Trifecta

Hello World!

Barack Obama was elected to bring hope and change to Washington; he was the chosen one who would bring an end to the bickering, the partisanship, the gridlock, and the never-ending bureaucracy.  But with his battle for health care reform, President Obama has essentially run into all of these Washington D.C. Beltway roadblocks in just one month, and passage of his plan for reform now seems as though it may actually be in serious jeopardy.  In all honesty though…it’s going to get done.  There, I said it.  Obama will pass health care reform by January 1^st 2010 (Please don’t let those words come back and bite me Mr. President).  The discussion shouldn’t even be about whether health care reform is necessary though; instead the question should be how much will this cost, how many currently uninsured individuals will end up being covered, and will it have the much discussed ‘public option.’  

But before we tread into the complex waters of health care reform and all the policy terminology that goes along with such a complicated and far reaching issue, lets talk about me and why I even care about President Obama, health care reform, and the political process in general.  I’m going to come clean with you right now; I am a bleeding heart liberal who’s mother worshiped at the alter of the Kennedy family and I have no qualms with spouting off my liberal beliefs and credentials.  I just wanted to get all that information out in the open before you continued reading this blog naively assuming I held no personal opinion or bias on the issue of health care reform.  I spent this past summer working as the communications intern for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington DC, where the issue of health care essentially consumed my life from late June to early August.  Even after coming back home to Los Angeles, I couldn’t get rid of the health care bug, as the whole country was now in a heated debate that was now filled with myths, rumors, half-truths, and flat out lies instead of the facts. My experience with this topic day in and day out for forty hours a week gives me what I’d like to believe is a little perspective on the issue, regardless of whether it’s from the right or left side of the aisle. I truly do live to debate these issues and what better place to do that than out in the blogosphere, where millions of people can read what I have to say and decide to either agree or disagree with my reasoned opinion.

Now that we know where I stand, it’s pretty clear than I’m with President Obama on most of the issues relating to health care, but what exactly are the key issues of health care reform? Over fifteen weeks that is exactly what I hope to explore with this blog.  Health care is not just about a so-called ‘socialist government takeover,’ or even death panels.  There are many complexities that go along with this issue and it’s greater affect on society as a whole.  The overhaul of the health care system will have an immense impact on the national deficit in the coming years, for good and bad.  And more importantly than any of that, we may finally find out where President Obama actually stands on circumcision…seriously. 

The late Ted Kennedy decided early on in his Senate career to dedicate his life to the health care issue in this country.  Health care is a right, not a privilege and it is time to make that clear. One can only hope that the change that was voted for finally comes to fruition, and that meaningful health care reform occurs by the time this blog has run its course.

Blog Profile

As I take my place amongst my fellow liberals in the left-wing blogosphere, I’ve gone to one of the most respected and popular blogs in not only the progressive community, but also the blogosphere as a whole, in order to find direction for my own blog: Think Progress.  Think Progress is the blogging arm of and is fully funded by the Center for American Progress and is dedicated to providing a forum to discuss the advancement progressive ideas and policies, and is actually the 25th most popular blog on the Internet according to technorati. 

In the margins of the blog, Think Progress simplifies their mission into two categories: What We’re Fighting For and What We’re Fighting Against. Think Progress and its two affiliate blogs, The Wonk Room and Yglesias, are fighting against Public Corruption, Corporate Malfeasance, Incompetent Establishment, and the Radical Right-Wing Agenda, while it is fighting for Social and Economic Justice, Media Accountability, Global and Domestic Security, and most importantly for my blog Healthy Communities.

So, outside of the overall idea of promoting a progressive and liberal agenda, Think Progress is dedicated to Healthy Communities and most importantly meaningful Health Care Reform in America. As the blog is truly an amalgamation of different bloggers and researchers, the most prominent blogger for health care on Think Progress is Igor Volsky, who typically posts in The Wonk Room. Igor is co-author of Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform and has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, Fox Business, and CNBC television, and has been a guest on many radio shows. He frequently posts updates, usually one blogpost per day, to the blog and is actively involved in promoting meaningful health care reform and tearing down myths and false arguments against progressive ideas.

The blogpost, GrassleyWatch: What Does He Not Understand About ‘Fully Paid For’?, is one of Igor’s most interesting posts. It is part of a long running segment on Think Progress about Senator Chuck Grassley and his inconsistency on health care as well as his willingness to spread false information throughout the health care debate. In this post, Volsky blasts Grassley for advocating for less reform because the Senator believes that the adjusted deficit numbers argue that health care reform will increase the deficit. Volsky does a great job of tearing down Grassley’s argument piece by piece:

Grassley’s suggestion that health care reform would grow the deficit demonstrates that the Senator is either misinformed or deliberately manufacturing reasons to oppose health care reform. The budget framework requires a deficit-neutral health care reform bill, and the Democrats have pledged to fully finance coverage expansion from savings within the system and new sources of revenue.

Secondly, health care is the economy; health care is the deficit. Health care costs are the long-term driving force in federal and state budgets and represent the single most important factor influencing the Federal Government’s long-term fiscal balance. The Democrats’ health care reform will help re-orient the system from spending 80% of its dollars treating chronic illnesses into a system prevents the chronic conditions from developing in the first place. It will begin to change the way providers are paid so that we are rewarding quality care and not just quantity care.

This post gives the reader an idea of the content of the blog as well as the position that Think Progress takes in the health care debate.  Think Progress, while relying on factual information, is in fact selective of the facts that it actually takes into account.  In order to maintain the progressive nature of the blog, Think Progress bloggers such as Mr. Volsky refer to other bloggers and statistics that support their claims and further the progressive and liberal causes that Think Progress advocates, rather than taking a more mainstream, objective stance on issues such as Health Care Reform.

In another post, Mr. Volsky takes on the issue of the public option, why it is necessary for meaningful health care reform, and why the public option can’t be replaced by Co-Op insurers. He gives three reasons on why replacing the public option just isn’t the right answer:

Indeed, small member-driven cooperatives would lack all of the advantages of a Medicare-like public health insurance option. Without relying on Medicare’s reach and infrastructure, a network of co-ops could not: 1) achieve the market clout necessary to negotiate better rates with providers, 2) change the way care is delivered and 3) lower the costs of medical services.

Again, the content of the blog is undeniably biased towards a liberal viewpoint.  Think Progress bloggers such as Igor Volsky do not take the facts and present them objectively.  Instead, Think Progress uses facts and the research of other progressive minds to support their own claims.  This blog is not to be confused for a mainstream news site such as CNN, since it is in fact heavily biased towards a progressive standpoint on all issues, including Health Care Reform, hence the name Think Progress.

Think Progress for the most part relates directly to what I will be blogging about over the coming months. Specifically Igor Volsky’s posts on Health Care and progressive policies for health care reform are exactly what I look forward to discussing on my blog. Also, out of all of the progressive blogs out on the Internet, of which there are many, Think Progress and The Wonk Room rely on the most factual information and statistical information, making them reluctant to post unsubstantiated opinions and information, even if those facts are eventually skewed toward a more liberal viewpoint. 

Think Progress, like most political blogs, caters to a specific audience.  In the case of Think Progress, the audience is the progressive public and those who support President Obama's liberal agenda. This blog is not what is found in mainstream media and has an obvious bias that is brought about through it’s association with the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Since I plan on tackling the Health Care Reform debate from a liberal perspective, not only can I use information directly from this blog, I can also read stories and other blogs that have been linked to on Think Progress to conduct further research on health care reform. 

Yet, I will not be a Think Progress clone. I do plan on taking on the issue of media messaging and the war of words between liberals and conservatives as well as the intricacies of policy. I am truly interested in the media battle between the parties and I will be expanding on that much more than Think Progress does in their blog.  Despite this difference in content and focus, as a liberal blogger, Think Progress is essentially a gold mine of information for I Hate Sick People.

Voice Critique

The blog DailyKos is well known in political circles as one of the foremost progressive and liberal blogs on the Internet.  They're also known for their unabashed dislike of everything conservative and Republican, as well as their willingness to let their opinions be heard, unfiltered from the constraints of objectivity that is expected in the mainstream media. Even within in the vast liberal blogosphere, DailyKos has a distinct voice that simply hasn't been recreated by anyone else.  

So what is this voice?  Is it sarcastic?  Witty?  Just downright mean?  Lets just go with a combination of all three, as seen in the title of one of their most recent posts...

Pull The Plug On Chuck Grassley

Not only is the title downright hilarious, at least from my point of view, but also witty and relevant to the topic being discussed in the blogpost.  The writer's metaphor of 'pulling the plug' works well in the context of the current health care debate.  Not only does the blogger want Democrats to stop negotiations with Senator Grassley on health care, which lends itself to the pull the plug reference, but Chuck Grassley is also one of the key players in spreading the lies about phony death panels that would 'pull the plug on grandma' which hijacked the health care debate and sent it off into the land of the wing-nut.  

The post itself has some gems as well.

Really, Chuck? I thought we saw "democracy in action" last November when more than 125 million Americans voted, not when a few hundred extremists that the media chose to highlight screamed at town hall meetings.

The poster doesn't attempt to feign some sort of formality; he instead attacks Senator Grassley head on, referring to the Senator colloquially by referring to him by his first name and turning his own words, saying that the town halls filled with demagoguery and corporate influence were real democracy in action, against him in the most blunt and direct way possible.  The DailyKos blogger also takes a stand against town hall attendees, and due to their extreme right-wing stances, the blogger doesn't refer to the town hall goers as such, instead he labels them 'extremists,' which not only evokes an entirely different emotion in the reader, but allows the reader to identify which end of the ideological spectrum this blogger belongs to as well. 

Terms like 'extremist' and 'fear-mongering' are often used by DailyKos bloggers to describe their opponents, typically Republicans and conservatives.  This confrontational style and word choice is a key element of the blog's voice.  DailyKos bloggers aren't pretending to be anything less than lion-hearted liberals, and the word choice is crucial in reflecting that ideology as well as allowing DailyKos to narrow down its audience. Conservatives, and possibly even moderates, probably wont be the followers of a blog disparaging the conservative takeover of town halls, and likely don't want to hear about the metaphorical 'plug pulling' of a Republican Senator.  DailyKos is unabashedly liberal and wants the reader to know that.

Sometimes even Democrats and liberals are taken on by DailyKos bloggers.

It's hard not to compare the two -- last Saturday, Ted Kennedy spoke from the grave in support of real health care reform:

"I also want you to know that even though I am ill, I'm committed to do everything I can to achieve access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life."

And today, the President let us know what he thinks about access to health care for everyone. From senior advisor David Axelrod:

As to the fate of a government option plan to compete with private insurance, Axelrod suggested the controversial concept is gone but not forgotten: "The spirit that led him to support a public option is still very much at play here and so you know he wants competition. He wants choice."

The voice is unrelentingly sarcastic and satirical, especially when given the correct context. President Obama is being compared to the Liberal Lion, the Late Ted Kennedy, in his commitment to Health Care Reform.  

The Kennedy-Obama analogy is yet another way that the writer narrows down his audience.  One must not only be concerned with liberal causes that were advocated by Senator Kennedy throughout his illustrious career, but the reader must be informed about politics and the day to day aspects of governing and political discourse. Without being aware of the context, the reader is likely to be lost in the shuffle and unable to grasp the content.

Now, let's discuss the comparison itself. Obama is painted by the blogger as a typical politician who is willing to compromise on his core beliefs in order to appease Republicans, while Ted Kennedy is idealized as a champion of progressive Health Care Reform and a true believer in liberal causes.  What is also important about this comparison is that it further narrows the audience from simply Democrats to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.  The blogger is criticizing the President for being too conservative!  Seriously...this isn't a joke.  The President, who's being painted as a socialist by the right wing, is being attacked by the left for not being liberal or progressive enough.  

The end of this entry gets back to the satirical and sarcastic nature of the blog.

Isn't that special? That spirit and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee, but it sure as hell won't do a damn thing to help you pay the medical bills.

First off, I may be reading too much into this, but I'm pretty sure DailyKos just referenced Dana Carvey's Saturday Night Live sketches as the Church Lady with that rhetorical question.  

In all seriousness though, this segment effectively compares spirit to action by analogizing the public option to a cup of coffee. He explains that the 'spirit,' or desire, for a public option, along with a dollar, can get you something simple and frivolous, like coffee. Yet, in the reality-based world we live in, 'spirit' for the public option isn't going to get you very far, or much quality health care for that matter.

Lastly, there is one thing that ties all of these posts together with one unifying voice.  They're all short sentences within short paragraphs.  The blogger doesn't go on about the same topic; instead he keeps the post succinct and relevant.  This direct style adds to the confrontational, aggressive, and sarcastic voice of the blog DailyKos.

And seriously, who doesn't enjoy a good Saturday Night Live reference?