Day 123: Medicine

Dinner:

• Chips & salsa
• Pizza californienne
• Salade verte française

As you can see from my above mentioned menu I have well and truly arrived in California.  As I do my exercise in the morning I now listen to American political podcasts rather than my usual BBC4 News Channel.  Today, a democratic candidate for congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is deemed to be extreme left in the US, was talking about socialised medicine.  Her "radical" proposals included a universal health care system which seemed pretty close to what we have in Europe (that hotbed of radical solutions).  I do find it strange how so many people are prepared to vote against their own best interests. As part of the programme they interviewed they interviewed a republican woman who had been to an Ocasio-Cortez rally to see what it was like.  Her main remark was that it was dangerous to go to these rallies because if you listen to them you might end up agreeing with the fact that it would be a good thing to have a minimum  wage, access to medicine for all, higher quality schooling and free universities.  I do find it strange that people are worried that they might change their mind for rational reasons rather than emotional.  Most people who voted Trump did so for emotional reasons rather than rational ones that is reassuring on the one hand as there is nothing more fickle than emotions but it also quite worrying, because it means that no amount of rational argument will win the day.