Patch Blog: The Party Of Know

There is meaning in the expression "Knowledge Is Power.” It implies that a person in possession of knowledge will have the power to advance ideas or rights or interests in the arena of rational discussion.

Lately, however, the Republican Party, which has fallen under the control of even crankier, older, out of touch, white men (I have no idea how they manage this), seems very much confused about the relationship of knowledge and power while displaying little fondness for the concept of rational thinking. 

Theirs is a parallel universe of inconsistency and half-baked realities—led by President Bush, they somehow insisted on massive tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, all in the name of job creation, but refused two terms later to acknowledge that what ensued was the worst private sector job growth since records have been kept.

Somehow, they managed to ignore Vice President (Dick Cheney) when he proclaimed that “deficits don’t matter,” but insisted in 2011 that raising the debt ceiling (which they had done seven times under Bush) was the road to economic ruin.

And somehow, they support a candidate (Mitt Romney) who insisted that government intervention in the Detroit auto-crisis would produce calamity, when that very intervention, just three short years later, has helped the industry create 200,000 new jobs, and produce for General Motors the largest profits in its 100 year history.

Nothing, however, tops their recent—needless to say—inconsistent involvement with the knowledge-power equation. On the one hand, in Virginia, the Republican controlled General Assembly (in its paternalistic zeal) offered up a tidy piece of legislation that would have coerced doctors to administer a vaginally inserted ultrasound to any woman seeking an abortion.

The woman’s consent was not required. Later, when confronted with thousands of silent protestors outside of the State Capitol, and plummeting poll numbers, the legislation was “softened” by removing the requirement of a vaginal insertion. A plain, old, external ultrasound would do, though the doctor would still have no say in the matter, and neither would the woman. I guess that could be construed as a Republican concession to small, non-intrusive government.

But just when you think you’ve got a handle on Republican thinking on the matter of providing knowledge to citizens along comes Rick Santorum and his objection to pre-natal care: “…free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done, because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society.”

Thus, in Republican world, the women of Virginia must involuntarily be provided with more knowledge (an ultrasound) when it suits Republican goals and interests, but pregnant women seeking pre-natal care must involuntarily be denied the knowledge provided by an array of pre-natal tests when it does not suit Republican goals and interests. Hmmm…it’s good to see in our democracy whose privacy and freedom of choice really matters.

But why are we surprised? Wasn’t it the same thing with “Death Panels”? When President Obama’s health care plan made it easier for the elderly to be counseled on alternative approaches to end-of-life care, that too, by Republican standards, was knowledge that must be denied to citizens. As the supposed party of freedom and choice wouldn’t more knowledge serve their agenda? Or does knowledge, in this instance, step once again on another set of ideological Republican toes?

Traditionally, in the United States, the elderly, in the final weeks and months of their lives, have been provided with full-blown hospitalization and resuscitative procedures. Such care is extraordinarily expensive, and of course profitable for hospitals, doctors, ambulance drivers and medical labs.

More recently, the elderly have been given the ability to choose hospice care, which is humane, private, family-centered (isn’t that a Republican priority?) and much less costly. Does anybody think that hospitals, doctors, ambulance drivers and lab operators want the elderly choosing plan B?

As a nation, aren’t we supposed to be concerned with lowering health care costs? Does anybody wonder which constituency and health strategy the Republicans serve? Does anybody not yet understand why the Republicans really object to that portion of the Obama health care plan that provides the elderly with information about the hospice-care alternative?

With Republicans, knowledge isn’t exactly power, but power over knowledge is.