The Wrong Question

The health-care racket in this country is of deep and abiding interest to me, primarily in its baroque and blatant superstructure of grift and complicity. It is a scam that barely bothers to disguise itself as such. In fact, I did my master's thesis on health-care incentives in the public and private sectors.

But the reason I don't write much about it in here is because I've said all there is I can muster on the subject. Coming up with new material or observations would be every bit as difficult as trying to come up with more creative reasons why, say, stealing or killing is wrong.

However, as the Democrats continue to muddle through what should be, given its endless ineptitude, a plum opportunity to reframe its message, I offer a couple of suggestions on how to present said message to its putative audience.

The first is simple and gimmicky, but if you think about how you still know what "death panels" are, even as you know they never existed in the first place, you'll be reminded that sometimes cheesy and simple works. The Republican health-care plan, like the Holy Roman Empire, is none of those things, it is merely a massive tax cut with a bit of rouge.

So start branding it as a "wealth-care" plan. Send the minions out to flood the zone with that phrasing, shoehorn it into every possible discussion, tie it into this grasping, pelf-snuffling douchebag currently grifting the country, and ride that fucking pony. The one skill Clownstick has is as a brander, and there's one way to beat him at his own satanic game. Start right now, and by Labor Day, you'll have everyone singing it by heart. Wealth-care plan. Do it, you spineless motherfuckers.

The second suggestion is more difficult, but will help in conceptualizing a better message. The question I keep hearing and reading is this inane debate over whether access to health care is -- or should be -- a "right" or a "privilege." And it's not a useful question, not only because it skirts the issue of who's paying for what, but because it denies the reality of the situation.

Here's the situation in this country:  health care is a product, period. It has producers, distributors, marketers, consumers, and the racket is constructed accordingly. That's not the way it should be, but it is, and has been for a very long time.

Now, the ongoing failure of the Goopers to secure any sort of "victory" in dismantling even the shitty system we have and selling off the parts to the already obscenely wealthy should present an ample opportunity to the, you know, opposition party. Fortunately for them, all they have to do is show some backbone against a cynical, ineptly crafted bill.

But there's an opportunity for more, if we're serious about this "right" vs. "privilege" guff (which we might be, but they are not). It would necessitate the Democrats standing up to their own insurance/pharma/HMO benefactors, which is why it won't happen. But that's where the real debate starts. Everything else is just a bunch of [mimes jerkoff hand motion] bullshit.

The Democrats are in such disarray that less than six months into the worst collection of scumbags to run this country in my half-century of existence, they are actually in dire need of crafting an identity and message that presents a genuine, viable alternative to these soulless cocksuckers. Well, here's a great place to start, especially since constituents have actually been making the effort to show up and be counted -- call it wealth care, and hang it around that fucking turd McConnell's chinless face, and make him dance.

But you also have to describe how, even if the ACA is preserved as is, what steps you take to improve it. It was always understood to be a work in progress, and now is the time to lay out how that progress would take place.