OurFuture.org Blogs: Sara Robinson

So Rush Limbaugh has threatened to move to Costa Rica if health care reform passes. Costa Rica? Really? This is a country where the American-style health care reform that Rush would be so desperately fleeing is considered nothing short of criminally inadequate. In Costa Rica, they've got constitutionally-guaranteed cradle-to-grave socialized medicine. Not just single-payer, mind you; I'm talking real British-style socialized health care, the kind where your doctor works directly for the government.

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My adopted home town of Vancouver, BC is returning to normal this week. The party's over, the Olympic banners are coming down, and the world is catching its planes for home. more »

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The Tea Party is shaping up to be 2010's first major media darling. First came the storm of coverage that surrounded the Tea Party convention in Nashville two weeks ago. Then, they stole the show at last weekend's CPAC conference in DC. Now, they're gearing up for a new month-long road show that starts at the end of March -- a repeat of last fall's national tour, this time with more busses and, no doubt, more media coverage.

It's obvious that the movement's organizers have a professional touch for getting the corporate media's attention. What's less obvious is how much of this attention is deserved. The reporters following in their wake are devouring the narrative of scrappy Americans rising up in populist rage; but beyond that, they're not asking many real questions about what this movement means, or whether it actually has the kind of clout that gets things done.

It's high time to ask the questions that challenge some of the surface myths that the Tea Party has been feeding to the media. So this week, I'm firing back on eleven pieces of conventional wisdom about the tea party movement.

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A village cannot revise village life to suit the village idiot. -- Frank Schaeffer
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As long as we're taking the measure of the country this week, let's look in on the far (and not so far) fringes of the right wing. What's up with them? And how worried should we be? more »

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My little series on the turn of the decade (which started last week) was originally conceived as a two-parter: a look back to the past, and a look ahead to the future.

That changed a bit this week, when the present rose up and made itself known in a very big way. more »

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It's the New Year, and I'm celebrating by coming back to work after a three-month sabbatical from CAF. After four years of pretty consistent blogging, I needed some distance, some time to pursue a few errant passions, and the chance to recover my focus. As of this week, I'm back on the job with a fistful of new insights and research, and a head full of fresh things to blog about. It's genuinely good to be back, which is a clear sign that the break was a) needed and b) long enough.

For the last couple of weeks, the blogs and papers have been full of pieces about the turn of the decade, with due regard to signs and portents for what the last decade's disasters all meant, and what glories and horrors await us in the one now ahead. Since this kind of navel-gazing about change and meaning and the future are what I do, I suppose it's incumbent on me to devote my first couple of homecoming posts to this topic. Given that it's now January 13 and the prognostication rush is mostly over, I might even claim to be the final word on the subject.

So, here it is, in two parts. This week: A look back. Next week: A look ahead.

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The specific events that made the Uh-Ohs a pluperfect catastrophe have already been well-covered by able commentators (some at this very blog), so I'm going to sidestep any attempt to catalogue them further. (No doubt you can sing them all, anyway, verse and chorus, in four-part harmony.) What interests me now is what this decade of social, economic, and political abuse -- really, there's no other word for it -- did to us psychologically.

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I've lived in Canada for very nearly six years now. I've loved it here. I love the people, the health care system, the bigness of the place, and the fact that the Canadian Charter of Rights includes an Equal Rights Amendment. I own a home, pay taxes, and am learning to think in metric. I'm in the process now of applying for citizenship. more »

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True confessions: I missed the health care speech. While the whole lefty blogosphere was watching and blogging and tweeting, I was sacked out in my attic bedroom high on a mountainside in Vancouver, sleeping off a narcotic haze and the exhausting aftermath of a long night spent in the emergency room at Lions Gate Hospital. more »

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As of today, Glenn Beck has lost 62 advertisers and counting due to Color of Change's campaign. And FOX is still asserting that this doesn't really hurt the network as a whole, because the advertisers are simply re-directing their ad buys to other shows. more »

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