Religious Bigotry in America is Alive and Well

It is disconcerting, although not surprising at all, that a very significant majority of Americans oppose the construction of an Islamic place of worship two blocks from where the World Trade Center (aka Ground Zero) stood.

That this attitude flies in the face of the revolutionary ideas that created this country, that attracted immigrants to this country, and that makes this country the best country on Earth is what is most disconcerting to me.

All of this is based on a poll released on August 11 by CNN.

The poll question was posed in this way:

“As you may know, a group of Muslims in the U.S. plan to build a mosque two blocks from the site in New York City where the World Trade Center used to stand. Do you favor or oppose this plan?”

The question was asked of 1,009 adult Americans, 935 of them being registered voters, between August 6th and August 10th.

Totals: 68% Opposed, 29% Favor

Among Conservatives: 87% Oppose 12% Favor

Among Liberals: 45% Oppose 51% Favor

Over 50 Years of age: 76% Oppose 21% Favor

Under 50 Years of age: 61% Oppose 35% Favor

President Obama, finding himself in a stark minority, said this at a White House dinner commemorating the beginning of Ramadan, Islam’s month-long fasting that makes Lent look like a piker:

“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country, That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.”

More to the point, and I think the president also made this observation, Americans have systematically exerted religious bias on one religious minority after another over the years, despite the fact that religious freedom is one of the main principles that underlies the basic freedoms that America offers. As each religious group attained “legitimacy” they in turn set themselves against the next unpopular religion to appear on our shores.

As a noncombatant in this field, I can say that I understand why this is such a hot button issue among Americans. The wounds are still not completely healed, apparently.

That is a reason, but it is not an excuse.

There is a reason for public hysteria, but there is never an excuse for it.

Is there anyone out there that still thinks that the forced internment of 110,000 American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II was good and proper? At the time it was deemed necessary and even deserved. People like them had, after all, launched a sneak attack that killed over two thousand soldiers and sailors. Exactly analogous to the 19 Muslim extremists and their sneak attack on 9-11.

Public hysteria allowed “Japanese Relocation” to happen. And that is something that Americans can and will continue to look back on in shame.

The 14th Amendment rights of thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent were trampled on because of some sort of ill-conceived guilt by association, and not just a little racism. Just so, the 1st Amendment rights of Muslims are being trampled on in the very same manner.

I guess the silver lining in this dark cloud that hangs over America is that the issue is opposition to construction of a mosque. At least we’re not restringing the barbed wire fences of Manzanar.

We Can’t Afford to Wait

OK, the fat is in the fire. Congress is back in session and the first thing on everyone’s mind is healthcare reform. How much reform can Democrats get passed? How much in light of the fact, the absolute fact, that Republicans will do everything in their power to kill healthcare reform in any form it takes.

Because the aim is not to pass reform, the aim is to politically wound Barack Obama so we can have a replay of the midterm elections of 1994. Americans, a majority of whom favor a public option, are going to be hopping mad if healthcare reform doesn’t pass. They voted for it in 2008 when they swept a supermajority into the House, nearly so into the Senate, and voted in a Democratic administration. If they don’t get it, ironically, the idea, according to Republicans, is that they will punish Democrats by voting for the party that brought about healthcare reform failure.

That’s the logic operating these days.

MoveOn has been among the groups out there with the money and the muscle to get healthcare reform back on track after the massive Republican derail attempt in the event that has become known as the “Town Halls of August.” They have bankrolled a new battle cry and the Georgia-based rock group, R.E.M., has been tagged to deliver their powerful message.

We also get to meet some people who have been shafted by the health care industry, or the playing field that they have laid out.

Here it is, on You Tube, and here is the link to send to your friends.

To those of you who are contemplating the recently proposed “Public Option Trigger” where a Public Option will be made available if the private health insurance companies fail to effect the reforms mandated in a hypothetical reform bill, to these I only have this to say: the trigger has already been pulled.

Public Option Now.

Because there are people out there, thousands of people, who simply cannot afford to wait.

The Public Option – By the Numbers

Yesterday I wrote a piece about how the public option may be a dead issue because we couldn’t get enough votes in congress to pass a health care reform bill that includes the public option.

I need to corrected that, because I painted congress with too broad of a brush.

Slightly.

Because of Senate rules a super majority of 60 votes is needed to pass a health care bill. And while we now have 60 Democratic senators we have those red state Democratic senators who are balking. So it’s the Senate, really, that is giving us all of the problems.

In the House of Representatives we have the opposite problem.

In the House all they need is 218 votes to pass anything. And there are 256 Democratic congressmen currently seated there, far more than are needed to pass health care. But here is the kicker: today I learned that 64 of these Democrats have signed a pledge to vote against any health care reform bill that does not contain a public option.

So by the numbers, if the bill ever comes up for a vote in the House,, and it does NOT have a public option within its pages, votes to pass will number 193. So as it currently stands if the Senate passes its version without a public option, it will fail in the House.

Conversely, if the House passes its version and it contains provisions for a public option, it will most certainly fail in the Senate.

Leaving us all empty-handed to the glee of the Republican Party which just wants this whole thing to go away and let their health insurance company cronies continue to rake in inflated premiums, continue to refuse to cover pre-existing conditions, continue to simple release its customers when they become too expensive, continue NOT to have another 36 to 40 million customers.

So the whole thing has become a blinking contest between the House and Senate.

A blinking contest whose winners and losers will not be decided by who blinks first. No way. The winners and losers will be decided at the mid-term elections next year.

Is Obama Backing Down on the Public Option?

Politico reports today that given the fact that on three recent occasions, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs, and Obama himself have separately downplayed the need for a public option, the option that includes government-funded health insurance for the under 65, an option that was up to just recently, was stridently argued for, that the public option is off the table.

For now.

Sebelius on the Sunday news program This Week has called the public option as “not the essential element” of the reform plan.

Robert Gibbs, appearing on Face the Nation was heard to have said “The president has thus far sided with the notion that that can best be done through a public option”

Thus far.

That’s code-talk for a change in the public option option.

And Obama himself, at the Grand Junction, Colorado town hall meting has this to say about the public option:

“All I'm saying is, though, that the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it.”

This is a far cry from what he said just a couple of months ago:

“I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.”

So why the change of heart? Why is it that the public option has morphed from a necessity for true reform to “one sliver” of it?

Is Obama still clinging to the idea that this can be done in a bi-partisan way?

No, actually I don’t think this is about bi-partisanship at all. The Republican Party is on the ropes and everyone knows it. Only one party is going to kill true health care reform, and it’s not the Republicans.

The answer, I fear, is that the heard of cats known as Democratic Senators and Congressmen are falling all over themselves to kill true reform. Some of these guys won’t fall in line, and Obama is either unable or unwilling to force the public option down their throats.

Before accepting defeat on this and settling for something so watered-down that it won’t solve anything, I would like to see Obama come over to these intransigent Senators and simply ask them “What’s it going to take?” And keep on asking them that until he hears the real answer.

Because we all know that these guys didn’t get where they were by being intractable louts. They got where they are now through “the art of the deal.”