Glenn Beck is a racist

So Glenn Beck, who thinks President Obama is a racist, says that Obama's entire agenda (including health care reform) boils down to "reparations." That's a term that usually refers to money given to, say, racial minorities targeted for state-sponsored sterilization, or (in theory) to any group victimized by society in the past.

At the root of opposition to "reparations" is, as I've written before, a deep anger at the idea that the have-nots will take from the haves. It's the belief that opportunity is a finite package, and that if those who didn't "give" to it get something out of it, then it stands to reason that the ones who DID put in won't get their rightful share out.

But I don't concede that health care reform is a "reparation." It's interesting that Beck thinks of equitable health care as only benefitting minorities. There's so much racism here that I don't know where to begin... Let's start with the fact that plenty of white people lack decent health care for various reasons, including the fact that millions of Americans (of every race) are out of work through no fault of their own. But Beck's line of reasoning seems to be that only irresponsible people don't have private health insurance, and since only racial minorities are irresponsible, ergo - reform only benefits minorities.

(Horseshit. I don't know what ivory tower this dipshit lives in, but I know dozens of people, just off the top of my head, who don't have adequate health care, usually because they've lost the jobs that provided their insurance. None of them are uninsured by choice, and none aer just itching to bilk Uncle Sam.)

In Beck's mind, something that benefits the have-nots automatically penalizes the haves. That makes absolutely no sense to me. Personally, I think we live in a marvelous country with few, if any, limits. Where government programs leave gaps, the private sector (profit and non-profit) fill them. Where the private sector leaves gaps (especially in the rural areas where I grew up), government (local, state, federal) programs fill them. I don't see the two in opposition; rather, they promote one another.

For a bunch of supposedly pro-America folks, Beck and the other reform-haters seem to seriously doubt the ability of Americans to make it work. C'mon, we put a man on the moon, but we can't pay for my grandmather's anti-biotics?

And, BTW, capitalists... what exactly do you think a person with extra money (from not having back-breaking medical bills) will do with that money? Stuff it under the damned mattress?