Wednesday night, after Pres. Carter's remarks identifying the racism attendant to the teabagger rally in Washington and the other virulent eruptions of the right, Rachel Maddow interviewed a fellow named Frank Schaeffer about what it all means.  She introduced the segment by pointing to some of the survey results about New Jersey "conservatives" and how many of them believe that Obama either is the antichrist or might be.  Schaeffer grew up in the "Evangelical" movement and was an influential player early on in organizing the Christian right.  Like Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, Schaeffer, at a certain point had an epiphany and changed the course of his life.  He now recognizes Christian fundamentalism for what it is and does what he can to combat it's continued malignant growth.

I think Mr. Schaeffer has a great deal of wisdom to impart about the Christian right, what it's all about and why it manifests itself politically as it does.  People should listen carefully to what he has to say on this subject.

Rachel noted that about 60% of McCain voters in New Jersey do not think Obama is an American citizen.  She wondered aloud why this is and how this could be and this is what Mr. Schaeffer said:

Those of us who come from the evangelical subculture have been weaned with our mother's milk on a changing cast list of villains.  It might be Kennedy to one generation, Obama to the next, but I think the larger point this brings up is that the mainstream, not just media, but culture doesn't sufficiently take stock of the fact that within our culture we have a subculture which is literally a fifth column of insanity that is bred from birth through home school, Christian school, evangelical College, whatever to reject facts as a matter of faith.  And so this substitute for authentic, historic Christianity, and I may add a little caveat here I'm a churchgoing Christian, really brings up the question can Christianity be rescued from Christians? 

And that's an open question and when you see a bunch of people going around thinking that our President is the antichrist you have to draw one of two conclusions.  Either these are racists looking for any excuse to level the next accusation or they're beyond crazy and I think beyond crazy is a better explanation and that evangelical subculture has rotted the brain of the United States of America.  We have a big slice of our population waiting for Jesus to come back.  They look forward to Armageddon.  Good news is bad news to them.  When we talk about the Left Behind series of books that I talk about in my book Crazy for God, what we're really talking about is a group of people who are resentful because they know they've been left behind.  By modernity, by science, by education by art, by literature. 

The rest of us are getting on with our lives.  These people are standing on a hilltop waiting for the end.  This is a dangerous group of people to have as neighbors and they are our national neighbors.  And this is the source of all these insanities that we see leveled at the President, one way or another they go back to this evangelical subculture.  Uh, it's a disaster.

Rachel then went on to discuss the large numbers of self-identified "conservatives" who pay heed to the birthers and deathers, etc...  She then asked...

Q: How do you work to move people off of that position?  It doesn't seem like facts are relevant in trying to move people away from these beliefs.

You don't work to move them off this position.  You move past them. 

Look, a village cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot.  It's as simple as that.  And we have to understand we have a village idiot in this country: it's called fundamentalist Christianity, and until we move past these people, and let me add as a former lifelong Republican, until the Republican leadership has the guts to stand up and say it would be better not to have a Republican Party than have a party that caters to the village idiot there's gonna be no end in sight.  The next thing they'll do is accuse Obama of being the antichrist and then who knows what comes next?  On and on it goes.  There is no end to this stuff.  Why?  Because this subculture has, as it's fundamentalist faith, that they distrust facts per se. 

They believe in a young earth, 6000 years old, with dinosaurs cavorting with human beings.  They think that whether its economic news or news from the Middle East it all has to do with the end of time and Christ's return.  This is La La Land and the Republican Party is totally enthralled to this subculture to the extent that there is no Republican Party.  There is a fundamentalist subculture which has become a cult.  It's fed red meat by buffoons like Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and other people who are just not terribly bright themselves and they are talking to even stupider people.  That's where we're at.  That's where all this is coming from and it's becoming circular.  It's becoming a joke.  Unfortunately a dangerous joke because once in a while one of these looney tunes we see brings guns to public meetings.  Who knows what they do next?  It's a serious thing we all have to face but the Democrats and sane Americans just have to move past these people and say, go wait on the hilltop for the end.  The rest of us are going to get on with rebuilding our country. 

You can go to the following url which will take you to Mr. Schaeffer's website.  The clip from the Maddow show is front and center and can be watched by clicking on the link:

http://www.frankschaeffer.com/

Mr. Schaeffer knows these people and their beliefs very, very well.  He understands their mentality.  Mr. Schaeffer does not dispute that much of the vitriol for Obama comes from racism but interestingly, he thinks that racism is only a part of it and even the racism we see emanates in large part from fundamentalist Christianity.  I went and looked around on his blog and he believes that soon they may well turn to violence.  I think he may well be right.  The paranoid, sensationalist rhetoric of the right is very reminiscent of other times in the not too distant past when right wing violence sprang up.  Speaker Pelosi was warning of that today and was all but ignored by the Republican leadership.  People need to be prepared.  And we need to be prepared to smack down any further violence by the right quickly and effectively so they do not pick up anymore momentum.

According to Sen. Bernie Sanders, 18,000 Americans die annually because they do not have access to our medical system.  A million people declare bankruptcy annually due to their inability to pay medical bills.  Medical expenses are now the number one cause of bankruptcy in America.  Countless Americans are routinely denied medical care they need and that their doctors have recommended because of the effort of insurance companies to maximize their profits at the expense of the health of the American people. 

Currently, insurance companies are firmly and unquestionably in the driver's seat when it comes to healthcare decisions in the United States: not doctors, not patients.  The insurance companies ration care based on how much profit they wish to generate, not on any basis even remotely related to the interests of those who need healthcare in America.  Given these indisputable facts, why are our political leaders making preservation of the current system the central priority of alleged healthcare reform legislation?   

Along with numerous others, I've been advocating that progressives in Congress should kill any healthcare reform legislation that does not include a strong public option that will force the insurance companies to improve their practices or lose their businesses. Yes, lose their businesses. That is what is supposed to happen when actual competition is introduced in any marketplace: somebody wins and somebody loses. The winners are those that provide the best value to the consumer in relation to how much they are spending on the product or service. That's supposedly the reason why capitalism is worth having. 

Our current, for profit healthcare system is more mercantilist than capitalist.  No genuine competition between insurance companies exists  nor does any substantive choice exist for consumers.  So the beneficial aspects of a capitalist approach for society have been eliminated.  Instead, we have a noncompetitive marketplace designed to guarantee profits for the broker (not the provider) of medical services and no other genuine choice for those who need to access the medical system.

The opponents of substantive and meaningful healthcare reform are doing all they can to maintain a competition free marketplace for the insurance companies that are bleeding our families and businesses white. Their primary tactic is to preserve the status quo in a form as close as possible to the form in which it exists today. They are accomplishing this goal by eviscerating every bill in Congress to the maximum extent possible and watering down every aspect of legislation that would negatively impact insurance company profits and the profits of the associated parasitical businesses.  All those industries have grown obscenely and unjustly rich at the expense of the people of the United States.

The strategy at the moment is to bamboozle the public into believing that a bill that does little or nothing to reform our healthcare system, but much to protect and increase the profits of the insurance parasites is actually healthcare reform when it clearly is not.   The insurance and associated interests have flooded the halls of Congress with their legalized bribes (campaign cash) in order to buy just enough loyalty to scuttle any threats to the continuation of their outrageous practices and the obscene profits that result from them. Remember, insurance companies are nothing more than middlemen who profit from transactions to which they add not one scintilla of value to any medical service: ever.  Yet they decide what is and is not allowed, what will or will not be paid for based upon how much profit they wil make instead of the healthcare needs of patients.  It's simply an immoral basis upon which to operate a healthcare system.

Protecting the interests of these companies who have been profiting off the denial of care to sick people for decades is the most shameful and perverse aspect of the charade going on in Washington over healthcare reform. In addition to all the Republicans in Congress, among the ranks of those protecting the insurance and other parasitical interests and opposing meaningful healthcare reform are all the corrupt, cowardly Democrats such as Baucus, Reid, Lieberman, Landrieu, and all the other alleged moderates and Blue Dogs who bow and scrape to the power and wealth of the insurance industry. I would include also the DLC Democrats at the top of the food chain at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue including especially Rahm Emmanuel and David Axelrod who are doing all they can to convince Americans and progressives particularly that "any" bill is better than no bill when that is simply not true. "Any" bill might be better for the short term interest of the political hacks at the White House and for protecting the President's political fortunes at this moment in time, but in the long run, a faux healthcare reform bill will do far more damage to Democrats from the President on down the line than anything else including losing an honorable fight for a good reform bill and any progressive with the slightest common sense ought to be able to discern that this is the case.

If it is true, as the President said last week (and I believe it is), that this is a moral issue then it is clear that the advice of the political hacks is not acceptable.  Why?  Because, at it's heart, if all we get is an insurance subsidy bill without a strong public option it isn't reform at all and there will be no benefit for the American people worth the heavy price paid for "any" bill at "any" cost.  

A bad bill is, in fact, worse than no bill. It's that simple.  Why?  Because we will be stuck with a set of "reforms" that do little or nothing to improve the situation for the average citizen and the schemes being proposed are onerous. A bad bill will provide all the ammunition the forces of the status quo need to prevent any further "reform" for the next generation or more.  And please, don't hand me that cliche of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. We are, after all, only talking about including a strong public option when we should have been talking about a single payer plan all along.  So that tired line is nothing but pure BS employed by cowards to cover up their failure, or is it betrayal? 

Whenever DC Democrats start using that canard you know it means the people are about to get screwed... again. Besides, that perfect vs good analogy isn't what is shaping up anyway. What is shaping up is that the corporate Democrats who have led our party to defeat, retreat and humiliation time and again are making the bad the enemy of the good. The good, at minimum, includes a strong public option. No public option means there's nothing else in the bill that can make up for the failure to include that feature. Period.  So, how is it in the best interest of the Democrats and the nation to go down that road once again with the corporate Democrats whose rotten leadership has been demonstrated over and over and over?  Well, the fact is, it isn't in the best interest either of Democrats or the nation and we shouldn't follow the corporate/DLC Democrats over that cliff.

Last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, there was a segment on the day's developments regarding the healthcare reform legislation in DC. One part of the segment had a clip of testimony being given at a healthcare forum on the Hill by Wendell Potter, the former Communications Director for CIGNA, one of the largest of the health insurance companies. He knows from his many years as an insider in the industry exactly how these companies play the game, what they're up to and why they do what they do. He was very direct in his statement about what the failure to include a strong public option means and by extension, it is clear that defeating a bad bill (one that doesn't include a strong public option) would be better than passing a health insurance subsidy bill as is clearly the intention of the administration and Democratic Congressional leadership at this point.  Here is what Mr. Potter said:

If Congress goes along with the so called solutions the insurance industry says it is bringing to the table, and acquiesces to the demands it is making of lawmakers and if it fails to create a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, the bill it sends to the President might as well be called "The Insurance Industry Profit Protection And Enhancement Act."

The quote from Mr. Potter is at about the 1:35 mark in the clip and can be seen at the following url:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677#32868158

Between now and whenever a bill nears passage, the best thing progressives can do is to apply as much pressure as possible to the wishy washy, corrupt corporate Democrats in Congress by calling them and insisting they support a public option just as a strong majority of Americans do and also to contact the progressives in Congress and encourage them to hold fast and kill any legislation that fails to include a strong public option and not to settle for less.