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SpeechSeptember 10, 2009 I don't listen to political speeches. It's been a long, long time since I listened to a presidential speech. For years not having a TV made it easy to ignore these speeches. If post-speech scuttlebutt suggested that the speech was worth paying attention to, I'd find it online. Since the beginning of this year I've had a reliable high-speed Internet connection. So I can no longer hide behind not having a TV and being unwilling to go park my butt for an hour in front of somebody else's. If I don't watch a particular political speech, it's because I don't want to watch that particular speech. From the moment last week that I heard it was coming, I knew I wanted to watch President Obama's speech on health care. Last night I got home from the barn after dark, around 7:30. By 7:45 I'd poured myself a beer and settled in at the computer. CNN.com seemed a good bet. First I had to update my Flash Player. Then I had to set through several minutes of inane commentary. This almost did me in. In my disgust with the bilious, small-minded bellicosity of Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, and their ilk, I think I've devoted too little attention to the corrosive effects of political twit journalism on the American mind. I hung in. I'm glad I did. Over the last few months I've occasionally wondered just why it was I was so excited about voting for this guy last November, and so euphoric when he won. Now I remember. The last few months have been all about digging the country out of the hole its leaders have been digging us into for the last 30 years. Rescuing us from the crimes, stupidities, and short-sightedness of the past doesn't leave much energy for thinking about the future. Early in the speech, President Obama said, "But we did not come here just to clean up crises. We came to build a future." That's when I knew that he's still got his eye on the prize. What he made clear from the beginning is that it's not just the lack of insurance that's ruining people's lives. People who have insurance are getting nailed, and those who haven't been screwed yet fear with good reason that they might be in the future: "More and more Americans worry that if you move, lose your job, or change your job, you'll lose your health insurance too. More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won't pay the full cost of care." The president nailed the insurance companies. It was wonderful to hear. And he did it in terms that market worshippers might be able to understand: pointing out that "in 34 states, 75% of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies" (and in Alabama "almost 90% is controlled by just one company"), and that this results in higher costs and lower quality, and "makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly." He also quoted a former insurance executive who noted that the root of the problem was "Wall Street's relentless profit expectations." YES! He also took aim at the demagoguery and scare tactics used by opponents: "Some of people's concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost." He was talking over the heads of those opponents, trying to reach the people behind them whose lives are affected by limited access to health care. Here's hoping the message gets through. True, at some points I rolled my eyes -- would a single-payer plan really look like "starting from scratch" if we thought of it as eventually expanding Medicare to cover the entire U.S. population? Promising that illegal immigrants would not be covered and that no federal dollars will be spent on abortions was meant to placate certain strong interests that have to be placated. Toward the end, though, the president talked about Senator Ted Kennedy. Last May Senator Kennedy wrote a letter to be delivered after his death. It was delivered last week. The president read from it: "What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country." Said President Obama: "Ted Kennedy's passion was born not of some rigid ideology, but of his own experience. It was the experience of having two children stricken with cancer. He never forgot the sheer terror and helplessness that any parent feels when a child is badly sick; and he was able to imagine what it must be like for those without insurance; what it would be like to have to say to a wife or a child or an aging parent -- there is something that could make you better, but I just can't afford it." And that's what I love most about this speech. The specifics were pretty good -- promising, at least. But more important, he appealed not to our fears and resentments but to our "large-heartedness." The president said it's part of the American character. I'm not so sure about that, but for so many years our leaders have been appealing to our fears and resentments that maybe they've grown uncharacteristically large. "We did not come here to fear the future," he said. "We came here to shape it." That's the guy I voted for. Yes, we can.
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