The Teachable Moment of the Shutdown

Jimmy Kimmel performed a great public service when he made a person-on-the-street interview for his show on October 1 – the first day of the Shutdown.  Kimmel is a late-night talk show host.  His teaching was brilliant.  A few things were revealed, among them, the power of pejorative labels like Obamacare.  Also, people liked the particulars of Obamacare when they were separated from the concept, Obamacare.  Another critical part of the discussion on the merits and demerits of Obamacare:  people did not know that Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act were the same thing.  They liked Obamacare when it was called the Affordable Care Act.  They didn’t like it when it was called Obamacare.

In education as in comedy, timing is crucial.  You can bet that language arts and social studies teachers across the nation abandoned their tried-and-true curriculum for at least a day and focused on the Shutdown.  Presidential elections may come every four years but terrorism, natural catastrophe or celestial events are more or less serendipity.  Even in the blandest retelling of this story – working like a contortionist to be “objective” – folly, recklessness, self-absorption, and worse, form themselves and leave a lasting impression. This fable will not play out well for the authors.

Unfortunately for those most active players in this farce, that which would have remained obscure becomes, if not familiar, at least recognizable.  Gerrymandering?  Years of partisan-led redistricting (redrawing the boundaries of voting districts to gain a majority) have created enclaves of true believers, and a representative from such a district will face a bruising primary challenge if he or she won’t toe the party line – at any cost.  A strong disincentive against compromise and negotiation means brinksmanship is a rational choice. 

The mysteries shrouding Obamacare drop away if you bother to study it closely to find out why it is so terrible as to warrant hostage taking.  There may be problems or worrisome possibilities in a plan so ambitious.  But neither sinister intent nor the maw of disaster seem to be leering back at us. Do those screaming the loudest have something to lose?  Privilege?  The mantle of infallibility?  Tax breaks?  Where is all that noise coming from?

 

And with all this fidgety rumination, some paranoia does seep through:  What if they are afraid that people will love Obamacare and that everybody will want even bigger and more expensive government programs?

We are learning a lot.  Nobody will come out looking entirely clean in the bright sunlight.  The revelations will be stark.  But seeing what we are up against gives us a fighting chance.