I almost didn’t write this. I thought, it’s only going to prolong my rage, no one’s gonna read it or if they do, they'll just be fellow Democrats already anyway, I have so much else to do, etc. etc. But at the end of the day, rage won.
So, as some of you may know, Obama's campaign's grassroots efforts, which did so much to get him elected have persisted into his presidency in order to garner support for his various issues--probably the most significant of which thus far is the current one: his push for health care reform. This being one of the issues I am most passionate about, I have joined the fight.
For instance, I started literally been e-mailing my representatives every single day about it. And finally, this evening, I was able to force myself to do a little phone canvassing--I’m pretty introverted, so doing so always petrifies me--and sat down with my cell and my phone list and started dialing.
Most of them were wrong numbers, mercifully, but strangely enough, the last call, just before my phone died, was the one where I actually got to speak to someone.
Kimberly. 21.
The purpose of these calls, as stated in the phone banking materials, is firstly to see if they agree with the three principles of Obama’s intended reforms. Kimberly agreed to the first two, but after I read the third, she demurred.
The third is: “Ensure that quality, affordable health care is available to all Americans.”
She responded that she couldn’t agree with that because “...I went to private school....”
At this point, I assumed she was gonna say something like, “but a lot of my friends went to public school, and it sounded awful,” i.e. things run by the government are crappy.
However, she continued: “...and I didn’t like that my dad had to pay for [no no, please don’t tell me she’s gonna say what I think she’s gonna say....] so many people to go to public school.”
I have a few questions for you, Kimberly.
1. Really? You don’t even believe in public school? What are you, an anarchist? Even the most dyed-in-the-wool Republicans believe in public school. The argument is so over that I’m not even going to waste my time defending fucking public school here. Does this mean you don’t even believe in charity, since that, too, would just be your “dad’s money going to other people”?
2. Your family was affluent enough to send you to private school. You escaped having to go to public school, with all its gangs and shitty teachers. And you’re begrudge the unwashed masses for getting even that???
3. What EXACTLY do you wish you’d been able to spend the extra money that Daddy instead paid in taxes? I figure it must be something like a yacht or a pony: since your family was affluent enough to pay for private school--for roughly the cost of a new car per year--I figure they had the basics like a mansion, a Mercedes, a maid, etc. already covered.
Wait, hold still, let me yank that silver spoon out of your mouth and make you THINK for a second with that over-privileged brain of yours--which is worth about 12 new BMWs more than mine. I'll try to ascend to your level in order to explain taxes. You know that country club you’re a member of? Well, Daddy pays a very expensive membership fee for you. And you know how nice the country club is? With its flowers and pristine pool and tennis courts? Well, all the members’ fees pay for all that. See, those country club membership fees, well, they’re kind of like taxes. Taxes pay for roads and schools and the police and such so that we have a nice, civilized society.
Here’s another thing that’s similar between your country club’s membership dues and taxes: they are not a la carte. You can’t tell your country club, well, I hate swimming, so I’m never gonna use the pool, so you can just deduct that from my membership fee, kthxbye! It doesn’t work like that, honey. So just because your parents elected of their own free will not to put their kids in public school system doesn’t mean Daddy gets to opt out of paying for it. Because ironically enough--sadly enough both for you and for them--the people who are incapable of paying for it are the ones who need it the most—the people who can’t afford the ritzy education you got to have. (btw, there's a great website I found recently of rich people who actually WANT to be taxed more for social services because they actually understand this concept: Wealth for the Common Good)
Obviously, I really, really, really wish I’d been able to say all these things to her, but as anyone who’s gone canvassing knows, you’re advised not to argue and instead to just move on--i.e. that your energy is best spent finding the people who DO agree with you. So instead of all the above, I simply said cheerily, "should I put you down as a 'no' then?" And she said yes.
But I think that at some level, we also need to educate each other, to maintain a dialogue to continually challenge and push our beliefs. Which is, I suppose, why I'm writing this after all: putting my few drops in the bucket for that cause so that by the time a canvasser does roll around, the people on the other end of the line or on the other side of the door don’t spout off like fucktards.
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