What must the world think of Americans now since reneging on expanded public healthcare—and once again going alone from what works in every modern nation on earth? They can think what I’ve come to know: Americans do not like taking care of other people—and by that I mean they only want to take care of themselves and their own families. In fairness, I may be too hard on my countrymen. After all, the rest of the world really can’t think of Americans as the unkindest people on earth. Americans are usually first to donate to world catastrophes like typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes and famines. We probably raise more money and send more tax dollars than any other country in that regard. Didn’t we practically rebuild Europe and Japan after World War II? What about all the global goodwill from our Peace Corps volunteers? Isn’t that the kind of altruism for which the world knows us, holding Americans in the highest esteem, the very best of humanity?
Chaps and spurs
Where did Americans get the idea that everyone should just take care of his own? Well, from wearing blinders for one thing and never seeing how nonwhite people are treated in our own country and have been mistreated here for centuries: Africans, Native Americans, Asians, Italians, the Irish, Jews, Eastern Europeans, Muslims, Mexicans, etc. But mostly, I have a hutch, this ideal of proud American self sufficiency evolved during the late 20th century … from watching TV shows like “The Rifleman,” “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” “Big Valley” and “Little House on the Prairie.”
America is the only country with a cowboy heritage. And we’ve romanticized our pioneering Western spirit to the point that fiction has become reality in our minds. None of us, our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents really know how life was lived way back when, how men treated women, how parents treated children, how communities of mostly one race and religion treated others who did not fit in physically or socially. We don’t know why Wyatt Earp hung up his guns in public places.
One thing we can assume is within the hundreds of small rural communities that cropped up across the American Western frontier post Civil War, people cared for one another. If one family lost their home to a fire, the community probably helped rebuild and donated clothing, food and furniture. Seems like our kin would have done that. Seems like that’s what the Good Book tells us to do, to help our fellow man especially in time of need.
Modern times
There are a few reasons why Donald Trump won and Hillary Clinton lost. One was Obamacare. Democrats liked it; Republicans hated it. Universal healthcare, like any policy President Obama tried to create, was blocked by Republicans. President Obama had to take his healthcare policy all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court found that health insurance was a right of every American citizen, not just for the gainfully employed. So, expanded Medicaid was crammed down the throats of every American. Americans don’t like being told what to do now.
From small business owners to young single adults, millions of Americans did not like Obamacare and its punitive clause to collect money from anyone not insured one way or another. It did not matter that every single doctor, hospital, pharmaceutical and insurance company, and the entire medical profession supported the new law because it meant healthier people through immediate diagnoses and treatment—and maybe assured salary and career future.
Typical of Americans, the good ol’ days was romanticized as the better situation: when anyone who could afford insurance had it and the rest could just rely on Medicaid—which we all have to pay into anyway. Self reliance and rugged individualism, that’s what built this country!
T’ain’t true! What built our country was Americans working together, multicultural Americans working together, being allowed to work together. Having strong charismatic leaders, more father than friend, and one goal at a time built this nation, made America the greatest place on earth.
The world probably still thinks America is great, probably believes in America more than Americans do themselves these days. Our history is unique, yes built on self sufficiency and reliability and determination and total liberty. But our nation was not built on mass disdain toward the down-trodden and underprivileged—the poorest, weakest and sickest among us. Whatever their demographic number—10 percent, 25 percent, half the nation and more if we include the over-50 crowd—a nation is known for how it treats its own people. That’s certainly how America judges all the other countries—often why we get involved overseas, to make things right, make a difference, improve the lives of our fellow man. It’s the American way.