Monkey-head Musings

I am not what you would call political.  I have some friends that I care about who are very conservative.  And when I say conservative, I mean Obama-is-Hitler-and-illegals- are-taking-over-our-country-and-keep-your-government-hands-off-my-medicare-sort of conservatives.  The loony, Fox News-watching, crazy sorts of conservatives.  How could I be from Iowa and not know lots of those types?  They would probably be really offended by this post if they actually bothered to read it.   But no worries, most of them don’t read in complete sentences.  I also have some more sensible, care-about-poor-people-and-worry-about-education-and-try-to-save-the planet sorts of people who used to be called moderates, but now are looked upon as loony liberals.  I think I side more with them.  I have to admit though, a Facebook commenter recently upset me by accusing me of misrepresenting the facts when I commented that Texas has privately operated for-profit prisons (I saw one up close when I lived in Cotulla) and that they have taken money away from education (my district by itself had State money reduced by a million dollars in order to help Emperor Perry balance the Texas budget without touching his billion dollar rainy day fund).  I am not usually one to fuss up the facts.  That’s more of a conservative thing.  I know it is pointless to argue on Facebook about politics.  I definitely don’t need to get upset about people who, no matter what evidence or reason you give them, will never change their mind.  But I have discovered that politics do affect me.  Take the health care issue.  I have six incurable diseases and am a cancer survivor since 1983.  If healthcare reform had resulted in socialized medicine, government paid-for healthcare, that would benefit me the most.  As it is, the Affordable Care Act (perjoratively known as Obamacare) helps me by insuring that I won’t pay insurance premiums for a lifetime and then die from a life-time maximum payout instituted by the insurance companies.  Banker and Insurance Representative are actually two new names for pirate.  They are in the business of collecting premiums and refusing to pay claims.  They don’t need to be de-regulated so they can make more money and deny me health care more easily.  They need more regulation, not less.  But conservatives in Texas want Obamacare repealed.  Senator Ted (Monkey-face) Cruz even shut the government down to try to destroy Obamacare.  Texas conservatives refuse to take government money to help them make the Affordable Care Act work.  They resist the administration of a program that provides insurance via Medicaid (a Bush program) to people who can’t otherwise afford it.  They don’t realize that it would actually benefit everyone (except the insurance companies) to have poor people be able to do something besides go to the emergency room and let taxpayers pay for it.  Conservatives would actually vote against their own best economic interests to support the conservative party line.  So here is the absolute worst thing about all these Monkey-head Musings, conservatives, some of whom I care a lot about, are not helping themselves.  They are riding the bicycle over the cliff at the fastest pace their legs can manage, and no matter how much I yell and point at the cliff, they keep on peddling.  And there is a tether on my ankle tied to the backs of quite a large number of bicycles.