Jonathan Chait says what few in the mainstream media will: the GOP think healthcare is a privilege. He writes [Bold is mine. -FM]:
This is why it’s vital to bring yourself face-to face with the implications of mass uninsurance — not as emotional manipulation, but to force you to decide what forms of material deprivation ought to be morally acceptable. This question has become, at least at the moment, the primary philosophical divide between the parties. Democrats will confine the unfortunate to many forms of deprivation, but not deprivation of basic medical care. Republicans will. The GOP is the only mainstream political party in the advanced world to hold this stance.
It is a good article that you really should read. He doesn’t go into the implications of this belief, however. I think about this all the time. The fact that I do not have access to healthcare probably means that I will die many years—perhaps decades—before I normally would. So that whole thing about rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is just a lie. All modern Republicans and a large share of Democrats are more conservative than the men who founded this country.
We’re number one! We’re number one!
