue as to his ideology. These cats are pro-business from beginning to end, while making sure to show a little social concern that doesn't offend their sponsors.

[BeFree]

35. heh

The lack of any, ANY counters to the points in the OP make evident the truthfulness of the words. I am embarrassed by the small fraction of fellow leftists that can't see the forest for the tree stuck in their eye.

Through this whole debate about HCR the words from a small fraction of the left has reminded me of the Fox news style reporting. It's getting harder and harder to present myself as a leftist, they are giving us such a bad name.

'Twas ever thus?

[TheKentuckian]

61. There have been plenty of counters to the points in the OP that you have seen forever

You might have even made them yourself once upon a time when this abortion was the Finance committee mark.

He states that there are strict new regulations and that is false. The regulations are chock full of purposeful loopholes and just in case there are no enforcement mechanisms other than the generally utterly ineffective ones we have now and the threat of not being permitted to operate in the segregated exchange that was filled with people they have no interest in covering.

He claims large numbers of new people will have health care but the truth is they are getting help with paying for a policy that is entirely possible they will not be able to afford to utilize.

The bill is heavy on saying we did and light on doing.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

37. DC pols indulge in casual corruption that would get them kicked off any city council in the country

Yet Joe says:

"In the end, the sillier left-village practitioners are stoking the same populist exaggeration — the idea that Washington is controlled by crooks and sellouts — that conservative strategists like Bill Kristol believe will bring the Republicans back to power. The perversity of this is beyond comprehension."

The surprise is that we KNEW the Republicans were corrupt, the double-dealing of the Democrats has caught many of us by surprise.

What is in the bill speaks for itself. It doesn't make even the barest pretense of putting citizen before corporation or contribution. What is perverse is that Joe doesn't get this or see that someone is kicking the sleeping dog.

In my area a longtime respected member of the State Senate was caught dealing himself a self-serving no-show position with an entity he was very responsible for funding. It didn't pass the sniff test, the local papers covered it, an ethics investigation was called for and the guy stepped down before it even began.

Few towns and town councils of any size would tolerate the kind of quid pro quo that we have lately been treated to. The "Villagers" in DC are the ones who are perverse. They have all morphed into an elastic "everybody does it so it must be ok morality". NO, IT ISN"T OK. FOR EITHER PARTY.

[girl gone mad]

38. ick.

Trying to play minorities against opponents of this bill is truly detestable, as if minorities are some monolithic, vacuous group that will stand behind the President no matter what, simply because of his race. That's a preposterous and stomach-turning supposition.

[freddie mertz]

39. Joe Klein, the king of media-whore morons.

Since the 1990s at least.

"You don't matter. You are not the base. So you better fall on line or else the Repubs will win..."

Hilariously stupid.

[jgraz]

40. Joe Klein's Idiocy on Everything, By Everyone.

:eyes:

[Hello_Kitty]

41. BTW, Joe Klein lives in Westchester Co. NY

Which is soooo far from the city. He has to go through the Bronx to get to Manhattan. How DARE you call him a Villager!!1!

[Armstead]

43. Joe Klein is the guy they invented the phrase "media whore" for

Not really, but he is media whoredom personified.

He sips his fucking cocktails with the Park Avenue Crowd and then has the balls to complain about "liberals" being elitists?

As someone once said -- "I welcome his contempt."

[depakid]

46. And lest we forget that beauty of an "original" novel: "Primary Colors

:rofl:

[rapturedbyrobots]

50. The perversity of this is beyond comprehension.

i think that sums up the DLC position on this entirely. they can't believe or understand what is happening to this right now because it is entirely beyond their paradigm. they thought that they could sneak neoliberal policies by if they just kept a 'D' after their names...NAFTA anyone? this would allow them to please the imaginary center-right majority of the country, pull in independents, and keep enough of the left base in check. they never imagined a situation where the right would reject ANYTHING they put forward simply in the name of partisan obstruction (having a 'D' doesn't always help)...and the progressive faction of the democratic party would call foul on their ENTIRELY pro-business agenda. this double-whammy is hitting them hard (58% against the health care bill!?!?)...and the fact that DLC-style third-way politics is failing big time is well...beyond comprehension. here's a clue...nobody wants you're third way...not the right...not the progressive left (for entirely different reasons)...only you and the insurance & finance industries.

[JoeyT]

67. Nope

but it sure is fun watching them spin and cry over the rejection of third way policies.

[HuckleB]

52. K & R.

[martymar64]

54. Joe Klein can suck my left nut

[THUNDER HANDS]

56. i don't often agree with Joe Klein

but he's right here.

People on the left are blinded by their hatred of the insurance industry that they can't believe a Democratic congress and a Democratic president didn't blow themselves up trying to destroy their industry.

[Armstead]

59. Um, real regulation and a choice of public insurance is not a bad idea

[TheKentuckian]

64. Destroy would be great. Controlling them would be good.

Compete with would be ok. Leashing would be acceptable.

Feeding us, every soul along with each and every nickle they can shake loose, to them is somewhat less popular than any number of possible reforms.

[PurityOfEssence]

62. Uh-oh: now that poor ol' Brother Oral's dead, that nasty 900 foot-tall Jesus is on the loose...

Better shake down some more po' folk while ya got the chance

[saltpoint]

63. How many are there on the left, anyway -- a couple hundred here

and there?

Klein looks back at now from some years hence and his points are persuasive.

The underlying point about the Left shrieking is related to pure arithmetic. If lefty bloggers oppose Obama on one or more issue from what context do they convert objection to policy, and Klein is correct to suggest they don't have one.

[TheKentuckian]

66. Yup, that's why sometimes you have to accept you didn't have the ammo

and back off rather than jump into the fray and end up wildly throwing your gun in the general direction of the shots fired in hopes that you score a lucky hit and knock the guy with 50 cal and 10,000 rounds in the head.

Or at least admit you got a dud that is going to have to be heavily modified and drop the mandate until you demonstrate some reason to hope this bullshit works for the people.

A bill that includes a personal mandate without at least national and gradually expanding exchanges, a funding system that doesn't rob union and other workers who have sacrificed wages for benefits, strips the anti-trust exemption, institutes price controls, and puts real penalties and a real system of enforcement of regulations should not pass.

Making sure people can afford to use their insurance would seem a reasonable prerequisite as well but I don't want to be off the wall purist.

Notice that I failed to mention single payer, a public option, a medicare expansion, killing the insurance industry, or ending profit. If my demands are too idealist, purist, ideological, irrational, or radical then pray tell what is reform?
What the hell is telling certain people that opposition to this bill is hardcore ideological? The problem is it isn't designed to work in a beneficial or effective manner.

You can't just throw anything out, say a prayer, tell everyone we'll fix it later, and hope it'll work out some way some how when you know full well its not set up to actually do the job expected, paid for, or desperately needed.

[saltpoint]

71. The Left, such as they are, few as they are, strike me as the ones

tossing the rifles, though.

My ideal bill is to the left of the Left's ideal bill, almost certainly, but I don't piss into the wind. We have to navigate what History dishes out, and not the other way around, especially when we don't have the numbers.

[lamp_shade]

65. Kick

[mmonk]

68. I'm against bad bills with the wrong priorities.

That is not a left or right issue. If you don't want us in the party anymore, too damn bad Mr Klein.

[Enthusiast]

69. Klein's central ignored fact is

a majority of the American people are in favor of a strong public option. This majority isn't 'left'.

The fact that the HCR bill has been stripped of the public option is THE very reason it has lost popularity in the polls.

[brentspeak]

73. More pompous and melodramatic labeling of the HCR scam: "landmark social legislation"

These beltway hacks have apparently all been given the message: tried to spin this money and power grab for Big Health by praising it in terms of Awed Reverence and Hushed Tones.

[GeorgeGist]

76. Loser

[donco6]

77. Ah, the old "you're not the base, I am" argument.

We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.