CINO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL, SPEAK TONS-O-EVIL ON HEALTHCARE FOR POOR FOLK

First, a definition of CINO from the Urban Dictionary:

Christian In Name Only. (pronounced SEE-no) This applies to Christians that claim to be Christian, but don't follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. They tend to be ignorant of the Gospel and follow the Old Testament instead of the New Testament teachings of Jesus Christ.

Instead of doing all they can to help the poor as Jesus teaches, a CINO follows the Hebrew tradition of tithing only 10% to a church. A CINO values money over God. A CINO prays in public and on social media even though Jesus said to pray in private. Often a CINO will use the term Christian to promote political values that are not actually Christian.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=CINO

This week, House Republicans got enough votes together to make it look like they were making good on their REPEAL AND REPLACE OBAMACARE promise.

I say they are trying to "make it look like" they're doing something because rumor has it that the House plan won't make it through the republican dominated Senate, who are planning to come up with their own plan.

But the House republican plan is still important to dissect because it shows the attitude republicans have toward the public they are supposed to be serving --instead of serving up to the only God republicans truly worship, MONEY a.k.a "the free market."

For "smart" republican, repealing Obamacare is mostly about getting the one-percenters higher tax rates out of Obamacare
For idiot republicans, making 200K or less, repealing Obamacare is getting rid of anything with a black man's name on it

In order to get the moderate republicans and the hard right (let-the-poor-go-to-hell-today) republicans on the same page, Trump's minions had to come up with a Repeal and Replace plan that "makes it look like" those with pre-existing conditions wouldn't be left out in the cold to die within the next few years.

Let me make it clear, dying is what we're talking about here. If people who have pre-existing conditions like heart problems and cancer can't get insurance or can't afford insurance, they will die.

This little factoid of life hit Jimmy Kimmel right between the eyes last week. He got on stage and cried genuine tears as he imagined what WOULD HAVE HAPPENED to his newborn son last week if he, as his parent, didn't have insurance and/or money coming out of his ears to pay for healthcare.  Kimmel understood in a more visceral way that he and his wife would be visiting a tiny grave today instead of holding their recovering child if he and his family hadn't had access to healthcare.

The other thing this late night talk show host mentioned  was how he atheists friends that were actually praying for his son. And while he was supposedly joking, I know he wasn't joking. I know some of his atheist friends were praying...just in case.

There are no atheists in a foxhole when it's being shelled. 

Most people pray under fire.

However, there are some CINOs who love to profess their love for God in public with their mouths while behaving like they worship in Satan.

When I first read what Republican Congressman Roger Marshall said about poor people not wanting insurance-- the same man who came up with the plan to have states handle those with pre-existing conditions on their own when this has been tried before and it has NOT WORKED in 3 dozen different states-- I thought he was being willfully ignorant.

When I say I thought he was being willfully ignorant, I mean to say I thought he was making sure he didn't learn or read about how states like California ran out of money for those with pre-conditions which led to only a fraction of those with pre-existing conditions being able to get healthcare coverage.

But when I read words from his own mouth about his position on healthcare, I understood that he wasn't ignorant, willful or otherwise:

Marshall doesn’t believe [Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion] has helped, an outlook that sheds light on how this new player in Washington understands health policy.

“Just like Jesus said, ‘The poor will always be with us,’” he said. “There is a group of people that just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves.”

Pressed on that point, Marshall shrugged.

“Just, like, homeless people. … I think just morally, spiritually, socially, [some people] just don’t want health care,” he said. “The Medicaid population, which is [on] a free credit card, as a group, do probably the least preventive medicine and taking care of themselves and eating healthy and exercising. And I’m not judging, I’m just saying socially that’s where they are. So there’s a group of people that even with unlimited access to health care are only going to use the emergency room when their arm is chopped off or when their pneumonia is so bad they get brought [into] the ER.”

SOURCE: https://www.statnews.com/2017/03/03/roger-marshall-kansas-obamacare/

In the 1980s, when white folks wanted to be subtle about saying racist things about black people, they would say things that meant, "Black people's culture is in inferior. That's why they behave the way they do." Marshall is doing the same thing here, but instead of race his doing it in regards to class.  That what "socially that's where they are" means. He is talking about the inferior culture of the lower class or "the poor"  --which he probably assumes is mostly black and brown instead of largely white-- so he can dismiss their need for healthcare without his conscience bothering him.

So my first thought --after I cussed him out in my head-- was that Marshall is an "Atheist in Christian Clothing." But then I realized that his statements don't just reflect not believing in God. His statements reflect actively believing in and following evil. 

Even atheists and agnostics must have read these words and wondered if there is some evil being (like Satan) that this man prays to every night.  

Everybody except Bernie Sanders, his Bros and Bro-ettes know about the white supremacy mindset that dominates the republican party right now. But white supremacy is just one facet of the supremacy-based worldview that CINOs on the right almost have to possess. 

White-run news outlets keep using the words "authoritarian mindset" to describe white ethnoracist republicans. I've been thinking this is so obvious that they keep using the word "authoritarian" to describe how republican voters hate so they can avoid using the words like "white" and "racist" and "supremacist" and "hate."

Even so, I haven't so much been dismissive of this description (authoritarianism) as much as I thought it so obvious as to not warrant further consideration. 

But now that this CINO went so far as to use Jesus to justify a plan that involves pushing people off healthcare if health insurance companies think that will cut into their profits, I want to consider how "authoritarianism" really works in someone's head.

Here is part of Marshall's quote again: 

“Just like Jesus said, ‘The poor will always be with us,’” he said. “There is a group of people that just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves.”

When I  understood that this man used Jesus to justify his plan to let people who don't have healthcare die within one of the richest countries in the free world, I re-understood that this man likes to think himself superior to others 

--based on his whiteness 

--based on his pseudo-Christian belief system 

--based on his income

...sometimes on each one of these bases alone, sometimes in combination. But these examples are three different conclusions about self.

I'm thinking all "authoritarianism" really means in practical terms is that all these bases of supremacy use the same path through the brain of a single person. They are just three different end points in the human mind, three different conclusions about self. 

To say that someone 

has an "authoritarian belief system" 

is to say that 

someone believes himself 

to be an authority 
(or to be firmly aligned with authorities) 

who have dominion over others. 

To say that the republican party has an "authoritarian" based mindset is really using a different word to say that they have a supremacy based mindset without saying the word "supremacy"  --often preceded by the word "white"-- out loud. 

When we say that someone has "an authoritarian based mindset", we are saying that this person believes

I am the authority  

"Those people" are subject to my authority

Why?

I am superior

Once you have accepted yourself as superior and let that thought run through the landscape of your mind over and over again,  you create a well-worn groove in your mind. Thinking of yourself as superior over and over is like watching a river wear away rock over 1000s of years on a time lapse camera --that river creating something as big as the grand canyon in your mind.

THE AUTHORITARIAN THOUGHT PROCESS 1
I am the authority  

"Those people" are subject to my authority

Why?

I am superior
Why?

Because I am white

Once you let one river, like white supremacy, create an "authoritarian groove" in your mind. It must be easier for other waters to flow down the same groove, to flow down the same river bed to a different destination.  

Christian supremacy may wind up at a different, nearby destination in Marshall's brain, but the path or pattern of thought for the authoritarians on the right is the exactly the sameTHE AUTHORITARIAN THOUGHT PROCESS 2

I am the authority. 

"Those people" are subject to my authority

Why?

I am superior 

Why?
Because I am a Christian

Male supremacy may up at a different destination in his mind, but the path for those with the authoritarian mindset on the right is the same. 

I am the authority. 

Those people are subject to my authority

Why?

I am superior 

Why?
Because I am male

In the grand canyon image above, the rock can be thought of as the mind. The river in the top faded portion is authoritarianism carving a path.

At the bottom of the image you can imagine the river branching off and ending at three different pools in the mind. One pool is white supremacy. One pool is male supremacy. One pool is Christian supremacy. 

The point is that once you have the authoritarian groove in your head, it's easy to branch off and create another pool of supremacy --like heterosexual supremacy. 

Saying "all the authoritarians are on the right," as white news outlets like to point out from time to time,  is the same as saying the supremacists are on the right without being as clear as you could be. In my opinion, hiding the words "white supremacy" behind "authoritarianism" helps the white supremacists, male supremacists (misogynists) to hide...mostly from themselves.

White run media wind up being enablers.

 

When the white supremacists, male supremacist misogynists, and CINOs also worship money instead of God and call it a strong belief in the "free market" system, then you get what you've got.

CINOs are the only ones who can read the bible and assume that 

"The poor will always be with you" 

means 

"the poor are meant to be poor because poor-culture leaves them lazy and stupid" 

instead of 

"every society has poor people and always will --some lazy and some hard working and some plain unlucky, same as the middle class and rich-- and if you have more than they do you must take care of them."

The are three things in the bible that the average CINO, white supremacist, classist  needs to read  over and over.

1) how hellish the pharisees were

2) that it is impossible to worship money and worship God at the same time 

3) how to repent and ask for forgiveness

If money-worship were to be depicted in some art medium as a demon, I don't know what it would look like exactly. But I know it would have Roger Marshall by the throat. The money demon would have a bunch of these white male supremacist republicans by the throat

People disagree about what's in the bible, some people are ignorant or misguided. Nobody will agree on everything in the bible or even on half of what's in the bible.  There are all sorts of things you can debate in bible as to what is important to God and what is of lesser importance. That's whey there are 10 gazillion denominations of Christianity.  

So, I know judging other people is probably high up on the list of no-no-s in any denomination. However, we are called to have discernment. 

So pardon my discernment.

Electing leaders that make things up in their own heads, 

then blame God for those thoughts,  

so they can justify stomping on those that are weaker 

just so they can keep some extra tax dollars in their pockets

or help their buddies running the health insurance companies get rich is something we need to crush.

To be continued