Armageddon and Health Care

Dear John (Boehner):

I never thought I would be writing one of these letters, but here I go. I was raised as a card carrying Evangelical Protestant and took the concern you had about the health care bill causing Armageddon very seriously. Perhaps too seriously for many . . . I decided to watch for Armageddon for 30 days because of your statement. You can check out the history of this @michelledionne on Twitter if you would like, dear. A man of your stature should know about these things, right?

I have to say I was sorely disappointed. Brilliant day after brilliant day passed. I still had health care. I heard nothing from anyone who didn't have health care. My friends still had health care. My mother still has Medicare (yep, she's retired). There were no jack booted thugs in the streets of New York City (are we too socialist?). No volcano ash. No six headed serpent. No rapture. No nothing as predicted by the Biblical Book of Revelations.

Honey, what went so wrong? How could I have soured on you so? How could you have broken your word? Could this have been merely political flourish?

I take away three lessons from this and I hope you take away the same. Here are my recommendations for the future as I stop taking what you say as one of the senior Republicans so seriously:

1. Don't organize political fights on the basis of painful emotion (anger counts). Now, I'm not a big fan of Ronnie, but Reagan was really on to something with his "new morning in America" (unfortunately, it wasn't so new for me). That hopey changey stuff that Obama campaigned on worked because people want something to believe in, not continual kvetching (excuse my mixed religious/cultural terminology). Not doing something because it would cause the end of the world, while exciting for Tea Party participants, does not exactly, well, light our fires.

2. Sometimes you have to lead public opinion as opposed to following it. Really did you want to allow health insurance companies to deny anyone coverage? I'm sure if we took a poll on this schnookums that the American public would overwhelmingly support provisions like this. Do you really think insurance companies should be able to place caps on care over the course of your lifetime? I know, no matter your ideological leanings, that you couldn't politically vote for that! But you know what, the rest of us "socialists" really didn't do a good job getting that part of the message out. But you should want to bring your constituents around to these positions and that couldn't be hard work!

3. Don't promise things above your pay grade like Armageddon, or alternatively, make sure that your critiques are actually based in fact. Really, isn't God (as I learned it) responsible for deciding when Armageddon should come? Are there really death panels in this bill (I haven't heard of grandparents being killed by whoever since the bill passed!). If you stick with real facts (less government regulation, more market doing it's thing (although I don't agree with this)), you might have more mojo next time.

And sweetheart, next time is already here . . . it's the financial reform bill. I would keep Armageddon out of it. Really. Just sayin'.

Our futures will now be delinked. I don't know what else to say. I can only wish you the best.

Hoping for the best,

Michelle