WIMPs - the confluence of science, politics, and the public option

Physicists who study the universe in order to find out what makes it tick are in pursuit of what they claim to be an exotic yet currently undetectable form of matter called "dark matter." One of the current models for dark matter particles is known as the WIMP, short for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle. These WIMPs supposedly do not interact with electromagnetism and therefore cannot be seen directly, nor do they interact with the strong nuclear force, which means that they do not react strongly with the nuclei of that familiar form of matter we know of as "atoms."

This leads us to what may well be the demise of the public option and therefore the death of healthcare reform in America during Obama's first term. This could be blamed on another form of WIMP - in this case, the Woefully Ineffective Middleground Politician.

There are some striking similarities between the dark matter WIMPs and the political WIMPs.

Dark matter WIMPs do not interact with normal matter, so they are dark and invisible through normal electromagnetic observations. Political WIMPs do not interact with normal Americans, so they are likewise invisible to the middle-class family facing rising medical insurance premiums and dwindling coverage.

Dark matter WIMPs have a substantial amount of mass, so they are relatively low velocity and are therefore quite cold. As a result, they tend to remain clumpy. Political WIMPs also have a substantial amount of mass because they never get off their fat asses to campaign for actual healthcare reform, so they are also rather slow of movement and also cold and indifferent to the needs of a teenage girl who was denied coverage for a life-saving liver transplant by her family's insurance company. These political WIMPs also tend to clump together because that's what they think is expected of them.

Dark matter WIMPs are responsible for the universe transitioning from a smooth initial state shortly after the Big Bang (as demonstrated by cosmic microwave background radiation) to the lumpy distribution of galaxies and their clusters we see today. Political WIMPs are responsible for healthcare reform transitioning from a smooth template for accountability, competition, and universal coverage to a lumpy and unwieldy arrangement with no government oversight and compulsory enrollment in a corporate health insurance plan - one that is legally obligated to put the financial interest of its owners ahead of all competing interests, including the public good.

But while dark matter WIMPs are purely theoretical, the existence of political WIMPs has been confirmed beyond all contestation. And while having a cold and lumpy universe is just fine, a human being who tries to step into the vacuum of space will find her blood boiling in milliseconds, dying a cold, silent, and most likely agonizing death.

Space is no place for humankind, excepting of course those in bulky spacesuits. We do not need a healthcare reform plan that likewise leaves the American public in the dark - and in the cold.