January 20, 2010

From the department of "Who cares what you think?"

By: Sonny Bunch

Andrew posted a few emails he received re: Coakley’s choke-job* and amongst the usual whinging — “Oh no, the democratic process might stop something I want done!” and “She lost because she wasn’t liberal enough!” — comes this gem:

I am now sharing the deep gloominess you experienced yesterday. With the news of Brown’s win, I find myself sitting here with a pit in my stomach and chain smoking.

And I’m a Canadian living in Canada. From a policy analysis standpoint, like you, I do not agree with serious portions of the Democrats’ health reform bill. But I fear that this is the best that the American system can produce.

To which I say: Who cares what you think? No, seriously, who cares? You’re a Canadian living in Canada. You don’t get a say in domestic U.S. policies, just as I don’t get a say in domestic Canadian policies. You want to kvetch about troop deployments or the war on terror, fine, you have a dog in that fight because Canadian troops have served admirably. But when it comes to what the citizens of the United States of America choose to do about their health care system, you do not have a say. Sorry. That’s just the way it is. I’ll leave you to your cheese curds and gravy, you leave us to our pharmaceutical advances and world class care. Okay?

*Boy did I get that one wrong.