ANOTHER POLITICAL VIEW.

The Democratic Establishment: corrupt, mendacious sellouts.

There, I said it.

You’ve seen what I’ve seen. Take the Presidential campaign. The Democratic Party schedules Presidential debates during NFL playoff games, to try to ensure that no one takes any interest whatsoever in our Presidential campaign or our issues, so that name-recognition will carry the day. The Democratic Party cuts off one Presidential candidate’s access to the most important tool of campaigning, the voter file, not long before the first primary. The Democratic Party quietly repeals the prohibition against accepting campaign contributions from lobbyists.

God forbid that our voters might choose someone that our party elites might not want – someone who is not as corrupt and feckless as they are.

Why don’t we just call it what it has become: the UnDemocratic Party.

And the funniest/saddest thing is that the Party Politburo does it with one excuse and one excuse only: that they are choosing “the strongest candidate for November.”

Excuse me?

Our Party Politburo is so deeply incompetent that they shouldn’t even be choosing lottery ticket numbers, much less candidates. Based on their track record, I wouldn’t even trust them with paper vs. plastic. They would screw up a one-car parade.

And yet the party bosses want to seize the power – from our voters – to decide whom our candidates should be. Their motto is simple: “the voters be damned.” Or as Joni Mitchell once put it, “don’t interrupt the sorrow.”

This is an edited version of what a prominent, former democratic Senator had to say about our process of selecting a candidate. It is a basic quarrel with the convention delegates and how they are "designated" from their home party to select a candidate. I tend to think the same way as the "corrupt, mendacious sellouts", I want someone who is strong enough to win. But, he has a point too, that we don't trust the people on the ground to decide what is best for us and I'm rethinking my mental alliance with the powers that be. I trust that the people are disgusted and they know best. But, do I trust the candidate to fend off the opposition in the general election when attack ads, and lies will muddy the waters and sway voters away from ideal candidates?

Sadly true.  Party control is an issue in both parties that can overwhelm the refreshing voice of true reformers.

HEALTH CARE RANT

From a public non profit organization, Public Citizen Health Research Group, comes this insightful information via Dr. Sidney Wolfe. He spoke before a Subcommittee on Health at a hearing on Health Insurance.
"The real question is, why should we tolerate the fragmented, highly profitable, administratively wasteful private health insurance industry any longer?" questions Wolfe. To paraphrase his comments, he states the public is way ahead of either Pres. Obama or the congress in its distrust of the health insurance industry. The Congress, on the other hand is writing them into the legislation. They want us to believe health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry will be good citizens and voluntarily lower prices.
In the last 30 years there are three times more doctors and nurses, and 30 times more health administrators. Administrators do not provide any care. The drug companies and insurance companies make more money with a frangmented, uncontroled system that allows them to not insure "unprofitable" people and let the the public (that's you and me) take care of them. 30 other countries have adoped centralized health insurance coverage which reaches as high as 96% of their people by throwing out the health insurance industry that obstructs care. Countries who do this get high coverage at cheaper cost then we now know. So, what model should we follow? A failed, fragmented policy or a practical single payer program that does the right thing by the people of Canada, Taiwan, New Zealand, most of Europe, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Mexico and Turkey?
Public Citizen's Dr. Woohandler's testimony before the same Subcommittee on Health Insurance, pointed out that 62 % of bankruptcies in this country are related to health care. And 50% of those bankrupt families HAD health insurance. Dr. Woolhandler went on to say that private insurance is a defective product. It would take vast government expenditures to support America's uninsured under the current system. It would save $400 billion annually by using single-payer reform just to shrink the health care bureaucracy.
It angers me that good health care is so fundamental to a successful society, and here we are with too many congressional "leaders" taking money from the health industry lobby that is doing it's best to befuddle the picture. My neighbors and friends are mad as hell and believe me, the voters are going to have the last say. Hopefully, it won't be too late for a single-payer reform that has teeth.