As people on the fringe stand up scream down the idea of health care – as people in wheelchair are shouted down, or Michael Steele,mocks a woman who shares a story about her Mom passing away:

Amanda Duzak, a 23 year old Towson University grad, stood up, against the rules and out of turn.

“My mother died of cancer 6 months ago because she could only afford three of her six prescription chemotherapy medications,” she projected. “There are 50 million people in this country who could end up like my mom, suffering or dying because they do not have adequate health care. Everyone in this room and everyone in this country should have access to good health care.”

The room woke up and other than those glaring from the front, the applause was wall to wall. But it’s Steele’s response that makes this moment both newsworthy and a terrible comment on his character. After saying that he believed in a mature, honest discussion and not in shouting, Steele said, “People are coming to these town meetings and they’re like [he then shakes].” He then looked and gestured right at Ms. Duzak and said, “It makes for great TV. You’ll probably make it tonight, enjoy it.” He then turned his back to her, as the crowd clapped.

(Nicely done, cartoon bad guy.  Did you harvest her tears for spells?  Did Snydley Whiplash call and offer you Kudos?)

While all this is going on, I sit in Southern California, where thousands and thousands of people are hoping beyond hope that government run programs like the fire department, or temporary housing, or state of emergencies work.   Where are the screams and shouts that Government should stay out of that?

You’ve read the news – it’s hell on Earth here.  But every day, it’s a little less hell, as the firefighters push back armageddon from the fringes of people’s yards and houses. They are doing heroes work. They are government employees.

A few years back, President Bush let a city die.   When the government didn’t come in to save the day, the nation was outraged.

When the roads are bumpy, when the mail doesn’t show up, when planes have near misses, when the CIA misses a terrorist strike or doesn’t catch Bin Laden… we blame the government.  So what is this argument really about?  It can’t be that we don’t want government in our lives – it’s there.  It’s not going anywhere.  National, State, City government – all of them do stuff that affects our every day.

Could they do it better?  With less waste?  Sure.  But the idea that government run anything sucks so much it should be ignored at all costs – that’s impaired thinking.  It’s unrealistic.

These people being saved and helped in the fire – they are being saved by government.  When two boneheads try to hide in a hottub – forgetting the specifics about how you make hard boiled eggs – they thumbed their nose at the government who told them to leave, and then begged them to air lift their dimwits out of the fire.  We paid for that too.

It reminds me of an E-mail a friend forwarded me:

A Day in the life of our friend on the fringe:

This wasn’t about this Joe. It was any Joe. But he works as well as anybody, except for the parts where the guy goes to a job and actually contributes something.

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance – now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans.

The house didn’t have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.
He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn’t mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: “We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.

Okay, so admittedly, some of that stuff is pie-in-the-sky hyperbole and glosses over some important facts… but then again, so is a lot of what the debate is about right now.

There’s hypocrisy here in hating government, and using it.  Screaming at it to stay our our lives – unless we agree with it.   Like Glenn Beck, who hated the American Health Care system when his butt surgery went awry, but now screams that it’s the greatest health care system in the multi-verse.  Like Michael Steele who hated Medicare two years ago, but now wants to protect it in his pandering “Seniors Bill of Rights.”

It’s why I reject this debate.   People who want government to do what THEY want it to do, otherwise they want it out of their lives.  It’s so transparent it’s ridiculous.

So I’m watching this debate like a basketball game – the last two minutes are all that matters, the end result is all that’s going to count.

So many of the people arguing loudly against this thing are like that couple in that hot tub, hoping to ride out the fire.  Hoping that the fact they could afford a small amount of protection will keep them safe from the flames, from a catastrophic health hit, or the loss of their insurance.  They might be right.

But there’s a better chance they’re wrong.

And do you know who will need to come to their aid if they are?  Unless they want to sit in the tub and boil like eggs on principle?

Something run by the government.

I’m not saying accept things blindly, but can this debate be a little less blind?