A few thoughts regarding “The socialist beginnings of Obama and the US” by Katherine Yaremko in the September 10 issue.
On reading of “shimmering heat waves tinted in hues of red, white and blue along with specks of Constitution-inspired star dust lingering in the air,” I thought I was reading the beginning of a satire. But no. It is very clear that Ms. Yaremko has permitted neither logic nor history to influence her essay. Instead, it is informed by a conspiracy mentality that is knowingly fanned by radical-right wing radio and talk shows.
Obama’s “plan” according to Yaremko is “the confiscation of private property, liquidation of farms, friends and family members disappearing in the night without explanation.” How does Yaremko know this? What is his “brand of radical ideology” that Yaremko warns Obama is ready to foist upon us? It is that everyone be required to have health insurance.
As far as Yaremko’s fears for private insurance companies, fear not. For Obama’s plan will be a new gold mine for them. These companies’ main concern is not insuring us, but to gain profit.
These fears of “socialized” medicine are very revealing. They also show a stunning historical ignorance. When Social Security, a minimum wage, workplace safety, public schools, the national highway system (developed by President Eisenhower), Medicare, mandatory automobile insurance and helmets for motorcyclists, and the Clean Water Act (proposed by Richard Nixon) were originally introduced to the American public, the Conservatives were quick to denounce them all as “socialist.”
Yaremko argues that “with the existence of a public option, Capitalism as we know it will disappear, weak, crippled bodies will be strewn throughout the streets . . . ” She apparently doesn’t know (or want to know) that almost all advanced Western Capitalist countries, except the United States, have a single-payer health insurance system. In those countries, which all consider themselves Capitalist, there are no weak, crippled bodies strewn across the street, as there are in every major American city.
This letter was submitted by Stanislao G. Pugliese PhD a Professor of History at Hofstra University.
