Article Contributed on: 9/30/2009 10:52:40 AM
Now I don't want to belittle in any way those struggling with real bipolar disorder. It is a serious and sometimes life threatening condition, but I do mean to say that the "bipolar thinking" that is being done by both major parties (and which is now even seeping into third party strategies), is every bit as dangerous to our culture and life.
We have, it seems, two forms of bipolarity. One is in the partisanship area: we have political parties that insist on being exactly opposite to one another on everything. The other is the manic/depressive atmospheres that are encouraged by the parties: on one hand the glowing vision of a perfect health care system that has no flaws, fixes all of it, won't put a dent in the deficit, and has no counterpart in reality; on the other an apocalyptic vision of the country sliding into communism and bankruptcy, unless the unhappy status quo is maintained, with no hope and no solutions.
We need answers to serious questions, like a working system of health care. The poltical spin of taking an overly optimistic view of the future in spite of real world data, involving great leaps into new territory (where there is no real world data, but marketing on TV can overcome that, it appears) takes us too far one way, and the super negative view that nothing can be done, and if we change things, we are hurtling into communism, with all the attendant namecalling and gloom and doom that that entails, is also destructive (it too has no new plans or factual information), And all those TV ads, from both sides -- who's paying for all these ads, I wonder?
I think that these partisan-based spins are behind that feeling the American people are starting to get, that they are being driven between two poles like sheep. They are starting to drop the tendency of past years to "pick a side" and defend that side no matter what, because they are seeing that both sides are fundamentally flawed. More and more folks are registering unaffiliated, and making up their own minds about what needs to be done. They are writing Congress in larger numbers, and feeling that their voices are being ignored. The social consequences of these divisions are beginning to appear. Contrary to the news reports, "tea baggers" are not all of one party, nor of any particular party, although certainly the party out of power loves to take credit. Some of them are independents who are just fed up at losing liberties on a daily basis to a Congress that is not solving the problems they see around them. Some have been angry about an ever-growing government presence in every part of their lives for years, and are now seeing a chance to make their voices heard. Others see the debt toll as taking out the futures of their children and grandchildren, yet Congress and the President go ahead undaunted.
Some Congressfolks are hearing it bigtime from their constituents and have started to think seriously about what it would take to fix things. Needless to say, they are getting it from both sides: their parties are not happy to see them break ranks, and their constitutents have told them point blank they'd better get it together or not get re-elected. It's a tough time to be Congressfolk if you want to really be there for the people.
Folks who were middle of the road on almost anything are starting to take to the streets. This is a bad sign in any culture, because it indicates a new low in the level of trust that government can handle the problems the country faces. Real, complicated problems have been made worse by government intervention. They are made even worse by political spin that tries to turn it all into simple sound bites when the problems are many and difficult. On top of that, it seems that political parties care more about making their party look good at the expense of the other side of the aisle, and about keeping those lucrative donations coming in from the corporate world, than they do about getting the public's business done. So we find ourselves here, stuck between polar opposites, each trying to sway us with marketing rather than real, solid facts, offering panaceas that common sense tells us can't be paid for, and lobbying for us to support or reject proposals that don't make sense in the first place. The plane is heading for a crash and the pilot and copilot are too busy arguing with one another over partisan one-upsmanship to take over the controls and start dealing with saving the lives of the passengers.
Whatever is decided on regarding health care, it should not just be a windfall for corporate bigwigs, with the government paying insurance companies extra for services they should have provided in the first place (like insuring those with pre-existing conditions, and those not presently employed), taking taxpayers' funds to do so, creating whole new bureaucracies, and pushing our country further and further into debt. Congress needs to forget the party agendas and look at what the people need long-term, listen to their constituents and solve the problems one at a time. Maybe more outside-the-box solutions could come from that.
Co-operatives were one such option - the private sector, and individual sharp thinkers had already come to the conclusion that a Co-op approach might work, and some have shown they can bring costs down, and there may be other options out there. Options that don't require taking the entire membership of the USA into a huge database tracking system, putting our health care in the hands of a government we don't really trust, and putting debt through the roof.
But until the pendulum between the two major parties stops its infernal swinging, and the parties decide maybe it's time they dumped their agendas for the long-term benefit of the American people, and shift their focus to keeping the country solvent as they wrestle open-mindedly with the issues of medical coverage, our bipolar state will continue, and we will swing ever closer to cultural suicide (mortgaging our country's future opportunities for short -term political gain, and letting the people pay the consequences).
Americans have said they want change; but change does not mean do something, anything. While there are new proposals out there, the "how" has not changed. Congress is still doing its bit to make things very complicated, and somehow get all that pork to contributors inside whatever bill comes out. The give and take (mostly giving and taking of insults) has not changed, the partisan bickering, and the political arm-twisting and behind the scenes deal-making have not changed. Making legislation without real checks and balances, with no way protect the consumers from overreaching government control, this also has not changed.
There's a bumpersticker out there that says "if con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of Progress?" that should remind us that some things might be best done leaving Congress and the government out of it, because some of these problems were caused by Congressional meddling in medical care in the first place. If you had a contractor build a small house and they screwed it up, would you pay them millions (or in this case possibly trillions) to build you a skyscraper?
In the meantime, we can offer to the American people the same advice that gets offered to those who are suffering from real bipolar disorder (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder/complete-index.shtml). As we go through our daily lives trying to make our way between the opposing forces in Congress, on TV ads, and everywhere around us, when those we care about are completely furious and frustrated about how things are going, we can:
• Offer emotional support, understanding, patience, and encouragement
• Learn about bipolar disorder [or in this case, the issues that our culture is struggling with, and the related partisan spins] so you can understand what your friend or relative is experiencing
• Talk to your friend or relative and listen carefully [maybe there are better solutions]
• Listen to feelings your friend or relative expresses-be understanding about situations that may trigger bipolar symptoms [TV ads that cause either extreme euphoria without fact basis, or extreme depression/negativity, arguments along political lines, biased coverage in the news]
• Invite your friend or relative out for positive distractions, such as walks, outings, and other activities • Remind your friend or relative that, with time and treatment, he or she can get better. [either work to reform the party they belong to or take action to tell Congress how they feel, to take some of the pressure off, or study up on the issues to get real facts and find real, long-term answers].
There are answers out there, and if we do enough brainstorming outside the context of the party line, outside the context of corporate contributions, and outside the context of full government control, I really believe we can find solutions that don't break the bank, are simpler to implement, and that put the power over medical care back into the hands of the consumer. If we can focus on staying out of the manic/depressive cycles our political system is forcing on us, we can come up with them. If we don't, we'll have to live with the results, and push our potential for recovery far, far into the future.