Thursday, March 1, 2012

Accepting the conservative mantle

This morning I got a press release from the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts about U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-MA, who voted in favor of the failed "Blunt Amendment" that would have allowed employer-provided health insurance plans to avoid covering certain things, such as birth control.

Reading through this press release reminded me that while I agree with progressives on many issues, we share nothing in common in mindset or motivation.

I added some emphasis to an excerpt to show the leftwing mindset I can not accept.

“The reality is that the Blunt Amendment undermines fundamental tenets of the Affordable Care Act and the integrity of our nation’s health care system,” said Dianne Luby, President/CEO of PPLM. “We’re very disappointed that Senator Brown supported this attack on basic health care access. Then again, he did campaign in 2010 on promises to be the critical vote to defeat health care reform.”

Opponents of women’s health spearheaded the Blunt Amendment because they are not satisfied with President Obama’s recent decision to ensure that all women have access to affordable care. The Blunt Amendment is designed to undo important public health benefits that all Americans need and deserve.
Let's take this in order. We are to believe that Brown is "attacking" peoples rights, loves the current health care system and opposes any changes and wants women to be unhealthy. We're also told that president Obama can sign a piece of paper to make a consequence-free edict that people will have access to medical services.

I have consistently opposed all mandates from the government that make health insurance plans illegal unless they cover specific health products unrelated to catastrophic care. Not only will these mandates push up the cost of health insurance to the point that more people will be unable to afford it, but those who stay on will have to pay more for the package than it costs to have birth control and health insurance now.

The good versus evil morality play the left has framed around this issue makes me feel more and more comfortable calling myself a conservative. I have witnessed no progressive response to the issue of increased health insurance costs. Instead, I have been told over and over that anyone who opposes the mandatory coverage is against contraceptives.

This is a total false dichotomy. Just like how I do the impossible and both support Planned Parenthood and oppose funding it with federal dollars, I both support birth control and oppose mandating it in all health insurance plans. That's not being anti-woman, it's being pro-affordability.

When I hear bogus remarks from the right, I never find myself as annoyed as the deceitful wording I encounter from the left. With idiotic right wingers, I usually see them as ignorant about the issue at hand. When the foolishness comes from the left, however, it's often from faux-intellectuals with self-righteousness and hubris mixed in.

There is stupidity from both sides, but the leftwing mindset gives me an alien vibe I don't feel from the right. I'm rather be a lowly conservative than link arms with the left.

3 comments:

  1. I've been thinking about the same thing recently. I used to hesitate when other people describe me as conservative, if only because I do not fit the common Canadian definition of conservative. (Libertarian conservatives aren't common here; and have you ever tried to explain Burkeanism to someone who isn't a political junkie?)

    And yet I still find the leftist mindset hard to wrap my head around, and this despite the fact that I'm an ex-social democrat.

    As for the actual issue, I am once again surprised that there are people who can't distinguish between positions such as: 'I don't support a contraception mandate'; and 'Contraception should be banned'.

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  2. The compromise on health care is amusing to me, because if an employer can justify not having to pay for health care their religion doesn't agree with, why don't all employers become Christian Scientists and not have to pay health insurance for their employees at all?

    I agree with you though, in that Conservatives are getting the blunt of criticism on this issue, when in reality Obama is the one who mandated its existence with his broad, overreaching healthcare policy when the private sector had managed it well enough already. "Universal Health Care" is a confusing misnomer that isn't the kind of state-provided insurance nations like Britain and Canada have. Factor in that over half the states in the country already mandated contraceptive coverage on all insurance policies that provide prescription drugs (including CT and MA) and Obama's biggest success seems like a pointless failure.

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  3. "There is stupidity from both sides, but the leftwing mindset gives me an alien vibe I don't feel from the right. I'm rather be a lowly conservative than link arms with the left."

    I think this is because you lean to the right. I lean to the left and feel the same way only opposite. You can stomach listening to Beck and Rush. I listen to them and feel like this country is slipping into the Dark Ages. Listening to the left-wing talking heads I see as much idealogical illogical banter, but it doesn't bother me nearly as much.

    I spend a fair amount of my news reading at Right Wing blogs, and the main sentiment I have gotten over the past few years is that while both sides are vitriolic and stupid, liberals are way worse.

    Well my contention is that whatever side you sit on is the one you will be more forgiving toward.

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