September 19, 2017
Many of us watching the Emmys on Sunday night shared Anna Chlumsky’s slack-jawed disbelief when Sean Spicer was wheeled out onto the stage to “joke” about crowd size. We couldn’t believe how quickly our Hollywood heroes, who have spent countless nights over the last nine months righteously excoriating Trump’s corruption, bigotry and dishonesty, could book a prime slot on the rehabilitation tour of one of his primary enablers. Of course, Stephen Colbert was hardly alone in this. Harvard University invited Spicer and Corey Lewandowski to be fellows at their Kennedy School of Government’s Institute of Politics. The stated mission of the Institute of Politics is to “engage students with academics, politicians and policymakers on a non-partisan basis and to stimulate and nurture their interest in public service and leadership.” How can Harvard square the appointment of a mouthpiece for a racist grifter who demeans the office of the Presidency, trashes our country’s standing in the world and demonstrates utter contempt for the Constitution and the Rule of Law, with that mission? The disturbing trend, noted by everyone from Teen Vogue to Time Magazine, is that notoriety is now the coin of the realm, with no regard for ethics, standards or values.
Spicer, who spent six months lying, obfuscating and berating the press on a daily basis, is rewarded with a kiss from the cuddly King of Carpool Karaoke. We could be forgiven for regarding this spectacle with dismay, but this should serve as a wake-up call for those of us who mistook laughing along with a piercing opening monologue for action. If anything, the Spicer episode is a reminder that from Hollywood to Harvard, those with fame and prominence can afford to forgive Spicer, because they don’t have nearly as much at stake as the rest of us. No police officers in riot gear threaten the exercise of their First Amendment rights.
While we were distracted by the Spicer stunt and violent, juvenile Trump tweets, the Republicans were busy working to sneak Obamacare repeal through under the wire. The Cassidy Graham bill is the cruelest repeal measure yet. It eviscerates Medicaid and eliminates coverage for pre-existing conditions (Source: “How Cassidy-Graham Brings Back Pre-Existing Conditions,” by Sarah Kliff, Vox, 9/18/17). As New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman said, “Under this plan, people with metastatic cancer will pay $142,650 more a year to get coverage. That is not reform. That is a death sentence.” (Schneiderman Twitter Feed, 9/18/17).
This bill would punish the mostly Blue states that expanded Medicaid, redistributing billions of dollars from them to aid red states. In order to take advantage of the lower 50 vote threshold available through reconciliation, Republicans plan to vote on this bill without a full CBO score, hoping to avoid the inevitable headlines trumpeting the millions who stand to lose coverage if this is passed. Congressional Republicans are employing their same tactics of stealth, speed and dishonesty to ram through a law dismantling Obamacare that is more extreme than either of its failed predecessors. They are counting on our being too incredulous and exhausted to stop them. They imagine us being too distracted by the latest Trump tweet or disappointed by the cozy embrace of Trump veterans by our talk show idols to mount another campaign to stop them. We have to prove them wrong.
Don’t get it twisted. It is on us to organize: to call our representatives, show up at their offices and march on the Capitol (again) to stop this. Colbert’s and Kimmel’s job is to entertain us, not to lead us. If we have been confused, that is our fault, not theirs. So let them do their job. We had damned sure better do ours.
#Emmys
#SaveObamacare