We Owe Barack Obama $1 Trillion
Well, this is disappointing. Meowzer at fatfu points to a quote from Barack Obama, US Presidential Candidate, during the debates this week:
“If we could go back to the obesity rates of 1980 we could save the Medicare system a trillion dollars.” - Barack Obama during Democratic Presidential Debate, 12/13/07
I'm a little too disillusioned to comment about the 2008 race in general. But a tiny part of me hopes that Mike Huckabee gets some recognition on the Republican side only because we know where he stands with fat. (Like, ohidontknow, comparing us to September 11th and Hurricane Katrina.)
Getting back to Obama's quote though, the whole "time machine" angle could be used on any of a number of things. Just imagine if there were fewer people in this country. Well there were, in 1950. Can we go back to the population rates of 1950? And boy, it would be pretty nice money-wise to save on AIDS. Let's roll back about 40 years and take care of that chimp in the Sahara. Just... ugh.
The elephant in the room of the Democrats' health care proposals is, of course, fat people. Good on Meowzer for starting to tackle it and, of course, shame on Barack Obama.
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Posted by paul on December 15, 2007
Dang. I'm starting to feel sorry I gave this guy money over the summer to continue his campaign. Maybe my small donation will keep me out of the fat camps.
Is there even a single politician who doesn't hate fat people?
I don't know if it's so much that they hate us. It's that we exist completely outside their realm of understanding. Remember, by the time you run for President, you have to have amassed some serious dollars. Most rich people are thin. Therefore, they don't really have any occasion to associate with fat people, and the fat people they do meet are the Dennis Hasterts of the world who can afford to wolf down a 48-ounce Porterhouse with six martinis all by themselves. IOW, not your rank-and-file fatass who can maintain his or her weight on shockingly little grub.
Oh, and Paul, thanks for the mention!
I think that fat certainly has a class angle, but I really think that we are not outside anyone's orbit, there are enough rich fatties. No this 'crisis' is a willful suspension of disbelief. We want them to listen to us, we have to try and listen better to them too. It's ends up being a little condescending of us if we merely assert that they don't know the facts and if we just explain them, they will change, like we are the teacher and they are the pupils. They are definitely colluding in there own ignorance, it's not only the BO's *snigger* of this world buying into this, a lot of people we admire as people who regularly think outside the box go along with it as well, when that happens you know something deeper is going on than mere misunderstanding. People of great intelligence keep themselves ignorant of what we are saying, they fight furiously to hold on to pre existing views rather than explore and question ideas. I think we have to respect that this is not purely rational.
It's disappointing, but we really should be reaching out to the candidates and trying to educate them, rather than expecting them to come into the game as fat positive. Obama's one of the very few that I believe would respond well once he had the information.
Let's be honest: Obama is trying to get elected, which is not the same thing as actually making the world a better place. (One could argue that getting elected is a means to that end, but that's a whole other conversation.) Basically, he's selling himself as a candidate - which means he can't afford to take a radical position (like fat isn't deadly and expensive). Taking that position would instantly alienate probably the majority of voters - because "everybody" "knows" fat kills. He's got enough of an uphill battle getting elected as a black man....no way he would buck the conventional wisdom about fat when it's such a solid recruitment tool.
Same goes for pretty much every other candidate (maybe Kucinich could see the light?). I think the FA movement would need to be much more visible and vocal to have a shot at getting a candidate on board.
A return to the obesity rates of 1980 would involve little more than reversing the politically motivated BMI threshold adjustments of 1998. Look, there you go sheeple, no more obesity epidemic! Obama saves the world - hmmm.
I am disappointed by this, because with Hillary determined to launch a crusade against fat people he seemed the logical Democrat choice.
But then as Tari said, they're all scrambling for votes in the quest to get elected at any cost and as such there's little sense in any of them trying to appeal to a tiny and marginalised fat rights vote, especially when it might cost them support from various lobby groups, corporations and other powerful sponsors.
Politicians will go on hating fat people so long as the electorate goes on hating fat people. Were that ever to change, you can bet they'd be the first to jump on the SA bandwagon. I'd expect nothing more of any politician.
I really want the option to go to the polls and put in a vote of no confidence for any of the candidates if I don't feel any of them are qualified for the job. And if a majority votes no confidence I want the damn thing run again until someone gets it right.
Though with our current political system being only those with money have a chance of getting elected.. we'd probably spend years trying to find a new state senator... let alone a president.