“Politicize†is a jab meaning the other side is trying to capitalize on a news topic. “The Republicans have tried to politicize the border crisis,†says Nancy Pelosi. Reince Priebus says Democrats are trying to politicize Benghazi. Jay Carney says Republicans are trying to politicize Benghazi. Steny Hoyer says Republicans are trying to politicize the VA scandal. Rush Limbaugh says Democrats politicize EVERYTHING.
You get the picture. People who work in politics use politicization as a pejorative. Like a chef sneering at all the cooking going on in the (gasp) kitchen!
Also saying your opponent is politicizing something is what to say when you hope to politicize something. It’s a “you spot it, you got it†attack.
Put down your hollow barbs, people. We live in a nation where small town police departments immediately use tanks and sound cannons for demonstrations and hospitals hesitate before using hazmat suits for Ebola. We have a problem.
So yes, let’s politicize Ebola. With abandon. With the same kind of passion we normally reserve for football or Pumpkin Spice Oreos.
Why should we do the thing both increasingly identical sides chide so much? We should politicize Ebola because the outbreak is a perfect example of why government dysfunction is needlessly hazardous to our health. And also because when we talk about other deadly pathogens—like the flu which kills thousands of Americans every year—it doesn’t become a trending topic on Twitter for a month. Ebola has people’s attention. So here’s an opportunity:
We don’t have a Surgeon General. Why? Because the GOP doesn’t like to let Obama fill key positions in the government. So when the president nominates ANYONE, by the sheer fact the candidate was nominated by Obama, the Republicans have a problem with said nominee. The man tapped to be America’s Next Top Doctor, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, was opposed by the NRA (also spelled GOP) because he had the gall to suggest guns—which kill tens of thousands of Americans every year—are a health issue.
We don’t have a vaccine for Ebola. Why? Because the GOP reflexively gets into a size-instead-of-function argument when it comes to government. Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, said a decade of budget cuts and—his word—stagnation are the reasons why a vaccine hasn’t been developed yet. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s emergency preparedness budget has been cut in half over that same time. By whom, you ask? The Grand Old Party.
And the (grrr) Democrats, for their part, are horrible at making the case why we need to fund the government. They can’t seem to make the argument to convince the general public that bloodletting government agencies isn’t an awesome idea. Cutting government jobs in a recession with record unemployment? We did that with bipartisan support! #headdesk
So let’s politicize Ebola. Obamacare is the political hot button of the decade. Universal coverage was the goal with Obamacare. We want everyone to be covered. Why? Because it’s healthier for everyone when sick people get care. Period. And nothing demonstrates that better than an Ebola on our shores.
Unfortunately we don’t politicize everything. We stopped politicizing war. Now it’s something everyone in Washington just agrees is a priority. We signed a deal with Afghanistan to have 10,000 troops on the ground for the next decade. There will be children old enough to buy beer who’ve never known an America not at war.
We’re waging wars again on two fronts (if you can call 30,000 ISIS fighters a front, and apparently we do) and Mitch McConnell, who could be the next Senate Majority Leader, gleefully talks about how he’ll shut down the government to force the president to sign shrunken spending bills. If war were politicized, that would be ghastly and abhorrent. But it’s not, so McConnell can just keep his cushy government job.
Part of politicizing is holding people accountable for stupid ideas and decisions.
That’s why some things are and should be politicized. And how our government plans to contain a highly communicable disease is one of them.
This is the moment to ask to properly fund the CDC’s public health emergency preparedness and the NIH’s research.
Politicized!
I don’t think you’ll hear much about ebola after Nov 5th.
Well you might be right if the Ebola outbreak is stopped in the USA before it grows. If it’s not put under control thing will get much worse and that will continue even after Nov 4th. It just depends on how many more people are infected with this deadly virus.
Right now we have three confirmed cases of Ebola with one death and the other two in hospitals. But we don’t have a approved vaccine for Ebola yet. All we have is a couple of experimental medicines that seem to have worked with other people who contracted the Ebola Virus in Africa and then came back to the State to seek a cure or treatment and are doing better. In fact the one Dr who was given the experimental Ebola medicine has recovered and is donating his blood plasma to the others. Too bad that Mr. Ducan’s blood type was not the same at this Dr’s blood type. He may have survived if his blood type has been the same at the Dr’s Blood type.
Anyway I do hope that either Obama or the GOP come together and appoint and confirm a new Surgeon General of the USA. We need both political parties to stop fighting for a few minutes in order to get some business done. That use to happen more in the US Senate than the house but now it’s gotten so bad that we have members of the Congress shouting out “you lie” to the President when he visits the Joint Members of Congress to give the State of the Union Speech.
I agree that the funding cuts have hampered the CDC and the NIA in there ability to do their job. That’s what the current Congress needs to do right now before the Ebola Virus spreads. We should know in a few more weeks if this virus can be controlled or if it starts to spread to more people and gets out of hand. I’d much rather be proactive than reactive on this deadly virus.
Such decorum ! Calling a liar a liar !
Who penned this piece/opinion? Source/Creditability can be relevant to the Right or the Left, in assessing the content for consideration/contemplation.
Why is everybody always so concerned about sources! Who cares!! I don’t care if it came from Red State, Breitbart, Salon, or Mother Jones. Is the authors arguments logically constructed and are the conclusions valid or misleading(You can use facts to make misleading conclusions)) That should be the question.
It seems everyone in American is ready and willing to brush aside certain things because of the source.
Ohhhhh that came from The Young Turks!! Liberals! Pfffft
I’m not interested in anything Limbaugh, or Hillery have to say. For that matter I have NEVER listened to anything Obama has had to say EVER, haven’t heard him say more than a couple of words, “You can Keep your Doctor” is about all I can recall. Cannot stand a LIAR, Republican or Democrat, I turn it off or change channels. In fact If Obama knocked on my door,—I wouldn’t open it!! —“You can keep your President”.
If the ACA had a included a non-cancellation provision forcing doctors to accept ACA exchange policies you clowns would be screaming facism and communism to the rooftops. Just another clueless, Obama hater.
Lame response, BB, –Did Obama LIE to the American people when he stated over, and over, and over again “You can keep your Doctor ” or NOT ?
I hate no one , but I do admit I detest a LIAR.
Go ahead tell us he didn’t LIE! You Obama ass kisser!
Force them? Force them? What you going to do put the Doctors in Jail?.
Kiss on till your lips chap, you Dolt!
And with a “poof” your wish is granted. A new Ebola “Czar” has been appointed who has no medical knowledge but is a very savvy political organizer. Reportedly he is excellent at cutting through disorganization and political crises. In spite of the reporter’s (editor’s) opinion, the Republicans were not responsible for every disaster since the Black Plague and the Democrats only fault is not caring too much; I agree with Crash, it would be nice to know who wrote this and I don’t disagree with most of it, just would like to know the source.
Politicize ——-> As global social economic environmental Analytics, and , mostly as a Humanist type science based trending, as a recovered balance, many of us are what one would classify as centrists on the issues of political values or aspect ranges. Our take is usually to politicize something normally induces impedance to moving towards that value or aspects workable solutions with positive timing or usable balance needed to progress. Our suggestion on issues of impending immediate value to a given population , “don’t politicize achievable objectives that process appears as obstruction of the common goals most objectives would be in a design plan to meet.”
po·lit·i·cize
pəˈlidəˌsīz/
verb
past tense: politicized; past participle: politicized
cause (an activity or event) to become political in character.
“art was becoming politicized”
make (someone) politically aware, especially by persuading them of the truth of views considered radical.
“we successfully politicized a generation of women”
engage in or talk about politics.
It appears as though this site has once again been hijacked.
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