Rush is Right

I heard Rush Limbaugh say yesterday that “President Obama is trying to destroy the institutions that made this country great.” And from his point of view, he’s absolutely white... Um... I mean right. The institution of white racism that gives him (and admittedly myself) privilege in America is under attack, and rightfully so.

This notion that the U.S. was made great by a handful of visionaries (typically portrayed as white guys) is a crock of shit. America was made great by the scores of people of all colors who worked hard to scrape out a meager living, not by the few who got rich on the backs of the workers. I grew up in a union town. Almost everyone in my family was a union member. I know first hand the benefit of a healthy working class. The truth is that when the working class prospers, the country prospers. It is no coincidence that when Reagan all but destroyed the union system back in the eighties, the economy collapsed.

But I digress.

Right now the battle is over health care. The health insurance industry has found yet another way to get rich on the backs of the working classes; charge them for health coverage and then deny their claims. Obama said that insurance executives are not bad people. I strongly disagree. To profit from others’ suffering without giving aid to those suffering is evil. Plain and simple. But I’m no politician.

We need to break down this institutional norm that a few people get rich from the hard work and suffering of the many. This is the institution that Limbaugh believes made this country great. And he’s right, we are trying to pull it down.