A Belgian Comments on the US Weirdness when it comes to Healthcare and Socialism

It's a comment on Michael Moore's Blog:

GeertVDP

Posted March 22nd, 2010 1:33 PM

As European (Belgium) it completely eludes me to why nearly 50% of the Americans are against the principle of universal healthcare.
I can’t find any plausible argument to why, you, Americans have that obsessive fear towards the concept of “socialism”, other then post-McCarthyism.
A lot of you (mostly republicans) seem to be stuck in the 50’s rhetoric’s where everything left (or even centre) is “evil” and will destroy your society…
Why wouldn’t you want to have every one benefit of healthcare and keep so many people from sliding into poverty?

I find it puzzling to hear a Republican say that “freedom has died a little”… What good does it do to preserve your absolute (and theoretical) freedom, if you no longer have the pragmatic freedom to live a comfortable life with healthcare that wont drive you into poverty, have the financial means to celebrate your freedom of movement or have the financial means to provide your kids a quality education?
In my country I’m centre-right, mainly because I’m self-employed and run my own business.
So yes, I am all for developing personal initiative, but I also realise there have to be structures in place that provide protection for those who risk dropping out of the social network. I have no problem with socialist parties defending the rights of the working class.. their interests must be protected, just as mine…It is the only option for a well balanced society…Same applies to government involvement in providing healthcare for everyone...

America’s main problem is its extremely polarised political landscape where the winner takes it all and goes almost unchecked (with all the aberrations and corporate involvement). This applies for both republicans as for the democrats. What you need is a 3rd or even a 4rth party so that you’re forced to have a bi-party government and decisions are no longer made unilateral but grow out of consensus and negotiation.