According to the illusionist team Penn and Teller, one of the main principles in sleight-of-hand stage magic is "misdirection," wherein an audience's attention is lead "away from a secret move.” The distraction is necessary to make an audience believe something is happening when in fact it is not. On the current American political and economic stage we have a myriad of hucksters selling us a collective diversion from systemic inequalities and institutional injustices to the ‘reality TV’ baseness of political parody. Corporate media continuously solidifies this diversion; be it for ratings, news cycle pace, lack of resources or gumption, and a newly framed reality is perpetuated.
This pervasive stage magic is particularly evident in the partisan volleying during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. The mainstream political dialogue contains little context and even less history. The perverse theatre is observed through the gaze of “objective” news outlets transfixed at the spectacle of the old married partisan couple doing their dysfunctional thing. The spotlight of the circus is focused on the hoots, brays and roars of the dustup between the donkey and the elephant while the ringmaster who’s brutally whipping them both remains comfortably in the shadows.
The ringmaster in this particular case is the private insurance industry. They’ve been given the keys to our country’s health care system and been allowed to fully write the legislation that effectively shifts all discussion and technical focus from health care to health coverage. When we think back before 2009, the crisis in our health care system was primarily the result of the private insurance industry, not in spite of it.
In a flashback to the 2008 bailout, where bankers were awarded $150 billion for concocting complex mortgage schemes that led to one of the largest financial meltdowns the world has ever seen, the private health insurance industry is getting a giant subsidy after effectively ruining health care in this country.
As progressive journalist and political commentator David Sirota recently pointed out in regards to the Affordable Care Act:
...It most definitely is the legislative manifestation of the insurance industry's biggest wishes of all, providing massive no-strings-attached subsidies to the industry, and using government power to force citizens to become the industry's permanent customers. It also is not what the insurance industry most fears - it is not only not a single-payer system, it doesn't even include a public option that would allow people to altogether avoid the rapacious private-insurance industry. It also does not prevent insurance companies from employing their typical devil-in-the-details tactics - the kind that provide the patina of health insurance while limiting access to actual health services.
In a recent op-ed, Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, progressive talk radio hosts and organizers, described the shifting of the conversation away from real health care:
The mass media is focused on the technical problems with getting the insurance exchanges up and running. These problems result from the complexity of the law and outsourcing of services to corporations that are often more costly and less effective than government. In comparison, in 1965 when Medicare started, everyone 65 and over was enrolled within six months - using index cards.
If all US residents were in one plan, Medicare for all, rather than the ACA's tiered system that institutionalizes the class divides in the United States, not only would the health system be fairer and improve health outcomes, but it would be less bureaucratic, less costly and easier to implement. The Medicare-for-all approach considers health care to be a public good, something that all people need, like schools, roads and fire departments.
Rather than being distracted by the problems of the exchanges, the more pressing issue is whether we want to continue using a market-based approach to health care or whether we want to join the other industrialized nations in treating health care as a public good. This conversation is difficult to have in the current environment of falsehoods, exaggerations and misleading statements coming from both partisan directions, echoed by their media supporters and nonprofit organizations…
This is not sour grapes for a single-payer or public option that never was on the table, but a reality check as to where we are. In the video below from 2009, Bill Moyers summarizes the revolving door between the insurance industry and the political committee that was tasked with drafting the Affordable Care Act. While most Americans scramble to the safety of their partisan forts to fawn over or deride "Obamacare," the mockery of the democratic process plays out before a spotlight and a wand; the embodiment of diversion. As Moyers aptly sums up:
“Today, none dare call it treason. So, how about calling it what it is – a friendly takeover of government, a leveraged buyout of democracy. Outrageous? You bet. But don’t just get mad. Get busy.”
(Photo by Ed Schipul)
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