When the history of the last 10 years of this country is writ (if anyone will give a good goddamn or be able to read anything that's not in twit-speak) it will reflect the final moments before the two disparate, warring sides of the American psyche separated.
The last, moist threads linking those two factions are at their breaking points, with each side the embodiment of an ideology whose ultimate fear is the opposition's complete dominion over the other, thus signaling the end of America as a country and arguably the greatest and most successful experiment in democracy the world has seen.
On the current flashpoint of health care, the shrill voices of opposition, having hoarded their profits, are inundating the masses with primal fears of death and evoking iconic evil. And like good, sensitive, easily manipulated children, they believe Mommy and Daddy could never be wrong, could never be cruel.
In the instance of health care for all Americans, they have declared a war on reason. The instigators of this assault, one must assume, had to have been emotionally broken as children. They cling to myths and have developed a mortal hatred of the truth. They seethe and simplistically demonize their opponents in order to understand the purpose of their own existence in this short life; if they didn't they might realize that perhaps they had no purpose, no practical reason for being here at all. And when their arteries eventually burst, they will need the very health care they assail as wicked.
And the poor folks who are stirred to hurling mindless vitriol at the idea of health care for all Americans are, of course, the victims of a massive scam: drench the herds in low-brow entertainment, decry long-held fact based beliefs, isolate people's genuine feelings of pride and hope, add a dash of primal fear and stand back.
They are the Gullible Americans (to go alongside their Ugly cousins) and their fear based psychology cannot conceive of traitors in their midst -- unless the traitor is of a darker color or has a foreign sounding name. From swift boats to birthers, the sales pitches have reached a level of fervor seen only in tent meetings, full of hyperkinetic gobbledygook and political glossolalia.
The division is clear. It is, finally, right versus wrong. And on this side of the division we declare:
it is wrong to for a modern, wealthy country to not provide all its citizens with health care.
It is wrong to not provide better education.
It is wrong to go to war unilaterally.
It is wrong to cater to corporate interests when ordinary people are disadvantaged and struggling.
It is wrong to cater to radical, ignorant, religious zealotry and to give it a place at the table when it should be banned to the fringes.
It is wrong to foster a distrust of progress.
It is wrong to have a fear of "otherness."
It is wrong to perpetuate institutionalized racism.
It is wrong to deny science and to avoid culpability in the polluting of our planet.
These are the things a thinking, modern, progressive nation stands for. Those on the other side of the divide -- well, we've seen what they believe in. And, sadly, we've lived it.