What the SCHIP battle says about our society

I’ve been closely following the SCHIP battle, and I feel it demonstrates some ugly truths about our country. How can the richest nation in the world refuse to provide healthcare for its children?

Well, when the general public has been bludgeoned with the meme about welfare mothers in Cadillacs for more than 30 years, this is what you get. And it’s especially puzzling this narrow and mean agenda has been supported by the rise of the Christian Right. Didn’t Christ preach to care for the poor and to help your neighbor?

For years, conservatives have bombarded us with their dominant message of the failure of government and its social programs. Stories of abuses are flaunted in the media, while countless social service successes are ignored. In the meantime, people simply believe government doesn’t work because the only reports we receive (Thank you Main Stream Media!) are negative.

To complicate matters, you also have the Christian Right preaching a narrow view of “values” that emphasizes sexual mores rather than humanity. Therefore, homosexuality is a greater threat than hunger. At the same time, these hypocrites follow front men like Joel Osteen, who preach they will receive monetary rewards on earth for their faithfulness. Forgive me if I cannot quote chapter and verse, but didn’t Jesus preach to leave behind your worldly possessions?

To me, this is the picture of the conservative movement in America: “We don’t believe in government. We don’t believe in evolution, but we believe in Social Darwinism. Profit over people. If you can’t earn an adequate living, you just aren’t working hard enough.” Never mind that they’ve rigged the system to make it damn near impossible for someone born into poverty to move up the ladder. And never mind that many of these conservatives have never had to work from the bottom up. This is why Bush doesn’t “get” poor people.

Overworked, exhausted, broadcast-hypnotized Americans have bought these lies hook, line and sinker. Like the saps in the Staples commercials, we’re all looking for the Easy Button. We seldom question what’s presented.

So now that the tide is turning and average Americans are waking up to the fact they’ve been snookered, what line does the GOP trot out to defend their SCHIP veto? “Poor kids first!”

In the past, that line might have worked. But now that more of are us are flirting with the poverty line, we’re finally starting to care.