What To Do?
This is a very strange time in my life because it is completely unclear to me what my next political move should be. When Bush 2 was president, it was so obvious. Every American who was a good human being automatically wanted to push for impeachment of this self-confessed criminal and to end our violent, costly, failed occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. But now, with Obama at the helm, we are still feeling a bit lucky to have dodged the McCain/Palin bullet by electing a man who seemed to be a quantum leap above those two losers in wisdom and humanity, so it is not a simple matter to decide whether or not we want to support his insane 2,700-page health bill and allow him to gain some political momentum, or fight for something better. We're afraid to make him look bad because that would give the Republicans more momentum. Should we fight him on this because of what it objectively is--a broken, convoluted plan that allows the insurance companies to continue screwing us over, or support him because what the Republicans would do would be far worse?
What's right is as clear to me as ever. It is obvious to any sane, loving person that it is nothing less than barbaric to fail to provide health care to any child simply because his or her parent(s) don't make enough money or don't have a health plan at work. How dare anyone against single-payer health care celebrate Christmas!
When 36 countries, including Cyprus and Cuba, are ahead of us in infant mortality, and with all 36 of them having a strong public option or single-payer health insurance, how dare our leaders continue to let insurance companies run the show! To add insult to injury, all of these countries pulling ahead of us in public health are using our goddamned technology!
Yes, what's right is clear to me. But what to do next? I haven't a clue. The clear path for our country should be to end the violent occupations in the Middle East, establish an excellent modern health care system like Taiwan's, build a modern power grid and a renewable energy infrastructure, and revitalize education. But in a nation run by We the Corporations, making headway on achieving these goals is just about impossible.
Obviously, we need to wake people up, but that's just about impossible, too. The more ignorant and wrong people are, the more entrenched they are in their views. Regardless of what I do or don't do in my civic life, this commercial offers a great solution. Just do nothing! Even though this humorous/grim video commercial contains some goofy Illuminati stuff, the end result of our inactivity won't be much different than what is portrayed in it.
A Harvard study found that 44,789 Americans die every year for lack of health care. That's close to our death toll during the whole Vietnam War, every year. What kind of "Christian" would let a child go to school with an ear infection or rotten teeth? And do you ever think about how obscene it is that our representatives have government paid health care while we don't?
According to the study, an uninsured twin, with a lifestyle identical to her insured twin, is 40 percent more likely to die, in any given year, than her twin.
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Nice article, Jeff. Don't know the answer, don't think anyone does.
ReplyDeleteAs frustrating as this all seems there are options, outside the Ununited States, or the Incorporated States of America. There are other countries I can choose to live in, all it takes is giving up the soft cushiness, and illusion of safety. And, Ah! yes the money, the ability to earn according to ones effort. So it comes down to the reality that what we have here costs some. It's a trade off Jeff, everything is a trade off in some way.
ReplyDeleteI would love to end the suffering of the masses, to make life just, and fair to all. And I believe Obama wants the same, however I think his opponents are too entrenched, too powerful, hell it would take a revolution to fix this mess we're in, and the people are divided, and intimidated by the power, and the ignorance attached to it.
"When the good times are all gone, it's time for moving on" Neil Young
I'm looking at India, France, The Netherlands...,
When social security took away $80.00 at the beginning of this year, claiming that California was on the edge of bankruptcy and that this was a needed cut in the budget and my co-insurance revoked my catastrophic prescription plan putting me in a position to come up with money I now don't have now to pay for much needed prescriptions such as Combivent, an asthma inhaler, which without could cost me my life, I thought I had seen the worst of it, but no, there was more in store.
ReplyDeleteNo physician wants to practice in Needles California and further, to bother with Medicare insurances, so one day last year they just pulled out leaving our little town, leaving the residents without a primary care physician. For those of us dependant upon local help this left us stranded. We had two choices, come up with money, with no money to come up with, or go to the emergency room at the local hospital which barely escaped a local budget cut, and tie up much needed emergency room services with the normal needs usually met by the local physician. Feeling guilty most of us reluctantly went to the emergency room, including myself. We had no choice and now, because of this undue hardship, people who may really need emergency room facilities, maybe even to save their life, may get bumped by the likes of 'us'. We don't much care what kind of health care bill they pass or don't pass, we just want our money and our catastrophic prescription plan back.
The travesty of this story is, that there are many little towns like Needles California who could tell you the same story. Most of us live without many much needed prescriptions and medical treatment and will continue to do so until we die from one ailment or another. We complain, we cry, we protest, but we are a small voice with no real support from any Congressman or Senator.
So you see, no bill is going to correct this injustice. No Republican nor Democrat can send the Red Cross into much needed towns like Needles and give care to the needy. To make matters worse, we are now told that because 'they' have robbed social security funds, so efficently, that now we will not get a cost of increase for the next two years and that may be extended to five years. So now we have no medical, no prescription, no treatments and no money and no hope. Where or where are we going next? Looking for a MASH unit. Shaba
Great post, Jeff. And the answer isn't easy. Kucinich recently decided to vote yes on the health bill after previously rejecting it on the grounds that it didn't go far enough. That must've been a painful decision for him to make, but his reasoning (at least officially) was that *something* was better than nothing. I might've done the same thing were I in his position.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your initial point about the "enemy" being less obvious. It's still clear as day, it's just not necessarily centered in the White House at the moment. Big business is going to exist and thrive regardless of who is in the White House. The only difference is that some administrations are more extreme in their support of it, while others give off the illusion that they are removed from it.
But I think that if out of fear of making Obama "look bad" we do nothing, that is as bad as doing nothing during the reign of any Republican administration. I suppose the answer is to half-heartedly support the meager measures that are put out there, so long as they genuinely improve things at least marginally*, while at the same time remain extremely vocal about the more far-reaching changes that we all know need to happen.
Just my 2 cents...
*if it can be shown that they actually make things worse, all the more reason to be quite vocal in protesting them.
I didn't mean that the enemy is less obvious, just how to fight the enemy without cutting our nose despite our face. Bush was never the enemy, but getting rid of him was an obvious way to fight back against the real enemy. It would have been a good starting point.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you weren't too hard on Kucinich. I listened to him talking with Amy Goodman the other day, an amazing interview. He hasn't backed down an inch, but he's supporting the bill because he knows that if it fails, it could be generations before a president has the balls to take on this issue once again.
I agree with your comment about the bill has to "genuinely improve things at least marginally," or else it would deserve our vocal opposition. Because of Obama's doubling Bush's drone attacks and expanding the assault on Afghanistan considerably, I'm about to get vocal. It's an amazing corner they've painted us into. They dangle Palin in front of our faces, like scaring little kids with a big spider, and it keeps us cowering in fear and inactivity.
While I think the positive mood over the passage of the health care bill is warranted (despite the bill's many flaws), we need to balance that with ongoing criticism in order to improve the bill down the road, as well as just about everything else. The left really needs to amp up criticism of what's happening with Afghanistan, for example (something that's simply not happening beyond the fringes).
ReplyDeleteSee, the sad truth is that we will forever be locked into a two party system. The Green Party will never gain a foothold. Given the MOR nature of Democrats as a whole, we might be better using our energy to try to bring the Democrats more firmly into the left. We need to strike a balance between giving credit where minor successes are made, and actively continuing to push for improvement. I like that groups like Moveon.org are actively going after scum like Blanche Lincoln, for example.
I'm really anxious to see how elections play out in November. I think it's way too early at this point for either side to start feeling cocky, but I'm curious to see how the Republicans fare. Republicans have become so much better at making noise and directing the political narrative, that they do make me nervous. And I think it's going to be difficult for some progressives to exert the same energy in future elections that they did in getting Obama elected in '08. I like your theory of Palin as scare tactic. But you could almost view Palin as a well-thought out tactic by Democrats to keep themselves in power: as long as Palin and her Tea Party ilk continue to bask in the media spotlight, we will all be too afraid to ever vote Green again.
> But you could almost view Palin as a well-thought
ReplyDelete> out tactic by Democrats to keep themselves in
> power: as long as Palin and her Tea Party ilk
> continue to bask in the media spotlight, we will
> all be too afraid to ever vote Green again.
Wow! That is almost too scary to contemplate!