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It's not true to say that the US, in general, ignores these systems when in fact, a significant portion of the US population pays very close attention to them a
by alexqgb 12y ago
It's not true to say that the US, in general, ignores these systems when in fact, a significant portion of the US population pays very close attention to them and would like nothing more than to seem them implemented here.
There is, however, a significant minority of really horrible, angry, violent, and generally racist people who feel deeply and ideologically threatened by the social contract on which these systems rest. And because of some unfortunate quirks in the American electoral system, they wield a level of political power that vastly exceeds their numbers. In a properly representational system, they'd be just as aggressive, ignorant, and self-defeating as they are right now. However, the body politic would be largely insulated from their rage, allowing us to safely get on with the design and development of a decent, cost-effective system.
In other words, we're being plagued by a really nasty infestation of trolls, and it's making progress in general pretty damn difficult. The good news is that this, too, shall pass. In demographic terms, this problematic political outlook is the rooted in the reactionary portion of the generation that came of age during the Civil Rights era. Their bigotry translated into a life-long political identity that has done everything it can to resist, if not reverse the "loss" they suffered in the wake of Jim Crow ending.
The Drug War is probably the best example of their continued effort to put a boot on the necks of black people. It's worth noting that the militarization of US police forces, combined with an exploding private prison industry, took root in the former Confederate states before spreading outwards to damage the rest of the nation. And of course, opposition to any kind of drug legalization remains strongest in places with the deepest histories of institutionalized racism.
The same perspective that says the state should be used as a weapon to harm black people also says the state should not be used to protect or help them in any way. Thus, the vitriolic opposition to any kind of welfare program than benefits black people. Keeping them out of the health care system was part and parcel of this larger push for institutionalized white supremacy.
But again, all this is a generational reaction to the 1960s, a particularly divisive and transformative time in American politics. When the generation that dedicated itself to obstructing the movement for greater equality finally passes from the stage, there won't be another one with either the size or the depth of hatred to maintain the current levels of opposition. So even in an electoral system as warped as ours, the certifiably batshit-insane won't be able to maintain their dominance. That's bad news for everyone with a stake in Fox News, great news for everyone else on planet Earth.
At that stage, with the right wing of the baby boom dead and buried, America will be able get on with the long-delayed work of creating a more-perfect union. Given how much pent-up demand there is for policies that reflect intelligence, fairness, humanity, and decency, I suspect demand for change - and the consensus to support it - will appear quite swiftly. So it's nice to know that there are already well-developed models we can refer to when the time comes.
- mynameishere 12y agoDude, chill. Not to intrude on your fantasy world too much, but a few things: 1. The left wing of the baby boom is going to die with the right. 2. The baby boomers were famously a bunch of hippies and radicals. More seriously, they were easily the most liberal-minded generation in America at the time--and they may still be. 3. This country's ongoing demographic transformation into Brazil is not going to help the health care system, or move us toward a "more perfect union", or do anything at all positive in general. It baffles me that people think things like that.
- alexqgb 12y agoUm, you may have missed the point. 1. The thing that distinguishes the values of the Civil Rights era reactionaries is that they're generally failing to transmit themselves from one generation to a next. So unlike the more egalitarian values of the left - which are actually growing stronger with each subsequent generation - the bigotry of the right is uniquely tied to the lifespans of specific people. When they die, their fundamental opposition to social justice dies with them. The break isn't perfectly clean, to be sure, but enough to make the retrograde electorally insignificant and that's the real point here. 2. The "hippies and radicals" on the Baby Boom's left were actually a distinct minority in the 1960s. Highly visible, yes, but politically (as opposed to culturally) persuasive? Not so much. However, unlike the reactionary right - which was entering its last generation of social dominance - the lefties were well ahead of their time. In the long run, their ideas and values are the ones that are becoming mainstream, while the overt racism of the right is what's becoming retrograde. That's why gay marriage and drug decriminalization are happening, while the racist cops freaking out in Ferguson are seen as the bad guys in a dystopian nightmare that causes a general sense of recoil. 3. Not sure what you mean by this. Are you saying America needs a white majority to remain functional and prosperous? So you know, the demographics I'm focused on are those of the millennial generation, which is the largest in American history. In terms of electoral politics, their preferences are going to dominate everything in the decades to come. And unlike the lefties in the BB generation, this is a generation in which broadly egalitarian and progressive views are, for the first time, held by a clear and ascendent majority. As far as the health care system goes by the time these people hit middle age, it's safe to assume that sanity will be prevailing. Indeed, I suspect that will be true of politics in general.