What the heck is the “Status Quo”??
We’ve all heard people say it, but what are they talking about?
Ever since the UnitedHealthcare CEO was gunned down on a New York City street, I keep hearing the familiar term “status quo” being used to describe America’s current healthcare system, especially from the talking heads on cable news. But what does that term even mean?
I think it was around 1984 when I first asked that question after I heard my Mom say the words. At the time Mom was amped about Geraldine Ferraro being picked as Walter Mondale’s VP running mate, and kept going on about how Ferraro was gonna disrupt the status quo in Washington.
Mom was a liberal social worker back then, and she shared a lot of her progressive politics with me. Although I didn’t understand what she was talking about half the time, I knew she usually had the plight of others in mind. Back then she also talked to me about women’s rights and how the country needed to pass the equal rights amendment (aka the ERA), and we were also boycotting grapes to show support for the striking United Farm Workers who were being exploited by their employers.
I understood her lessons of looking out for others and the greater good, but anytime I asked her what “status quo” meant she lost me. I was 7 turning 8 that year, so she tried to explain it to a child as best she could. She said something to the effect of, “it’s the current state of the way things are, and it usually benefits only a few people like rich, white men.”
That was a little helpful, but not completely. I only had more questions about it because I was a curious kid. I don’t have kids, so I don’t even know how I would define it to a child.
Mom also had a giant Webster’s dictionary that I used to read for fun (because, yeah you know) so I looked up status quo - “the existing state of affairs.” Cool.
Eight year old me still wasn’t grasping it.
I went and asked Dad as he always explained things to me in a way that I could understand. He said, “it’s the way things are in the world, and the people who complain about it are usually the ones without the power to change it.”
Well that sounds kinda fucked up.
Dad’s explanation wasn’t wrong, but it also wasn’t the most empathetic, which was Dad’s style, and regretfully would become my style for many years.
What Mom and Dad didn’t explicitly say at the time was that their definitions of status quo also defined “privilege” to me without using that word. In the 80’s nobody in my sphere of influence ever used the word privilege, especially in the way it’s used today.
Essentially they were both saying that the status quo is our current system of the Haves vs the Have-Nots, and neither one were fans of it. Every politician promises to challenge the status quo. That’s how they win elections, but few actually do anything to disrupt it.
Although they both hated the status quo, Mom and Dad were on opposite sides of the political spectrum. In 1984 Mom hated Ronald Reagan with a burning fire the way most liberals still do to this day.
Dad was apolitical during the 1980’s, but many years later, after becoming politically activated by a putrid bag of waste named Rush Limbaugh, Dad became the happiest “dittohead” docent at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
Dad’s explanation helped, but it took me an embarrassing about of years to realize that the status quo is something that’s always there, and although it effects everyone differently, it must be challenged and opposed, because since the beginning of our nation, large groups of people are always being fucked by the status quo.
Manifest Quo
The American status quo was founded on the idea of Manifest Destiny that allowed white Europeans to steal the land from Native Americans, and then enslave Black people to work that stolen land. That status quo lasted for hundreds of years and still has lasting impact on those communities.
The status quo didn’t allow American women to vote until they fought against it long enough to make it change.
The status quo forced African Americans to use different bathrooms and drinking fountains, and sit in the back of the bus, until African Americans fought against it long enough to make it change.
The status quo didn’t allow same sex marriages until Americans in the LGTBQ community fought against it long enough to make it change.
The status quo never grants something to everyone without a fight. In a system of haves vs have-nots, progress is only made after the have-nots fight for something hard enough and long enough for something that the privilege group already had.
Healthcare for everyone (not just the ones who can afford it) would be progress in this country. Child care for everyone (not just the ones who can afford it) would be progress in this country. Paid medical leave for everyone would be progress. Higher education for everyone would be progress.
The status quo will always prevent progress from happening thanks to people who either ignore it and do nothing, or those who benefit from it, and defend it.
The Status Quo & You
Since the status quo will always exist and is always fucking somebody over, as conscientious Americans we need to ask ourselves - am I being fucked by the status quo and fighting it; am I unaffected and ignoring it; or am I benefiting and defending it?
Right now the status quo says that the United States of America has the most expensive healthcare system in the world, but only 49th in life expectancy.
Are you being fucked by that, ignoring it, or benefiting?
Today the status quo says people living in the world’s wealthiest nation don’t deserve single-payer universal healthcare like the rest of the world’s richest nations, and that our current heavily flawed system is what works best.
Who does it work best for?
The status quo allows CEO’s to rake in massive profits after denying health care to dying Americans.
Why should matters of life and death be motivated by a profit?
No American can ignore their health for very long, so our healthcare system affects them all whether they know it or not.
Are you being fucked by the United States’ healthcare system, or benefiting?
The American status quo currently defends the private healthcare industry that fucks working class Americans, and the healthcare industry defends the status quo.
The status quo says Americans will never have single-payer, universal healthcare.
Until enough fucked over Americans fight for it.
-a