Second Guessing History

I know that there is a new elephant in the room, or rather, the GOP in their rush to give a big tax break to themselves and others in the 1%, have basically given birth to another elephant.   As a result of their legislative action this week, those of us with pre-existing conditions may find affordability of health insurance harder to come by in the years ahead.  That is will become harder if the Agent Orange Care actually clears the Senate and becomes law.

The Republican House members, being the delusional sociopaths who they are who voted for this debacle, insist that they are not taking away coverage for pre-existing conditions. Okay, but they sure as hell are making it more difficult for health insurance carriers to make a profit (they would insist on doing that) while covering people with pre-existing conditions without jacking up rates for the ill and infirm.

For my own life, this could be devastating to my financial as well as physical health.  Let’s go down my own personal check list of pre-existing conditions:  heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, asthma, and flat feet with screwed up ankles and hips from birth.  Wow!  The health insurance industry will probably lick their lips as they calculate the new 5-to-1 ration of premiums they can charge me (over the rates they would charge younger, healthier adults) once they take all these conditions into account.

The take away from this boys and girls is this:  don’t worry about health care.  You won’t be able to afford paying for it or the insurance which would enable you to pay for it.  Live fast, die young everyone!

So much for the scaring-the-bejeesus-out-of-the-small-children portion of our blog.

Actually prior to this vote on Friday, the big news was the President’s ruminations on American history.   He speculated out loud—as opposed to his usual form of modus operandi, Twitter—why did the American Civil War (1861-1865) have to happen?  He wondered in an interview why the conflict could not have been worked out?  He also speculated that President Andrew Jackson was very upset about the conflict.

Wow, where do I as a student of American history and owner of a BA in the subject begin?

Let’s just tell the elephant in the room that this conflict was meant to happen and inevitable so that we could demonstrate to ourselves how ridiculous the notion of slavery was for the future of the country.  Besides, President Jackson was a slave holder and orchestrated the genocide of Native Americans who died 16 years before the military part of the conflict began.  Imagine how upset he would have been had he actually lived long enough to witness the start of hostilities!

Heavens!

Okay, it’s now our turn to second guess history.  Here is my entry:  how come the first woman to attain a majority of the popular vote in an American Presidential election was not declared the winner?   Yeah, I know it all boiled down to the complexities of the Electoral College, blah, blah, blah.   Still I feel like throwing something in the face of our alleged President.

Or how about the American Revolution?   Did we have to go through the bloody conflict to gain our freedom from royal tyranny?   Why couldn’t Adams, Jefferson, Franklin and company had a nice chat with King George and negotiate a peaceful separation?   Because, amateur historians, it was meant to happen.  Had it not happened then we would most likely be bowing to the Queen today, and marvel that at age 96 Prince Philip has decided to ease into semi-retirement.  Also, our struggle gave birth to this experiment in democracy and inspired other people all over the globe to strike a blow against injustice and tyranny.

Readers, do you have any historical events which you have wondered why they happened the way they happened?  Let’s hear from you.

And remember, history is not for amateurs!

(Thank you for reading.  Also remember history is the original pre-existing condition.)