The Republicans Can't Afford for America to Succeed: That's Why They Oppose the Government Option
BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG
By Mark Karlin
The goal of Wall Street in terms of consumers is to drive people into debt.
Given that America has been a nation that has experienced a steady decline in producing real "things," our biggest product now -- by far -- is debt and the interest consumers pay on it. As some perceptive economists have pointed out, the stagnant and disappearing wages of the American worker have been replaced with staggering debt. And on this debt, we pay interest that goes to Wall Street -- where they gamble it away -- after buying off enough senators and representatives to ensure that they, in the words of Assistant Majority Leader Senator Dick Durbin, control Capitol Hill.
Therefore, if everybody is insured for healthcare, that means there will be billions of dollars in less debt for banks to charge usurious interest rates on.
Are you beginning to get the picture?
Republicans opposed Social Security in the '30s and Medicare in the '60s. They champion government aid for banks and businesses "too big to fail," but call it welfare and a violation of "the free [really fixed] market" if aid is proposed for the broken working class.
The gilded, fantasy lifestyle enticingly portrayed in advertising for credit cards is financed by consumer debt at soaring interest rates and penalty fees. What workers and middle class managers should be getting in salary increases is now charged away and borrowed, thus making Wall Street fatter and more capable of taking on higher risk wagers at the financial gambling table.
So, if America succeeds in providing healthcare to nearly all its citizens, it cuts off one more avenue of personal debt. (True reform would also shift unnecessary profit on the part of the healthcare insurance companies into savings in the healthcare system, which is equally abhorrent a thought to the fat wallets of Capitol Hill.)
Republicans and the Blue Dog RepubliCrats need Americans to fail in order to ensure that Wall Street can continue its lavish, reckless lifestyle. And ensuring that means that the campaign contributions keep flowing into the coffers of Max Baucus and company.
It's one heck of a racket, a legalized fleecing scheme.
Unfortunately, the Obama White House has failed to drive home a compelling emotional message to pass the government option -- let alone single payer -- and Obama has appeared to be led more than to lead.
Once again, progressives are back where we were with Bill Clinton, on the defensive in supporting issues that benefit a national community.
The selfish are again triumphing and using a wedge of confusion and fear to decrease support for meaningful healthcare reform.
That's good for the GOP and the Blue Dogs; they can't afford for Americans to succeed in developing a government that can compensate for the predatory practices of the mega-corporations and financial firms that control Capitol Hill and neuter the White House.
And when the Republicans and Blue Dog RepubliCrats succeed, Americans lose.
BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG
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George Bush attacked America
Obama's plan is socialism!!!
We need information as a nation
it's ironic
You're missing the point
Yep
There is another political faction which wants this to fail
Besides the above mentioned villains, Republicans, Blue Dog Republicrats, corporate-fat cats, there is another political faction which fervently wants the "public option" to fail: Those whom I call the "ideologically pure" left.
The real problem I have with the ideologically pure left is that I agree with them ninety percent of the time! They have very good ideas and their critiques of the establishment are spot on. But too often the ideologically pure left will stand with the reactionary right in the school house door to prevent the entrance of little orphan progress into American Politics Central High.
So if the so-called public option, a federally owned and operated health care insurance agency fails in Congress the ideologically pure left's conscience will be clean. That will have saved the poor, the plight of whom they weep and wail for on a regular basis, from a potentially corrupt and flawed system that ultimately will surely only benefit the corporatists. Thus the poor will continue seeking medical care at county general and other local property tax revenue supported clinics until the Nirvana of single payer is realized.
I guess what sticks in my craw about the American ideologically pure left is that so many of them are comfortably ensconced in the coordinator class, q.v.The Coordinator Class, Eric Patton, www.dissidentvoice.org February 26, 2007. For instance back during the 2000 presidential election I remember reading an op-ed in my local newspaper, The Des Moines Register, written by a Grinnell College student, whose parents were both tenured professors at the University of Iowa, on why she was voting for Ralph Nader. Apparently this young woman, writing from her parents' Iowa City home, had spent a year living in a barrio in Lima, Peru and knew what poverty was all about. Heaven forbid she should spend anytime in meth-infested small town Iowa! And, no, I don't ascribe to the "Nader cost Gore the 2000 election" theory.
I have no idea what this young woman is up to these days but I am sure she is earnestly helping the poor in some urban neighborhood on weekends and vacation when she is not teaching undergraduate courses in cultural anthropology at a major state university.
Too often in post-Civil War American history the ideologically pure left has worked hand-in-glove with the forces of reaction to stifle progress in order to advance its own agenda.
ET SpoonThey're insignificant - they
Voting pure
Voting unconditionally Democratic has gotten you Democrats almost indistinguishable from Republicans. A Nader or Green-Party vote accomplishes several things:
1. It tells the corporate-funded candidates exactly WHY they didn't get your vote: They represent corporate interests, and you've shown them your vote will go to candidates that represent CITIZENS' interests.
2. It avoids giving the Democratic Party undeserved legitimacy. Many people realize the Green Party is superior to the Democrats, but they vote Democratic because the votes the Democrats have received in the past give them "legitimacy". It's a vicious circle.
Some people won't vote Green until the Greens reach, say 5%. By voting Democratic, you're perpetuating the problem, and contributing to the corporate-funded Democrats' perceived legitimacy.
3. It brings the Greens closer to the 5% threshold, at which they get a guaranteed place on the ballot and Federal funding. Many people are ignorant of this fact, which I've never seen mentioned in the corporate media. A Green-Party candidate doesn't have to win 51%: WE CAN MAKE PROGRESS WITH ONLY 5% OF THE VOTE!
It's a lot like housebreaking a puppy. You'll get nowhere with unconditional praise. At some point you have to say: "No! Bad dog!". Likewise, you'll get nowhere voting unconditionally Democratic. Your Green-Party vote is a way of saying "No! Bad party!".
"Nader OR Green Party"?
Oh, yeah...And when are the Greens going to elect anybody?
Has Green Party USA elected anyone to a state level elective office, let alone a federal elective office? Please tell me? Inquiring minds want to know?
And riddle me this, why hasn't Dennis Kucinich defected to the Greens? Or Maxine Waters? Or any other members of the Democratic Black Congressional Caucus or the Democratic Progressive Caucus? Why? Because you guys are ineffectual and, dare I say, elitist, like the young woman I described in my original post above.
Hell, the European Greens even begged Green Party USA not to run a presidential candidate in 2000, because it was premature and would hurt future party growth. Gee, I guess American Greens should have listened to their elders.
At one time I had high hopes for the Greens. I even toyed with the idea of registering as a Green. But let me tell you, Alan8, the condescending, coordinator class smugness of your reply has turned me off to the Greens even more so than Ralph Nader's self-aggrandizing 2000 presidential bid.
But what do you care. Right?
ET SpoonYES! Greens were elected to Federal Office
...and another thing...
You've proven my point about giving the Democrats undeserved legitimacy: You don't consider the Greens legitimate because they haven't gotten as many votes as the Democrats.
This implies you may consider them if they were getting enough votes to stand a chance of winning. Do you see how this attitude perpetuates the corrupt Democrats' hold on power? You won't vote for the Greens, so they don't appear legitimate, so you don't vote for them, so they don't appear legitimate.
Breaking this cycle requires that people vote Green even when there's no chance they will win the current election. Increasing Green votes raises them to the threshold where other people will start to see them as legitimate, and start to vote for them.
It can't be done in one election, but it can certainly be done in several elections. Your short-term thinking dooms you to be stuck with corrupt Democrats selling us out to corporations that finance their campaigns.
A 5% Green vote is a good intermediate goal. Think about it.
Green progress is in the voters' hands
Kucinich and the others are struggling heroically, but they haven't made any more progress than the Greens. Bush wasn't impeached, and single-payer health care isn't on the table. Their way isn't working.
It's time to speak the only language the Democrats understand: Taking their votes.
It's superficial (and counterproductive) to base your vote on remarks any individual voter makes. What's relevant is the threat Green voters can make to politicians who sell us out to the corporations.
Nader himself has
Zero-sum Game
Then the zero-sum end-game will be over.
Yes