Embrace the crazy

You've heard the wingers shout, and have seen them holding signs saying, Obamacare = socialism. I have, and I've got to admit that it's been bugging me. It kind of bugs me that an effort to provide health care to all Americans gets dismissed in a negative bumper sticker slogan. Plus, I like Obama, I consider him my guy, and I tend to defend my guys when they get attacked. So, those signs have been working on me, I guess.

It occurs to me that we progressives should embrace Obamacare. Let's call the health care / insurance reform "Obamacare." See, as Bill Clinton recently predicted, once it passes and gets implemented, Americans are going to like it and appreciate it, as they like and appreciate Medicare. The controversy will go away, and we'll be left with a healthier America, fewer bankruptcies, all that. People will come to love it.

And then, I hope they call it Obamacare. "Boy, I'm glad I had Obamacare when my spouse got cancer." "If he hadn't had Obamacare when my 23 year old son wrecked his motorcycle, he'd have been debt for a decade." ( I had a personal experience with my step son very similar to this; big injury in 2001, just got it paid off, 8 years later.)

So, yeah, lets go with Obamacare. He'll get credit for it for it forever, if that sticks. There will be Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare.

Homosexual activists did something similar when they embraced the word "gay." That was a slur, but once "gay" activists made it their own, it just became their word, and it lost its power.

Let's do the same with Obamacare.