Well, we have tried to create healthcare bumperstickers, to find that slogan, and some great ones were made.  But now it's time to write a few for the other side.  Something that speaks the unspoken results of their advocacy.  It might have some of that tough guy language too, just to add force to the message to compensate for the lack of size in the population that the fringe represents.

[Note: This idea originated with Destor's post, based on info published at The Daily Howler regarding how the US stacks up against other nations considering our healthcare costs.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/desidero/2009/09/health-care-cost-channeling-bo.php?ref=reccafe ]

Here's a few of mine to start:

30% of my premiums go to bureaucrats and CEOs.  Is that a crime?!?!?

I've got a gun!  How's that free speech working for you?

If we pay to treat illegals, who's going to pay the CEOs?

Medicare is mine, and y'all can't have any!

It's called the donut hole because it's fun to pay to lose coverage in your old age!

I've been paying premiums for years without ever getting sick. Of course I have coverage!

Well, just came up with one for HCR.  Could not help it. :

My insurer told me I was paying for coverage and not for treatment!

Your turn!!!  :-{)>

It's not venereal disease of which I speak, although one might wonder about that with the unfaithful tendencies of the GOP of late.  It's about Visceral Disease, an emotionally charged state of being that defies logic, that blinds the infected with an inability to understand rational explanations.  This illness clearly has all the hallmarks of Rovian tactics.  It is spread by talking points that have no basis in a temporal reality, but they are real.  They effect a deep, unconscious part of the brain, a place that has been watered and treated with herbicides, pesticides and petrochemical fertilizers to create a rich, dark soil, amped up to grow an invasive species that by design will choke out any other plants by depriving them of light and lead to some blissful homocroptual existence on the planet.  It seems we are developing an immunity to it, but we need to be prepared for any mutations that might emerge and foment another plague.

Have you ever stood in awe at how the absurdities of their declarations are ignored and the agenda advances despite the lack of truth in the basis of their presentation.  Death panels?  Ignore everything about it, just feel the words, death panel.  It's scarey.  What about Weapons of Mass Destruction?  I don't know about you, but just hearing this makes me want to crawl under my desk.  Take away my guns?  I'm feeling vulnerable and defenseless.  Defense of Marriage/Christmas - were they under an attack?  I mean, seriously, was violence threatened, because that is typically what one thinks of when they consider defense, that one may need to resort to violence.  We have an entire federal department for just that purpose, defending by violent means.

Czars!  This is the latest, but it's really rather dated.  The GOP began with this meme.  I am so intimidtaed by the royalty of that expression.  I can't go near a czar.  I have no voice whatsoever in the face of a czar.  Father Gapon thought he could bring the complaints of the peasants to the czar and was met with cossacks on horseback brandishing swords and rifles.  It was Bloody Sunday in Russia, 1905. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)  Oh, I'm going to stay away from that autocrat, and resent him the entire time! 

Considering this meme when the GOP used it, it was to intimidate and bestow an air of superiority on the director.  It was intended to exude power and broadcast in a positive light, something serious was being done.  It was a very useful tool in a government not inclined to respect voices of the majority of people but preferring to listen to the voices of special interests.  But now the Adminstration is not GOP, and all the darkest suggestions are being created to frighten people.  Bush equalled a benevolent monarch, a father figure and Obama is a despot.   But which President joked about dictatorship?  Oh, it was a joke, and laughter feels good.

For a long time, the GOP has provoked visceral reactions by people in many ways, not just fear.  They provoke anger, which is strongly related to fear, but they also provoke jealousies, a base sentiment thrust at the unions for their decent wages and healthcare.  It's been masterfully orchestrated.  People prefer to take away the benefits of union workers rather then obtain those benefits for themselves by forming a union.  Seriously.  Does anyone verbalize the result of their destructive inclination?  In real words they are promoting this expression, "I don't want better wages or health care, and I don't want them to have those benefits either!"

The good news it that there is hope in the next generation.  There were large numbers of students who stepped up and worked hard to get Obama elected, and these were college age kids.  But take a look at the students yet to emerge from high school, http://www.tampabay.com/features/article1034344.ece.  [Borrowed from js fox, who borrwed it from DialyKOS, http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/jsfox/2009/09/and-a-child-shall-lead-us.php?ref=reccafe ] . These young adults are not infected with the virus of visceral reactions.  They get it.  They are aware.  They see the light.  It gives me hope that I might have social security when my time comes and I might not be left to whither away on the street after healthcare costs have taken away my savings and my home.  The GOP is once again providing the people with good feelings - laughter, and that makes me feel good. 

[Note:  Almost a month ago I posted this, but now that we are about to reconvene, and we're all fired up and ready to go!, it seems this is a better time to offer it to you.  I've always been ahead of the curve.]

Democrats are so terrified of their own power it's really disappointing to see them flailing about crying the sky is falling when they actually have the power to stop it.  The GOP has this nearly impotent minority and are wagging the Rottweiler into convulsions.  "What do we do?  What do we do?!?!?"  Man up!  Girl up!  Put on your big boy pants and git 'er done!!!  That is what you do!

This is a golden opportunity for the Democrats.  They have the capacity to pass healthcare reform legislation, but appear to lack the organization and determination.  They could bring universal healthcare to this country and deserve decades of gratitude for doing so, or they can collapse, which would be extremely unfortunate.  I do not wish to see the Dems slinking back into the shadows as the nation, with its short memory, returns the GOP to prominence as though the GOP would do a better job.  The GOP history does not support that notion.

It is surprising, though, when one steps back to consider it, that the history of the Democratic Party DOES support the notion that they can do a terrific job with this.  Yes, none of the current Representatives were there when Medicare, or Social Security, were passed.  But they were the ones who SAVED Social Security not that long ago.  They need to understand this is crisis time, right now!  They either bring this to fruition, or their rising stars will begin their descent much too soon. There is some truth to the suggestion that if this fails, the rest of Obama's term will be irrelevant and reelection improbable.  There is also much truth to the proposition that the party will mirror the fate of the Obama Administration.  So, here it is!  Sink or swim!  Rise or fall!  Win or lose!  We are playing for all the marbles.

If the Dems do not understand that failure will be theirs if there is no reform, they need to ask themselves one very important question, "Now that the health insurance industry has spent  tens of millions of dollars fighting healthcare reform, who is going to restore their treasuries after the dust settles?"  Did they guess the consumer, their constituents, all of them?  Whether they were agitators or not, everyone with insurance will be made to pay those bills?  Do they understand how monumental a loss this will be when people will again have the insurance companies reach deeper into their wages and salaries to pay for the opposition to healthcare reform?  Make no mistake, the fault is going to be tied around the necks of the Democrats like a millstone. 

Forget about it!  Forget failure!  It is not an option!  When you return to Congress after the recess, git 'er done!!!   Get something meaningful passed that will be reflected in the pocketbooks of tens of millions of Americans, the under-insured!  Do something that will enhance the lives of tens of millions of Americans, those with no healthcare.  Stake your claims as the Party that brought this nation Medicare and Social Security and the party that recently saved Social Security.   These are examples of what we can do together and universal healthcare can have the same success and bring the Democratic Party back to the respected Party they were when these programs were first implemented.  That success gave the Democratic Party control of Congress for decades.  If you want it to be that way again, then healthcare reform must be passed and it must be meaningful. 

The only way a positive long term result can be achieved is if the insurance companies are facing competition from the State going forward, a public option.  As many have suggested, the insurance companies will gradually dissolve after that, and they should.  People will come to see healthcare as a right for ALL, not just senior citizens.  They will see it as a part of America just as Social Security is a part of America.  At the end of the day, it is social security that has remained unwavering during this economic collapse.  This cannot be said of those with 401ks and IRAs.  The Democrats are losing the PR war at the moment, but it's when Congress reconvenes that the issue must be resolved.  Be the one who changes people's lives for a better, healthier future, and the reward is yours for years to come.  Forget about the agitators and noise makers.  Make it happen!