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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / The Near Blind Learn to See

The Near Blind Learn to See

by John Cole|  May 19, 20156:09 pm| 105 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics

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This guy I was pissed at the other day has had a change of heart:

Luis Lang, who is currently crowdfunding for medical expenses that he can’t afford because he didn’t sign up for insurance under Obamacare, has become a viral sensation. However, the 49-year-old South Carolina resident says he doesn’t want to be the poster child for the Republican Party’s opposition to health care reform anymore.

At the end of last week, the Charlotte Observer reported that Lang, a lifelong Republican who’s previously prided himself on covering his own medical bills, can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars to treat an issue stemming from his chronic diabetes. Lang is suffering form bleeding in his eyes and a partially detached retina, which will cause him to go blind if left untreated. So he set up a GoFundMe page to solicit $30,000 in donations to cover a costly surgery that will save his vision.

Since then, the story has been picked up in left-leaning outlets across the country and covered in nationally syndicated newspaper columns. Obamacare supporters flocked to Lang’s GoFundMe page to urge him to change his mind about the health law.

In an interview with ThinkProgress, Lang joked that he might be the most hated Republican in the country right now. But he also said that, thanks in part to a flood of media attention that led him to learn more about health care policy, he doesn’t identify with the GOP anymore.

“Now that I’m looking at what each party represents, my wife and I are both saying — hey, we’re not Republicans!” Lang said. He added that, though he’s not a political person by nature and has never voted solely along party lines, he wants to rip up his voter registration card on national television so Americans will have proof that he’s making the switch.

Two object lessons here. One, anyone can learn given the right experiences. Two, I was wrong. No one is irredeemable. Had a lot of better people than me not chipped in to help him, he may never have come to this conclusion.

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Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 19, 2015 at 6:12 pm

    Two object lessons here. One, anyone can learn given the right experiences. Two, I was wrong. No one is irredeemable. Had a lot of better people than me not chipped in to help him, he may never have come to this conclusion.

    You’re a good man, John G. Cole.

    P.S. Good for Lang and his wife.

  2. 2.

    Mandalay

    May 19, 2015 at 6:14 pm

    There is an update from Lang on his gofundme page:

    In the mean while I would again like to thank all of the wonderful and big hearted liberals that have donated to me in my time of need. It does not matter the size of the donations because I know that it comes from the heart and some of the comments that have been made I deserve.

    I couldn’t bring myself to give him anything, but I have been following the comments there, and it looks like almost all of the donations have come from the left.

  3. 3.

    Chris

    May 19, 2015 at 6:14 pm

    Okay. Good for you, Luis. I hereby withdraw my “fuck him” from the last thread and defer to what John said in this post.

  4. 4.

    charluckles

    May 19, 2015 at 6:15 pm

    “Now that I’m looking at what each party represents, my wife and I are both saying — hey, we’re not Republicans!” Lang said

    Welcome to the world, friend.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    May 19, 2015 at 6:15 pm

    Good on him. Hopefully his testimony will cause others to think twice about what they believe.

  6. 6.

    Valdivia

    May 19, 2015 at 6:16 pm

    And how disinformation play a big part in this. Good luck to him.

  7. 7.

    jl

    May 19, 2015 at 6:17 pm

    I hoped he could get needed care before this change in his attitude, and I hope he can get needed care now.
    And, whoever contributed to his fund, is also a better person that I am in some respects.

    Good luck to him. I hope he continues to question the false narratives pushed by the GOP that produce unneeded obstacles for people like him.

  8. 8.

    patroclus

    May 19, 2015 at 6:17 pm

    Nice story!

  9. 9.

    Poptartacus

    May 19, 2015 at 6:17 pm

    As a wise man once said(I think it was obi wan)
    No one is beyond redemption grasshopper

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    May 19, 2015 at 6:18 pm

    That’s a kind of a sweet story. I wondered if he was tailoring his remarks to his interviewer (Think Progress), but Mr. Lang seems to have had his epiphany.

    Lang’s main complaint is the fact that the Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion should be optional, which has given Republican lawmakers the opportunity to refuse to implement the policy on the state level. That’s led to a coverage gap preventing millions of Americans from accessing affordable insurance whatsoever. Because Lang’s income has recently dried up, now that his deteriorating vision prevents him from working, he now falls into that gap.

    “I put the blame on everyone — Republican and Democrat. But I do mainly blame Republicans for their pigheadedness,” Lang said. “They’re blocking policies that could help everyone. I’m in the situation I’m in because they chose not to expand Medicaid for political reasons. And I know I’m not the only one.”

    …. [Lang] said he’s always tried to take responsibility for his own bills, but he also believes that the United States should move toward a universal health care system that makes coverage available to everyone regardless of their income level. He said he “one hundred percent agrees” with the people who commented on his crowdfunding page to argue that health care is a human right.

    Wow.

    I wonder if accessible healthcare, whether you call it Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, and the fact that the majority of Americans (if not voters) have woken up to realize we were lied — not erred — into the Iraq War — might have some legs.

    What have the Republicans done for Mr. and Mrs. Lang recently?

  11. 11.

    Chris

    May 19, 2015 at 6:21 pm

    @Mandalay:

    I like that he was willing to note that, too.

    “Conservatives donate more to charity than liberals” is a pestilent bullshit meme that can’t die quickly enough. Maybe this’ll help in some small, small way.

  12. 12.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    May 19, 2015 at 6:24 pm

    I wonder if accessible healthcare, whether you call it Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, and the fact that the majority of Americans (if not voters) have woken up to realize we were lied — not erred — into the Iraq War — might have some legs.

    @Elizabelle: Unless you fought in the war, or had family that did, I doubt that is going to be a major issue for the people that already had their minds made up, which is pretty much everyone in America.

    But the health care thing…that’s a biggie. It’s why the GOP has fought it so hard and will continue to do so. They cannot afford to be on the losing end, AGAIN, of a vastly popular government program that helps people and saves their lives, and they’ve already been on the wrong end of the big three: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.

  13. 13.

    Renie

    May 19, 2015 at 6:24 pm

    It seems like when Republicans are personally affected by the Republican policies they tend to have a change of heart and realize those policies are wrong.

  14. 14.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    May 19, 2015 at 6:27 pm

    John Cole: You are a rare man. Not because of your love of dogs or your ability to inflict near fatal injury on yourself when walking a dog or naked mopping, although those things are rare enough.

    No, you can say “I was wrong” with no qualifiers or excuses and that’s amazingly rare. Shit, I can’t. Gonna try harder though.

  15. 15.

    Derelict

    May 19, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    @Mandalay: Having most donations come from the Left makes sense. We are, after all, the people who empathize and who are willing to reach out and help. The Right’s attitude has always been, “Fuck off and die! I got MINE!”

    Meanwhile, I’m hoping that Lang’s change of heart makes others who know nothing about ACA/Obamacare to actually do a bit of research beyond Fox News.

  16. 16.

    EconWatcher

    May 19, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    I hate to be the wet blanket, but who knows what this guy will be saying next week.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    May 19, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    @EconWatcher:

    I know, but you take what you can get.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    May 19, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    @EconWatcher: I have to agree with you. He might read Tom Price’s plan and change his mind. Details don’t matter.

  19. 19.

    jibeaux

    May 19, 2015 at 6:33 pm

    I just don’t understand why so many people have to personally be in a horrible position to be able to see policies on a different light. It just doesn’t require a Terry Gilliam level imagination to think “could I ever have serious health problems? What if I couldn’t work for a while?”
    But, good on him while it lasts.

  20. 20.

    ruemara

    May 19, 2015 at 6:34 pm

    Sometimes, a blind man learns to see.

  21. 21.

    Mary G

    May 19, 2015 at 6:34 pm

    I’ve always said an Obamacare opposer is somebody who’s never had a serious illness without insurance, or even some insurance but not enough, or enough insurance and looked at their bills. No one can self-fund healthcare unless they are very lucky or Mitt Romney.

    Like Mandalay, I couldn’t bring myself to donate to Mr. Lang, but I have been following his GoFundMe page, and I admire him for his willingness to change his views. Two more voters for our side – a hundred million more and we’ll be in business. Wheels of justice grind slowly, etc.

    Good on you, too, Cole.

  22. 22.

    jl

    May 19, 2015 at 6:36 pm

    @EconWatcher: Who knows what anyone will say next week. He showed he has an open mind and was gracious in recognizing the help he got from people who disagreed with him, and even attacked and criticized him while giving him aid.

    Many people cannot even get that far. Let’s hope for the best.

  23. 23.

    Steve in the ATL

    May 19, 2015 at 6:36 pm

    Ironically, it took going blind to make him see.

    No, I can’t keep a straight face while saying that.

  24. 24.

    shell

    May 19, 2015 at 6:37 pm

    PLEASE tell me he’s getting the surgery soon. Everytime they say ‘bleeding in the eyes’ I just curl up in a ball.

  25. 25.

    kindness

    May 19, 2015 at 6:40 pm

    It’s too bad the sign up period is over for this year for this couple.

    Sucks but good to hear he and his wife thought about their position.

  26. 26.

    Major Major Major Major

    May 19, 2015 at 6:42 pm

    Knowing how to actually change your mind is the first step towards self-improvement. Good on Lang.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    May 19, 2015 at 6:43 pm

    @Mandalay:

    I couldn’t bring myself to give him anything, but I have been following the comments there, and it looks like almost all of the donations have come from the left.

    There was a “compassionate conservative” who donated $10 or $20. Of course, his attached comment was a variation on “Fuck You, Liberals. You’re just donating to pretend you care” or some bullshit like that. What a surprise.

  28. 28.

    Poopyman

    May 19, 2015 at 6:46 pm

    @shell: Everytime they say ‘bleeding in the eyes’ I just curl up in a ball.
    It’s downright biblical.

  29. 29.

    GxB

    May 19, 2015 at 6:46 pm

    I dunno, a leopard can’t change its spots… [casts shifty eyes to a certain blog host] I’m still not convinced, and I’m still keeepin’ an eye on you JC.

    Alright all bullshit aside, this is another great example of why it is always right to do the charitable thing. Sure there are those who can and will abuse the kindness of others, but that puts the burden of assholishness on one party and one alone.

  30. 30.

    the Conster

    May 19, 2015 at 6:46 pm

    He thinks he’s hated, but he’s wrong about that too. He’s an object lesson in what happens when you watch Fox “News”.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    May 19, 2015 at 6:47 pm

    @jl:

    He showed he has an open mind and was gracious in recognizing the help he got from people who disagreed with him, and even attacked and criticized him while giving him aid.

    That’s what’s so surprising. His and his wife’s comments before now didn’t really give the impression that he was anything other than the typical Rethug voter with the “You’re all moochers. Me and mine are all upstanding, salt-of-the-earth etc etc” mindset. I certainly hope he’s sincere, and will stick with it.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    May 19, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    @kindness: I liked that he realizes what a poison pill John Roberts’ decision on Medicaid was.

    And he brought up a good point, the having to estimate one’s income in qualifying for subsidies.

    Obamacare is still too expensive for many in the non-Medicaid expansion states.

  33. 33.

    Mandalay

    May 19, 2015 at 6:51 pm

    There was a great non-adversarial discussion with Lang last Saturday. I think that Lang may have recently seen the light because originally he did not understand the reason he is having to pay his own bills. Here’s the relevant portion of the interview:

    Pollack: …If you lived in a liberal state right now you would just be on Medicaid and they would be paying for your treatment right now. That’s just a fact about the red states have just … in South Carolina … 90 percent of the adults who are shut out of Medicaid live in the South.

    Lang: Right.

    Pollack: Every place else in the country, if you have an income of zero … almost every place else in the country … every place else in terms of where the people live … you know there are small states that haven’t done it. But certainly, here in Illinois … if you came to my office right now and explained your story we would solve your problem because we would sign you up for Medicaid and you’d get it … and people would sort of give you a little bit of a “Tsk Tsk” that you didn’t sign up during the enrollment period but we’d be able to help you through Medicaid.

    Your state has decided not to do that. That has nothing to do with President Obama. It has nothing to do with anything about Obamacare. That is your governor and your state legislature that have done that.

    I think Lang’s conversion is not solely due to liberals donating. He has finally realized that he is not being shafted by President Obama, or the ACA, or the federal government. He is being shafted by the Republican led state goverment in South Carolina.

  34. 34.

    muddy

    May 19, 2015 at 6:51 pm

    “Now that I’m looking at what each party represents, my wife and I are both saying — hey, we’re not Republicans!” Lang said.

    That’s the thing. I know any number of nice, normal, low-info people who say they are Republicans, their family has always been Republican you see. I try to tell them it’s different now.

    If you go policy by policy to them, they will choose the Democratic one over and over. Say it’s just common sense. And then at the end say, but I’m a Republican. It’s maddening. It’s like a sports team affiliation or something, but one where you have memorized the stats from some random fantasy team and imagine it reflects the current season.

    “The White Sox have always won the world series!” It’s just as senseless to say.

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    May 19, 2015 at 6:53 pm

    @muddy:

    If you go policy by policy to them, they will choose the Democratic one over and over. Say it’s just common sense.

    Yet another reason for the press corpse horse race coverage. Issues free!

    And it’s def tribal or like sports rooting.

  36. 36.

    Gene108

    May 19, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    @jibeaux:

    From Mr. Lang’s situation I think there is an infatuation with the myth of rugged individualism among many people in this country.

    The country has always had a yearning to live up to a contrived image of Great Men of yore. By the time of Lincoln people wondered how they measured up to the Great Men of the Revolutionary War. By Teddy Roosevelt’s era people wondered if they could measure up to the pioneers of the mid-to-late 1800’s.

    I think a lot of people buy into the sort of myth making about how tough Americans were and how we need to take risks, rely on ourselves, etc to measure up.

  37. 37.

    TaMara (BHF)

    May 19, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    That just lifted my entire day, which started out with relatives whining about the freeloaders on welfare on the book of faces. Thanks for the update and I wish Luis and his family better health and glad they’re able to realize the lies they’ve been told.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    May 19, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    In somewhat related news about health care, this is another reason we have government:

    Washington (CNN)In a rare joint action with attorneys general for each of the 50 states, the Federal Trade Commission says four cancer charities run by extended members of the same family conned donors out of $187 million from 2008 through 2012 and spent almost nothing to help actual cancer patients.

    Each of the charities charged were the subject of extensive reporting by CNN in 2013. And in each instance, none of the four charities would comment. We were ordered out of the building at the Cancer Fund of America in Knoxville, Tennessee, and were the object of an obscene gesture by the CEO of The Breast Cancer Society in Mesa, Arizona.

  39. 39.

    RSA

    May 19, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    @jibeaux:

    I just don’t understand why so many people have to personally be in a horrible position to be able to see policies on a different light. It just doesn’t require a Terry Gilliam level imagination to think “could I ever have serious health problems? What if I couldn’t work for a while?”

    I think that Americans are particularly susceptible to this view. We have Horatio Alger stories deep in our social mythos, the idea that hard work will inevitably lead to success; we have today’s prosperity gospel, where the poor are not just lacking money but God’s grace as well; we have among some a near-worship of rugged individualism.

    But I don’t get it either, really.

    ETA: @Gene108 got there before me.

  40. 40.

    Librarian

    May 19, 2015 at 6:56 pm

    Also, who knows what he will be saying after Michelle Malkin’s flying monkeys get through with him. And his countertops.

  41. 41.

    David Koch

    May 19, 2015 at 6:58 pm

    As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was.

    He saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

    Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned: but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

    John 9:1-4

  42. 42.

    Chris

    May 19, 2015 at 6:58 pm

    @SFAW:

    Yeah, maybe we are. And guess what? We’re still doing more good than those who aren’t even donating.

    @SFAW:

    People are often most willing to reconsider the truths they’ve always clung to when they hit rock bottom. And Luis has most certainly done that.

  43. 43.

    muddy

    May 19, 2015 at 6:59 pm

    @RSA: The Horatio Alger stories don’t generally even have the guy doing well because he worked hard. There’s always some random occurrence that makes some rich guy rewards him.

    That’s how they really want a Horation Alger story to be, too.

  44. 44.

    singfoom

    May 19, 2015 at 7:00 pm

    Well may St. Carlin bless his eyes so that he may see. Well, if history is any guide to the future (past performance is NOT indicative of future), we’ll need about 20-30 years of tearing down the “Self-Reliance / Government is always bad” meme that infected this man.

    I’m glad to see he got treatment for that particular affliction and will likely also get treatment for his eyes. Maybe he’ll even take enough personal responsibility to stop smoking, lose weight and manage his diabetes.

    Should probably drug test him before the operation to make sure he’s not making further bad decisions.

  45. 45.

    SFAW

    May 19, 2015 at 7:00 pm

    @Librarian:

    who knows what he will be saying after Michelle Malkin’s flying monkeys get through with him.

    Malkin and her ilk will be saying “He wasn’t a REAL conservative! He just wants a handout, just like all those Lie-berals! If he didn’t, he would have started a business, and become a Jaahb Creator!”

  46. 46.

    kc

    May 19, 2015 at 7:00 pm

    If he’s in SC, his voter registration card doesn’t list his party affiliation.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    May 19, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    @David Koch:

    Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned: but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. I blame Obama.

    Wingnut 9:14

  48. 48.

    Arm The Homeless

    May 19, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    I guess the best that liberals could have hoped for from conservatives regarding ACA, was begrudging apathy in election off-years.

    Those silly, silly fuckers.

    If it weren’t life and death, the fact that the Floriduh CoC is running ads in the state capital encouraging politicians to take federal money to fund a healthcare system which in turn funds the palacial estates of doctors who hoover up medicare dollars, this shit-show would be comical.

    It’s all primal screams and grift olympics down here in America’s gangrenous tail.

  49. 49.

    Turgidson

    May 19, 2015 at 7:02 pm

    @muddy:

    The Obama campaign discovered in its 2012 focus groups and polling that a lot of indie or undecided voters simply did not believe that the Mittens/Granny Starver campaign would actually do the things it was promising, particularly with respect to Medicare and safety net spending.

    I have always sort of imagined that this problem is even worse among nominal, lower-info Republicans who don’t follow politics that closely. A lot of them are probably reasonable people whose policy preferences are closer to the Democratic platform than they realize. They just don’t believe that their party’s candidate would do some of the ghastly things they’re campaigning on. And even if they’re not mouthbreathing teabagger idiots, they’ll have some amount of tribal defensiveness about their party affiliation and be resistant to contrary evidence.

  50. 50.

    SFAW

    May 19, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    @muddy:

    There’s always some random occurrence that makes some rich guy rewards him.

    Or a miracle.

  51. 51.

    jl

    May 19, 2015 at 7:06 pm

    @Gene108: But the idea that the Founders and Framers where ideologically rigid rugged libertarian individualists is a manufactured lie. Look at Franklin, Hamilton (and, sorry right wingers, Washington tends to go with Hamilton). And the crazies have gotten so far down the crazy hole on things like private education, we could ad John Adams and Jefferson.

    Maybe John Marshall comes closest to a patriarchal libertarian vision, but he is closer to old pre-Thatcher Tories than anything in the US reactionary conservatism today.

    Jefferson probably did more than most to encourage what we now would call laissez faire economics, but even he realized that for a decent and functional society, certain conditions had to be met, in order to run the economy on laissez faire principles successfully. And even he thought that if necessary, the government had to create those conditions.

    I just don’t see how the cult of total self-reliance, libertarian ideology, that (in Thatcher’s terms) ‘society doesn’t exist’ is part of the vision of the Founders and Framers.

  52. 52.

    PhoenixRising

    May 19, 2015 at 7:07 pm

    @Poopyman: Nah, not Biblical, it’s got Norse Gods written all over it.

    Odin plopped one eye into the well of Memir to get wise. Luis is getting off easy if he can have surgery and keep them both.

  53. 53.

    Davebo

    May 19, 2015 at 7:07 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    And he brought up a good point, the having to estimate one’s income in qualifying for subsidies.

    I don’t think so. Yes, you have to estimate your income if you are self employed but so what? Estimate your income.

    If your estimate is low, you can pay back the portion of the subsidy you turned out not to qualify for at tax time. What’s the big deal?

    Most people over pay their taxes every year and get a refund. At least in this case you got to hold on to the money all year.

  54. 54.

    pseudonymous in nc

    May 19, 2015 at 7:09 pm

    @Mandalay:

    I think Lang’s conversion is not solely due to liberals donating. He has finally realized that he is not being shafted by President Obama, or the ACA, or the federal government. He is being shafted by the Republican led state goverment in South Carolina.

    The states that turned down Medicaid expansion had done a good job of bullshitting about unaffordable mandates and Freedom and aren’t asked very often why they’re choosing to punish their own residents. I think that’s because the quality of reporting on state governments in general is terrible.

    A theme of the liberal donors was “Don’t care who you voted for, don’t care who you’ll vote for in future, you should get the treatment you need because you need it. That’s the whole point.”

  55. 55.

    singfoom

    May 19, 2015 at 7:10 pm

    @Baud: I’m trying really hard not to wish cancer on those people who stole $187 million dollars of money that could have gone towards cancer research.

    I’ll keep trying. I can’t guarantee anything. Makes me almost as mad as people who abuse the elderly/mentally ill/children.

  56. 56.

    raven

    May 19, 2015 at 7:11 pm

    @pseudonymous in nc: Deal did it at the Puke convention in Athens this weekend and those shit-eatin dog fuckers loved it.

  57. 57.

    Mandalay

    May 19, 2015 at 7:11 pm

    @Librarian:

    Also, who knows what he will be saying after Michelle Malkin’s flying monkeys get through with him. And his countertops.

    TBF, there have been plenty of vengeful fuckwits here on BJ playing the granite countertop game with Lang, screeching and whining about the value of his house. But from the interview I linked to earlier he may be underwater with his mortgage as well, in which case selling his house wouldn’t help at all.

  58. 58.

    SFAW

    May 19, 2015 at 7:12 pm

    @PhoenixRising:

    Odin plopped one eye into the well of Memir to get wise.

    That’s not exactly what happened. Bestla told young Odin to stop doing a particular thing or he’d go blind, he said “Can I just do it until I need glasses?” and then either (A) got carried away or (B) forgot that eyeglasses had not been invented yet, and so kept going.

    I doubt that’s what happened with Mr. Lang, however.

  59. 59.

    Chris

    May 19, 2015 at 7:12 pm

    @jl:

    I just don’t see how the cult of total self-reliance, libertarian ideology, that (in Thatcher’s terms) ‘society doesn’t exist’ is part of the vision of the Founders and Framers.

    Funny… Having been studying the Middle East in some shape or form since I first got into college (and following it for even longer), this is something I’ve read very often, both from Muslims and non-Muslims, only substituting “Islam” for “the founding fathers” and “Wahhabism” for “libertarian ideology.” (Briefly, “how did eighteenth century Arabian tribalism funded by twentieth century capitalist decadence ever become accepted as What The Prophet Would Have Wanted?”)

    Most of these conservative, fundamentalist movements clamoring for a return to an imagined “better time” are of far more recent construction than they admit.

  60. 60.

    Baud

    May 19, 2015 at 7:12 pm

    @singfoom:

    It’s truly staggering.

  61. 61.

    Elie

    May 19, 2015 at 7:12 pm

    …I wanna say to him, “so really, was it really that hard to think of our country as “we”?” The “liberals” chipped in because they recognize that there but for the grace of God…”.

    WE are the “We” — not some other hypothetical group divided into liberal and conservative.. We — not “they the people”. We are the community that must help each other so that each of us can be the best individually. It really is not rocket science but I guess its not instinctive for a whole lot of people looking for “they” and “the other”

  62. 62.

    Schlemazel

    May 19, 2015 at 7:12 pm

    bah! 50 cents says he is back voting GOP as soon as he is well and decides his taxes are too high because they support all those leeches and freeloading T-bone eatin’ Cadillac drivin’ welfare queens. I don’t think a little physical blindness is going to change his mental sight that much. I may be wrong but I am still unmoved.

  63. 63.

    jl

    May 19, 2015 at 7:14 pm

    @pseudonymous in nc: Governors like Christie were clever enough to accept Medicare expansion for a limited time, using the story that they would make in permanent once they could be sure the scheme would work, and workable cross-subsidies would not push unexpected costs onto the state.

    Not sure whether Christie really believed his own BS, or was just peddling it in an attempt to placate the teabaggers (though anyone with common sense could have told him such attempts are futile).

    But most GOP governors are closer to the vile and openly cynical opportunistic manipulation of Scott in FL. And it might backfire on them in upcoming cycles as people see the system working in other states.

  64. 64.

    gratuitous

    May 19, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    Conventional political wisdom is that Reagan tapped into a simmering well of resentment among blue collar workers, the so-called Reagan Democrats. These were working class people who felt the system was stacked against them in favor of handing out freebies to other people (read “white” for working class and “black” for other).

    I’ve done my fair share of complaining about people voting against their own interests over the last 30+ years, but the fact of the matter is that many people (and Luis Lang appears to be one) have taken being Republican for granted. They’re Republicans because they’ve been Republicans. While Lang’s extreme experience finally got him to recalibrate his thinking, what are we doing to work on others to say, “Hey, I’m not a Republican!” The Grover Norquists and Lee Atwaters and the rest of the ratfuckers have spent decades creating dog whistles to gull people into wrong thinking. We have the enormous advantage of having actual truth on our side.

  65. 65.

    ruemara

    May 19, 2015 at 7:16 pm

    @David Koch: LAWD. Bible verses conservatives won’t read.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 19, 2015 at 7:17 pm

    @Baud:

    cancer charities run by extended members of the same family

    Nothing to do with the substance of the story, which is horrible and disgusting, but really, CNN? “Extended members”? You meant “members of the same extended family,” I hope.

    /The Wandering Pedant

  67. 67.

    Elie

    May 19, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    @David Koch:

    Very cool passage — obviously spot on…

    Brings to mind (don’t know the source)

    “By their works, though shall know them” — meaning of course, what we do tells who we are. In this case, the caring of others changed him — he was made known to himself as a human who needed care and was humble enough to receive it — and God’s grace (if I may add)

  68. 68.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 19, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    Deleted because of duplication and FYWP

  69. 69.

    bemused

    May 19, 2015 at 7:23 pm

    Thanks to our shitty media which doesn’t and won’t practice real journalism, there are millions more the Lang’s who are ill-informed. The Lang’s seeing the light is exactly what the rightwing is terrified of and I hope they don’t stalk and harass the couple.

    @TaMara (BHF):

    Settlers were tough because they had to be but they banded together to help each other, formed town and city governments so they could live civilized lives and when the Great Depression happened, Americans were grateful for government giving them jobs and a hand up. They’re pretty fond of Social Security and Medicare too. Rightwing world has really messed with people’s heads.

  70. 70.

    Archon

    May 19, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    For this country to move forward we don’t even need people to have empathy (although that would help) all we need is for people to rationally and objectively assess their self-interest and vote according to that principle.

  71. 71.

    Poopyman

    May 19, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Is it wrong to hope they get extended from the nearest lamppost?

  72. 72.

    satby

    May 19, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    @Turgidson:

    They just don’t believe that their party’s candidate would do some of the ghastly things they’re campaigning on

    I have had Republican voters explicitly tell me that: the Rs won’t REALLY dismantle SS or Medicare, they say that because they’re supposed to, or something. Just nuts.

  73. 73.

    Baud

    May 19, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Maybe they’ll be put on the rack and truly become extended members.

  74. 74.

    Baud

    May 19, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    @satby:

    Whereas those same people will probably invent all kinds of horrors that Democrats will unleash.

  75. 75.

    satby

    May 19, 2015 at 7:29 pm

    And though I’m glad Mr. Lang may have seen the light count me as skeptical too. I think his “conversion” will be limited to matters of healthcare only, especially how those policies affect him. That “non-confrontational conversation” he had that Mandalay cited really still makes Lang sound like an ass.

  76. 76.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    May 19, 2015 at 7:33 pm

    In for the poo flinging simian.

  77. 77.

    Mandalay

    May 19, 2015 at 7:34 pm

    @gratuitous:

    While Lang’s extreme experience finally got him to recalibrate his thinking, what are we doing to work on others to say, “Hey, I’m not a Republican!”

    Lang’s plight with being ineligible for Medicaid because he lives in state that actively chooses to refuse to help him is something that every voter should understand. But I don’t see how that can be persuasively explained in a sound bite that will reach the ears of uninformed Republicans.

    Lang finally grasps that the Republican government in South Carolina is why his medical bills won’t be paid, but for months he was wrongly blaming President Obama, liberals and the ACA. If it took that long for Lang to see the light, how can you hope to reach FYIGM Republicans with cheap employer-subsidized medical insurance?

  78. 78.

    Gene108

    May 19, 2015 at 7:35 pm

    @jl:

    I was not trying to compare philosophies.

    Just pointing out America has been steeped in “good old days” nostalgia for a long, long time which has led to myth making about American exceptionalism

  79. 79.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 19, 2015 at 7:40 pm

    No one is irredeemable.

    One Richard Cheney makes that one hard to swallow.

  80. 80.

    shell

    May 19, 2015 at 7:41 pm

    Not sure whether Christie really believed his own BS,

    It’s just so hard to tell. Today he gave an interview where was mentioned that polls in New Jersey indicate “by a 65-29 percent margin, [Christie] would not make a good president. With a straight face he insisted that that 65% just didn’t want him to leave the state cause he was just doing such a bang-up job. Seriously

  81. 81.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 19, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    @Archon: Well, yes, and that’s pretty much the assumption of Jefferson, Madison et al.

    Given all that has happened over the past two centuries, doesn’t seem to be a very good assumption, although it did work out that way for about 20 years from the 30’s to the 50’s.

  82. 82.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 19, 2015 at 7:43 pm

    @Mandalay: I don’t think it was “playing the granite countertop game” to point out, as some did, that having a $300,000 house in South Carolina (over twice the median value for the state) while having, apparently, $9,000 in savings and no health insurance represented some poor planning.

  83. 83.

    RSA

    May 19, 2015 at 7:47 pm

    @muddy:

    The Horatio Alger stories don’t generally even have the guy doing well because he worked hard. There’s always some random occurrence that makes some rich guy rewards him.

    I did not realize this until now. Wow!

  84. 84.

    jl

    May 19, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I remember reading that Madison did explicitly write about this, at least twice. IIRC, he did believe empathy was important for democratic society to function, but empathy could only flourish if everyone thought that they were being treated fairly and equally by the government and their fellow citizens.

    And IIRC Madison reached some good and some unfortunate conclusions. The good was that he thought that society needed to abolish arbitrary discrimination against different groups in the country. The unfortunate was that, since he entertained racist ideas, he thought that the gulf between whites and blacks was too great for the fellow feeling of fairness and equality and resulting empathy to exist. So, the two groups needed to be far apart, and the black slaves should be (somehow or other) freed and sent back to Africa.

  85. 85.

    JPL

    May 19, 2015 at 7:56 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: And we continue to pay for his health care. He sure didn’t fork over the money for that new heart.

  86. 86.

    jl

    May 19, 2015 at 7:57 pm

    @jl: Madison once wrote about this topic in relation to solitary ex-slave he and Jefferson met while on a trip. Madison was impressed by what the freeman had accomplished and wrote that no one could really know whether blacks were ‘inferior’ to whites in terms of being able to compete economically, or live amicably socially. But, gee gosh golly, wrote Madison, too bad we will never know, at least if the two races try to live together. The discrimination that blacks would suffer from the whites in itself would be a huge obstacle in terms of opportunity and psychological effects it would have on both blacks and whites.

    So, I certainly do not think it even makes sense to try to describe much of the what the Founders and Framers believed in terms of the modern political spectrum, not sure that they even thought in our modern terms, or we can easily think in terms of theirs.

    But, when you think about it, people like Madison and Hamilton and Franklin could not last long on Fox. On some specific topics they would definitely come off as too liberal, and I doubt they would roll over and pump out nonsense and surrender like the Fox token liberals do.

  87. 87.

    Archon

    May 19, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    @jl:

    It only took about 7 generations after Madison for most whites to empathize with the plight of blacks, but yeah I guess his conclusions were wrong.

  88. 88.

    Baud

    May 19, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    OT: Leadership in the House!

    The White House pushed back on Tuesday against House Speaker John Boehner who said that President Barack Obama should rip up his draft of new war powers to fight Islamic State militants and send Congress a new one.

    Early this year, lawmakers asked Obama to send a draft of war powers he would like to see in a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force. Congress believes a new AUMF is needed because Obama is relying on war authorizations given to President George W. Bush after 9/11.

    Boehner accused the president of having no strategy to fight IS and lamented the group’s weekend takeover of the strategic Iraqi city of Ramadi.

    “The president’s request for an authorization of the use of military force calls for less authority than he has today,” Boehner said. “I just think, given the fight that we’re in, it’s irresponsible. This is why the president, frankly, should withdraw the authorization of the use of military force and start over.”

    White House press secretary Josh Earnest accused Congress of being “AWOL when it comes to the AUMF.”

  89. 89.

    Tree With Water

    May 19, 2015 at 8:02 pm

    Nothing wrong with you, Cole. People who cop to their own errors in judgement more often than not overlook the faults and foibles of others, a quality in people I always appreciate (for good reasons).

  90. 90.

    Chris

    May 19, 2015 at 8:04 pm

    @jl:

    As we see with the exclusion of the likes of Ron Paul, any deviation from the GOP party line makes you a heretic – so, indeed, I don’t think there’s a single founding father who’d make the cut, given that modern GOP ideology hadn’t been invented at the time.

  91. 91.

    jl

    May 19, 2015 at 8:05 pm

    @jl: By ‘too liberal’ here, I mean Madison’s concern that racial discrimination had bad effects, could continue to exist even if there were no real and relevant differences between the races, and that discrimination alone, by its very existence could crate real, serious, and legitimate obstacles for the race that was discriminated against by the majority.

    I cannot imagine that argument going over well on Fox News.

  92. 92.

    jl

    May 19, 2015 at 8:08 pm

    @Chris: True. I am just pushing against the manufactured lie that, in terms of today’s political spectrum, most of the Founders and Framers would be crusty old reactionary conservatives, horrified at how the liberals have taken the country away from its original vision. That is reactionary propaganda I see all the time.

  93. 93.

    Tenar Darell

    May 19, 2015 at 8:13 pm

    @satby: Do you think that when someone said they won’t privatize Social Security or block grant Medicare and we brought up any number of the things no one thought Republicans would do, could that work? We may know they mean it, but there are too many who don’t realize what has been lost or eliminated already. Seriously, what if we used the example of abortion, birth control access, Planned Parenthood defunding including cancer screenings, schools, busting unions, neglecting roads and bridges, nation building (and other examples I cannot think of right now) when someone says, “oh, they wouldn’t do that!”?

  94. 94.

    JPL

    May 19, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    OT .. Beau Biden is hospitalized again. I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with his previous health problems.

  95. 95.

    Keith G

    May 19, 2015 at 8:23 pm

    @EconWatcher:

    I hate to be the wet blanket, but who knows what this guy will be saying next week.

    Who the fuck cares?***

    Compassion is about those who need it, not those who “deserve” it.

    ***Obviously, way too many.

    Edit:
    @Cole

    [Lesson] Two, I was wrong. No one is irredeemable.

    Maybe a third lesson: Watch out for that anger/outrage/judgmental quick-trigger. As often as not, reason takes a moment or two.

  96. 96.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 19, 2015 at 8:54 pm

    @Schlemazel: But perhaps his story will sway other conservatives. I didn’t donate anything (and wouldn’t) but it seems as if he understands that the majority of people who care about him are liberals. If he goes back to voting Republican, he’s just another tool.

  97. 97.

    Eric U.

    May 19, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    their breast cancer “charity” used to call us almost every day. I finally tracked them down and found out about the scam they were running. It just seemed like it was a scam from the way they operated. Not sure exactly what it was that got them to stop calling, it sure seemed like a harassment campaign. The details are horrible, I couldn’t believe so much was known about them and they could keep doing it.

  98. 98.

    Zinsky

    May 19, 2015 at 9:54 pm

    Humans share 90% of their genetic code with earthworms. This chap reminds us that isn’t a coincidence.

  99. 99.

    Cain

    May 19, 2015 at 11:55 pm

    @SFAW:

    That’s what’s so surprising. His and his wife’s comments before now didn’t really give the impression that he was anything other than the typical Rethug voter with the “You’re all moochers. Me and mine are all upstanding, salt-of-the-earth etc etc” mindset. I certainly hope he’s sincere, and will stick with it.

    See this is why I try not to be a hater. I have too many good friends who are Republican or vote Republican who are kind, generous and awesome to this non-white. So I know not everyone is who they say they are. But it is really hard to break out of that bubble unless of course it affects you personally. The fact that left leaning individuals who believe in health care and pitched in to help also shows who amongst the political classes is also more christian and spiritual. Don’t be a hater. Everyone is redeemable.

  100. 100.

    dianne

    May 20, 2015 at 6:40 am

    He may not have always been a Republican. I can almost guarantee that his parents and grandparents were Democrats. Memories and grudges go deep in the South and the party of Lincoln was reviled there until Nixon and Reagan perpetuated the vile and toxic southern strategy upon gullible and resentful people. As the generations go forward, I hope more and more of the white southerners come home to their true roots. The blacks never left.
    The ACA is probably the scariest thing the Rs have ever been faced with since it paints a clear picture of who is really on the side of the people.

  101. 101.

    Jim

    May 20, 2015 at 7:54 am

    I can’t help but think of the old chestnut that “a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged.” Maybe it’s just as true that a liberal is a conservative who realizes that we’re all in this together.

  102. 102.

    boatboy_srq

    May 20, 2015 at 9:27 am

    Count me among the “there’s a human being under there after all” crowd, who’s glad Lang came around and happy he’s making progress medically and philosophically.

    @EconWatcher: I think we have a rank-and-file-vs-leadership moment here. Lang’s conversion didn’t come from the GOTea helping him out; and it’s arguable that it didn’t come from a Dem-sponsored program (ACA) anywhere near as much as it came from the assistance from ordinary people on the Left. The GOTea – leadership, representation and ordinary Joe Schmoe – left him to stew in his own juice; the donations to provide for his care (along with some apparently sage advice and guidance) came from people who supported ACA, wanted him in it and wanted to ensure he survived well enough / long enough to obtain care through it. That’s transformative. Had Dem leadership reached out, it would have been politics-as-usual and Lang would be vulnerable to the GOTea’s “repeal-and-replace” rhetoric; had rank-and-file Conservatists chipped in out of Xtian kindness and generosity (and yes I am aware that kindness and generosity don’t exist in the Xtian world because it supports the unSaved unElect ), he’d be even more on board with the GOTea positions. Ordinary liberals leading the contributions, though, hammer home the understanding that the Right has no interest in him, had no interest in anything but his vote and has campaign contributions before now, and will not lift a finger to help him when he’s in trouble – which casts all the talk about “takers” and “entitlements” in a new light for him. His conversion is probably a lot more durable than you suspect.

    @SFAW: Reichwing propaganda is insidious: because there will always be one person who really does get the “free ride” and who games the system, there’s always at least one concrete example of the problems the GOTea sees in every social program. It doesn’t matter that the example is one in X million, or that there are millions who are in genuine need, to the Teahad. And it’s not until you’re in a position to need a given benefit that it’s clear the benefit is hard to obtain, stingy, and yet necessary to stave off disaster. Lang bought into the propaganda because it was easy. I’m a little less surprised here, simply because once his own resources were exhausted he went to the trouble of investigating the ACA at all: a True Believer would have immediately whinged that Big Gummint was out to take his house because he had medical expenses and cried all the way to the party leadership (to no avail, of course). That shows possession of a reasonable quantity of neurons. In a way, Lang is one of the reasons the GOTea was and remains so afraid of BHO in general and the ACA in particular: when presented with the facts of a situation, and offered a reasonable means of dealing with it (as BHO and Dems are wont to do), the electorate will take that means; the GOTea has no reasonable social policies, and they can’t afford to let people know that because knowing it will turn their voters away. Mum was the same way: fiscally conservative but socially moderate-to-liberal and a fierce environmentalist; she was old-school GOP until she got a good look at Rethug social and environmental policies (her conversion was lower-key and much more private but a very similar event).

  103. 103.

    boatboy_srq

    May 20, 2015 at 9:31 am

    @Jim: Say rather that a liberal is a mugged conservative who’s been left by other conservatives to die needlessly in a ditch, and you might be right. I recall a certain Judean who once described a somewhat similar situation for compatible reasons: sadly, that particular story He told gets short shrift on the Right these days.

  104. 104.

    graham

    May 20, 2015 at 10:43 am

    I love the smell of Agonizing Reappraisal in the morning…

  105. 105.

    NCSteve

    May 20, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    Q: What to you call a Republican who’s in favor of prison reform?
    A: An ex-convict.

    Q: What to you call a Republican who’s in favor of Social Security?
    A: A retiree.

    Q: What do you call a Republican who believes in reproductive freedom?
    A: A guy with a knocked up daughter.

    Q: What do you call a Republican who believes in the ACA?
    A: A guy with a catastrophic illness and no insurance.

    That’s how it is with Republicans. No empathy for anyone who isn’t exactly like them, no ability to put themselves in the other guy’s shoes unless the shoes are an exact fit, and stridently against helping anyone until they themselves need help. And then, all to often, they rationalize it with bullshit distinctions between those who really need or deserve help (themselves) and those who don’t (Them).

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