Fear is Trump
The behaviors of people speaking against health care reform that would benefit millions of people made me realize that they are so afraid of the "death squads" allegedly in the health care reform legislation because it gives voice to the idea of the convenient death for a declining elderly parent or spouse and how that death would bring respite from years of the hearthache of caring for that loved one with Alzheimers, alcholism, Cancer-chemo, etc. The desire for escape is unthinkable and results in a cognitive dissonance and outpouring of anger and denial.
Each political party in the US has its share of special interests who lobby them to see the current issues in a light that is agreeable to the interest groups. When hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, are at stake the battleground is everyone everywhere. Each citizen is a marker that is placed in one column or another to represent the interests that are being influenced. Fear being a powerful agent is employed most effectively in these cases. Unfortunately our human susceptibility to fear makes us vulnerable to they who would use it as a weapon as opposerd to a defense. Fear cannot be used to promulgate a good and happy thing. Love and kindness can do that. The problem is that fear is trump in the cardgame of politics.
