I've just read a piece that captures very well my unease and discontent at the Obama administration. Having said that, like old age the Obama administration "isn't so bad when you consider the alternatives." So discontent is rather less appropriate than unease in this case. It's a bit like we've handed Obama a hammer and put our collective nuts on the table. We don't think he's going to squish them, but that doesn't stop our eyes watering as we wait to find out.

Unease is currently mostly about social inequity, and just what kind of societal fracture it is going to take before the well-off just shut the fuck up instead of bleating (or ranting) about how public health insurance is unnecessary (or, even worse, will threaten their lives). The truth is they have no noeed of it themselves and they don't like that the cost will devalue their investments. So, the hell with the poor having it, nobody can have it. Maybe we should start another war somewhere, that'll save money.

Many of those of a Republican persuasion still haven't got the message that they have stomped on too many people's nuts for them to be politically relevant for a good long time.

So, instead of letting Obama get on with it they proceed to obstruct at every turn, while feeding their media mouthpieces with irrelevant stupidities like "is he really American" and fear, uncertainty and doubt about how having health insurance will fuck their lives over. Even supposing that the Soylent Green nonsense about the potential for state health insurers to decide when lives end had any substance at all (which it almost certainly doesn't), what uninsured person wouldn't consider that a win over being denied any but emergency room treatment? The Republicans would apparently rather leave the life and death decisions to the insurers, hardly a group well-known for their compassion.

These bogus scaremongerings try to make it sound as though having to negotiate your health insurance with the government will be difficult and unpleasant. Personally I hope the government provide (as a model for others) an administration that's a pleasure to deal with. Latest information technology properly deployed, all that. Helpful, friendly, and sympathetic when they can't help, with assistance on lowering health costs for uninsured cases. You'd certainly know you weren't talking to an insurance company then. Insurance companies rank high in the difficult and unpleasant stakes, in my experience. I am usually calling them to be told "no".

This bit from the Rude Pundit got me started:

Let's be honest (and, yes, this is one of those overgeneralized, "look at the yokels," elitist statments, so, sure, exceptions exist): there's large swaths of the United States that are filled with lost people, people who have been broken down by wondering whether they're gonna lose or have lost their jobs (and health insurance) as jobs go overseas and employment ranks shrink, people who feel an anger out there that is, yes, yes, soothed by guns and religion, the former that promises them instant power, the latter that promises them happiness everlasting if they do what they're told God wants. They are deluded by those who soothe their anger, the people on talk radio or Fox "news" who say in an endless loop, "It's not your fault, it's not your fault, it's this person or that person, immigrants, gays, liberal activists, attack them." Toss into this mix the natural progression of personal problems like divorce or illness, toss in the shitty education most of them have, and shake, motherfuckers, shake. It's fucking scary to live now, and not even for the reasons they've been told by Sean Hannity. (my emphasis)

That represents the current left-right juxtaposition in the United States. It's a bit like being back in the pre-Thatcher era, except that the USA certainly has no Ronald Reagan waiting in the wings (and very grateful I am for that). Psychologically, it makes sense for the administration to be conservative in what it provides, since if a sudden further economic reversal were to necessitate taking some of it back those newly-deprived of their benefits would be a powerful revolutionary force.

The scary thing is the ease with which media manipulation can now create a groundswell of opinion. As far as I can see there's a percentage of the US population who already are living in the doublethink* world of 1984. And the Republican party is going around poking sticks in these people's sides and telling them go fuck over a Democrat's town hall meeting -- it'll make you feel better.

* doublethink: e.g. "Obama has ... a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture." ... "I'm not saying he doesn't like white people, I'm saying he has a problem." right-wing commentator Glenn Beck on July 28