Saturday, August 13, 2011

Killing to Save


Shorter Rick Perry: I want to run this country in order to kill it.

His call is oddly familiar to me. I live in the jurisdiction of the Sequoia Healthcare District, which had been county-run until it was sold to Catholic Healthcare West. The District board has existed ever since the sale, using funds collected for other healthcare projects as well as maintaining oversight of the hospital on a joint basis with CHW.

We have one board member by the name of Jack Hickey. He resents the heck out of the board's existence. He ran on the platform of "get me there and I'll help eliminate it because you don't need to pay for this any more." I grant you, I voted for Hickey. Partially because I hadn't been aware that the board still has oversight of the hospital and thus maintains contact with its original reason for being, and partially because at the local level, he has the oddball factor I find charming when the issue won't hurt a lot of people very badly.

While I realize Perry's not a strong contender due to how badly he just dissed Iowa, I can't help but think of Hickey when I see Perry now. Policies that only sort of work on the local level are deadly on the national.

And even Hickey's wrong about killing the board. This is why his cronies never get the nod to help fill the slots and give him the means to do what he wants.

So if Perry even winds up with a VP slot on the GOP ticket, remember what he said. He wants to end this country. Turn it into 50 fiefdoms of unpredictable laws and battling concepts, never mind what happens to Puerto Rico, Guam, and our protectorates.

Photo credit: gladtobeout from morguefile.com

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