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What's the Matter with Democrats?
Ever since Thomas Frank published his book "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Democrats have sought a political strategy to match the GOP's. The health care bill proves they've found one.
Whereas Frank highlighted Republicans' sleight-of-hand success portraying millionaire tax cuts as gifts to the working class, Democrats are now preposterously selling giveaways to insurance and pharmaceutical executives as a middle-class agenda. Same formula, same fat cat beneficiaries, same bleating sheeple herded to the slaughterhouse. The only difference is the Rube Goldberg contraption that Democrats are using to tend the flock.
First, their leaders campaign on pledges to create a government insurer (a "public option") that will compete with private health corporations. Once elected, though, Democrats propose simply subsidizing those corporations, which are (not coincidentally) filling Democratic coffers. Justifying the reversal, Democrats claim the subsidies will at least help some citizens try to afford the private insurance they'll be forced to buy - all while insisting Congress suddenly lacks the votes for a public option.
Despite lawmakers' refusal to hold votes verifying that assertion, liberal groups obediently follow orders to back the bill, their obsequious leaders fearing scorn from Democratic insiders and moneymen. Specifically, MoveOn, unions and "progressive" non-profits threaten retribution against lawmakers who consider voting against the bill because it doesn't include a public option. The threats fly even though these congresspeople would be respecting their previous public-option ultimatums - ultimatums originally supported by many of the same groups now demanding retreat.
Soon it's on to false choices. Democrats tell their base that any bill is better than no bill, even one making things worse, and that if this particular legislation doesn't pass, Republicans will win the upcoming election - as if signing a blank check to insurance and drug companies couldn't seal that fate. They tell everyone else that "realistically" this is the "last chance" for reform, expecting We the Sheeple to forget that those spewing the do-or-die warnings control the legislative calendar and could immediately try again.
Predictably, the fear-mongering prompts left-leaning Establishment pundits to bless the bill, giving Democratic activists concise-yet-mindless conversation-enders for why everyone should shut up and fall in line ("Krugman supports it!").
Such bumper-sticker mottos are then demagogued by Democratic media bobbleheads and their sycophants, who dishonestly imply that the bill's progressive opponents 1) secretly aim to aid the far right and/or 2) actually hope more Americans die for lack of health care. In the process, the legislation's sellouts are lambasted as the exclusive fault of Republicans, not Democrats and their congressional majorities.Earth sufficiently scorched, President Obama then barnstorms the country, calling the bill a victory for "ordinary working folks" over the same corporations he is privately promising to enrich. The insurance industry, of course, airs token ads to buttress Obama's "victory" charade - at the same time its lobbyists are, according to Politico, celebrating with chants of "we win!"
By design, pro-public-option outfits like Firedoglake and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee end up depicted as voices of the minority, even as they champion an initiative that polls show the majority of voters support. Meanwhile, telling questions hang: If this represents victory over special interests, why is Politico reporting that "drug industry lobbyists have huddled with Democratic staffers" to help pass the bill? How is the legislation a first step to reform, as proponents argue, if it financially and politically strengthens insurance and drug companies opposing true change? And what prevents those companies from continuing to increase prices?
These queries go unaddressed - and often unasked. Why? Because their answers threaten to expose the robbery in progress, circumvent the "What's the Matter with Kansas?" contemplation and raise the most uncomfortable question of all:
What's the matter with Democrats?
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146 Comments so far
Show AllTo Mr. David Sirota...you sir, are quite correct.
Yup.
yup
The question is not what is wrong with the Dems, the question is what is wrong with the US electorate?
The Dems mission is to get at least as much K street money as the Republicans.
Rahm dusted off Rove's playbook and now the Dems get as much K street money as the Republicans.
Mission accomplished.
When you vote for the lesser of two evils, both evils get more evil.
ditto.
John Nichols of the Nation however, says on MSNBC that this bill "is not about healthcare"...it is about "showing that Obama can do big things".
Big things like a big payout to insurance companies to put on Obama's trophy case next to his big payout to the arms industry and his big payout to the bankers.
Mr. D. Sirota:
What do mean "What's the matter with Democrats?"
The Dems ARE being Dems. Do you get it now?
I admire Sirota, but he's out to sea on this one and the proof is very simple: We don't have an opposition party in the US.
Why would any person of sound mind think that a country that overthrows governments all around the world for issues such as increasing the minimum wage (Honduras) would offer their own citizens affordable government administered insurance?
The public option was the bait to string the left along.
The outcome was decided on long ago behind closed doors...Full Privatization of Health Care.
Short of a takeover of the mass media and de-propagandizing and a re-educating of Americans there wasn't a damn thing any of us could've done to prevent it. Not even Dennis Kucinich.
Now Obama will turn his sights towards chipping away at Medicare...laying the groundwork for its eventual dismantling.
Anyone who thinks the Obama Insurance Enrichment Plan is going to be made more Progressive in the coming years is living in a fantasy world blind to ALL the prevailing trends.
Wasn't Obama going to withdraw a brigade a month from Iraq? Put protections into the Patriot Act? Allow the government to answer for telecom lawsuits? Dismantle the walls of secrecy and obstruction erected by Bush?
There are at least 60 million suckers at every minute in this country...The Democratic Party!
Good point.
My conclusion, the Democrats or Republicans will not release their strangle-hold on the freedom and will of the American people and continue to siphon off the peoples' wealth and give it to a few rich people.
Voting Democratic or Republican is not in my interest. I will vote in the next election but not for them.
"Now Obama will turn his sights towards chipping away at Medicare...laying the groundwork for its eventual dismantling."
He's already turned his sights on Roosevelt's new deal programs in the Insurance Profit Maximization Act. One of the seldom discussed features in it is a tax on unearned income that includes social security income and unemployment benefits. A clever trick, having the unemployed barely living on a pittance and old retired people living on a small pension pay taxes to the government so they can hand the money over to private corporations.
Change You Can Believe In.
Social Security benefits have been taxed for some time.
Hey! David, how's that hopey changy thing going for you now? I told you when you 'endorced' him the day after he announced that you'd regret it.
This bill puts those responsible for our lousy health care (insurance companies) in charge of the entire system
with a mandate which ensures that no one can escape it. It's akin to putting bank robbers in charge of the banks. Wait a minute, the Dumbocrats approve that idiotic concept too.
Obama should come clean by switching his party affiliation
to Republican (after all, he admires Ronald Reagan) just like darlin' Arlen went Dem. This two party system has all the choices of a one party Communist State. To the barricades!
"This two party system has all the choices of a one party Communist State."
True, only it's the corporations gaining the power, not the government. Therefore, it's more akin to fascism than communism.
To the barricades! Yes, indeed!
You know what hurts me the most about the Democrats? DENNIS KUCINICH and now I want to call him Dennis the Menace. I hope nobody thinks I'm like that grumpy Mr. Wilson but if they do, here's something I want them to know about DK.
1. He caved in on March 17, 2010 to vote yes on the bill.
2. On democracynow, Kucinich morphed into a status quo supporter while Nader stood his ground boldly making me even angrier at myself for not listening and giving Nader a chance in 2008.
3. Kucinich finally has the bloody nerve to be a blithering volunteer idiot to whip up support for this terrible bill.
#1 I might have forgiven over time should I see Dennis Kucinich going back and fighting for Medicare for All provided that his yes vote did not cause the bill to fail. #2 made me wonder what the hell he was doing that for and resembled his past concession speeches, thank you RichM for bringing those up, and neutered my hopes that Kucinich would go back and fight like a real man. #3 is where DK crossed the line and now it is becoming clear about who wants to be bold and for what purpose.
There is a pattern here I am finding out about the Democrats. Some on this site have pointed out and have proven the myth that Democrats are cowards wrong. I used to think that the party was weak and needed help but I am beginning to reconsider that notion as it is being proven more and more that the Democratic Party is doing all this kind of stunts on purpose. I'm sorry everyone for being stupid in 2008 and not listening to real liberals and independents and I apologize for stupidly voting for the Democrats as an average liberal. I may be liberal and practical but even there the Democratic Party doesn't measure up let alone being progressive and firm about it. Maybe even some progressives can sound like conservatives but when they are right as they have always turned out to be, it's time to stop denying it and give them a chance. Mr. Sirota, I am ready to listen to what progressive third parties have to say and offer. Will you please join us?
You know that had to be some sweet cool aid that the Obomber gave Dennis Kucinich on the plane.. we could go on but what is the point. I thinks that all politicians should be thrown out. The crown it does corrupt.
SUPPORT THE EMPIRE SEND YOUR NEIGHBOURS KIDS
I don't think that DK was given instant koolaid. A few have even pointed out that this isn't the first time Kucinich caved in like this though not to this extent. He might have premeditated this all along in very clever ways. We will never fully know. But what we will know is that he has destroyed his credentials infinitely faster than it took for him to build them up. It is hard for me to decide if he meant what he really said in the past for all his supposed support on single payer health care when he not only caves in suddenly but also crosses the line in unthinkable ways. At this point, he cannot even pass the practical liberal test IMHO.
It was obvious when he withdrew his single payer amendment that he was playing ball with the establishment, and that he only voted against the original bill because his vote wasn't needed. Months ago, in this very forum, I predicted he would flip-flop if they needed his vote.
Actually, you can predict everything DK and the Democratic Party will do once you understand that Democrats operate according to a single guiding principle:
support progressive ideas, but only as long as your support for those ideas can have no real consequences.
Thus, DK could be against the healthcare bill as long as his vote on it couldn't make a difference. Once his vote did matter, he had to change his position.
Yo Stanley - no need to apologize. We are all trying to do the best we can with this life, and it ain't easy to cut through all the B.S. without some significant effort and willingness to stand outside of most everyone.
For example, on my way to work this morning I heard the NPR synopsis on the health care bill, complete with Obama and Mr. Kucinich speaking in support, and the Republicans screeching in the background. To a liberal who didn't do much more digging, you could easily be convinced that although maybe it isn't what you wanted, the bill does some good things that make it acceptable. And the Republican screeching makes it all the more acceptable. And with Move.on, huffington post, and all the others joining in support, it is all the more easy to accept the bill as a step forward.
I have many well-educated friends whom I deeply respect, and they will fall for this narrative hook, line, and sinker. When I point out that I disagree, I really feel quite naked and like some kind of negative radical.
I appreciate your sentiments and hope your work towards a brighter future bears a lot of fruit.
Democrats are whores period. No offense to sex workers intended.
"D"
Americans do not debate principles as principles in any arena. Differences in political philosophy are bounded by Democrats and Republicans just as differences in religious philosophy are bounded by Catholics and Protestants. Until it is realized that the West remains infected with the imperial values of ancient Rome delivered by means of Constantine's canonized Bible, we will remain shackled to a philosophy that can only deliver doom, ritual appeals to the juju notwithstanding.
Agreed. That's why I do what I can to withhold my support ($) from this latest Roman empire.
In the mean time, while waiting for it to crumble, I take the best it has to offer, which isn't much. Still, I'd prefer it to a sharp stick in the eye.
Money and Power always rule, no matter what name they have.
Now with instant communication, the "sheeple " can be herded around in hours instead of months as it was years ago. Looks as if we are headed for "everyone for themselves" in this great capitalistic experiment.
"everyone for themselves" if only that were true. What we have is oligarchical collectivism.
Transition Towns, Permaculture, barter groups, community - they are all great alternatives to being herded like sheep.
It takes work and energy, however, and most sheep won't do it. They just bleat on.
Not just work but also some cooperation is needed. When the weather isn't so wintry, my neighbors and I get our gardens prepared to grow more vegetables and fruits and we help each other out on our gardens especially if one of us can't tend it for a while. It can take work and energy but it's a great relief from the otherwise mundane world. I know this cannot be done for those who live in apartments, townhouses, and condos due to HOA restrictions and all but for those of us who live in houses with plenty of yard space, I say turn some of it into gardening and get that local produce going and get the neighbors interested as much as possible. We're going to need all the best local produce we can make before government even thinks about outlawing it via HR 875.
Right on Stanley,
In Berkeley and Oakland we have 800 people signed up for "NEIGHBORHOOD VEGETABLES GARDEN WORK PARTIES."
Here's our basic leaflet:
NEIGHBORHOOD VEGETABLES
We Can Grow Food and Community
Here Where we Live
Back Yards, Front Yards, Empty Lots.
If you need help in your garden
We can arrange a volunteer
GARDEN WORK PARTY
expert advice, and perhaps a steady helper.
As food prices rise,
We can grow our own good food,
IF WE COOPERATE
NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR
With our skills, land and labor
We are just beginning to build
Cooperative Neighborhoods
To Help us Grow Food
If you are interested, call
510-540-1975, or write
Laurenceofberk@aol.com
Tell us where you live so we can connect you.
Here is our sign-up card
NEIGHBORHOOD VEGETABLES
Working with our Neighbors to Grow Food
Name ____________________________________
Email ____________________________________
Phone (H) _________________________________
Cell or Work _______________________________
Address or Cross Streets _____________________
________________________ City _____________
Gardening Skill: Some ____ Skilled____
Can Mentor or Help Others? ___ How? __________
Have Land? _____ Surplus produce? _______
Host a Garden Work Party?_____
Tell neighbors about Neigborhood Vegetables? ___
Be on an Organizing Committee? ______
And here is an outline of the organizing tasks:
9 Tasks of the
Neighborhood Gardening Council
For Food and Community
1. Talk to neighborhood people and sign up those who are interested in co-operative food gardening, finding out their needs, resources and preferences. Look for those who can mentor gardening. We can talk one to one, or through neighborhood organizations, including block clubs, schools with gardens, or community gardens. Record sign up card on Excel and group email.
2. Find people who want to host garden work parties and/or collaborate long term with a few collaborators and mentors.
3. Put out the word about garden parties and collaborations so that people will come. Emails, phone calls, door to door, and informing local organizations.
4. Gardening Classes.
5. Decide how to distribute produce.
6. Harvest festivals.
7. Canning or preserving parties.
8. Spread the idea and organizational model to other neighborhoods.
9. Eventually decide if there should be other forms of co-operation beyond gardening. Babysitting, housecleaning, carpentry, or perhaps a general work (and play) exchange system.
Laurence Schechtman Laurenceofberk@aol.com
510-540-1975
OK Friends,
For all of us who believe that the culture of the Empire is inhuman and approaching its end, it's time to get to work building a new co-operative culture and civilization. "Neighborhood Vegetables" is just one way of many. We can build worker's co-ops or a new democratic union movement. Could we call our creations "Community Democracy?" Whatever you call it, it's time to turn our anger into creation.
PS. Spring in the East Bay is a month old, so we have already had work parties of up to 20 people.
Thanks for the info--
Laurence, thank you for the extra information and congrats in CA. There are a lot of great ideas in that state that are often not given a chance to test but I must say that given the horror of CA's economy, more neighborly cooperation and teamwork will be needed. I believe that growing food locally and teaming up with neighbors is the best and most genuine food bank I can think of. Even in Texas where the economy is supposedly doing great, there are more food banks popping up from what I hear. Sometimes I question the nature of food banks when it comes to what kind of food is being donated. It's one thing to donate to the poor but to donate processed food, some of which we don't really know where it's coming from or the quality itself, to the needy is an ethical dilemma in itself. Keep up the great work in CA and I shall pass this brochure around.
P.S.: Also, maybe we could find some way to donate local produce to the existing food banks for the local needy in each precinct across the country?
Hello Stanley & Cassandra,
If possible, it is better to give food to such PEOPLE'S food banks such as, in California, "Food Not Bombs." But best of all is to involve poor people in the co-operative process itself.
About 10 years ago I went to a remedial reading class in the local Adult School. I asked the class, mostly in their twenties, and some homeless, if anyone would like to help me double dig a small garden plot in return for a spaghetti dinner. About ten people came, and we all had a great time working and eating.
This year Neighborhood Vegetables is just at the beginning stages in constructing neighborhood organizing units. Each neighborhood will then be able to decide how it wants to distribute food, and if and how to involve poor people, although of course the central organizing body will encourage it.
We all need to use our imaginations in enlarging our co-operative lives. Unity of means and ends. We use co-operation to build a co-operative society. We are trained to be suspicious and alienated. Every act of open hearted enthusiasm brings us one step further towards community democracy.
One cool thing I read about -- and went to check out personally -- is how some towns in northeastern Vermont are pooling their resources. Organic farms are contributing their wares and produce to the local economy. There is a co-operatively owned restaurant called Claire's in Hardwick, Vt. that sells only locally grown and produced food and wine. One farm that produces and sells heirloom pumpkin seeds but doesn't need or sell the pumpkin meat donates the pumpkin to make pies that go to the local food bank, with a dairy farm donating the eggs and another farm donating the milk, etc. This local economy is helping employ hundreds who have lost their jobs and also helping the dairy farms that are suffering and at risk of closing down. It's a circle of life I wish I could be a part of. These kinds of community-sustainable communities are probably commonplace in California, Vermont, Oregon, etc., but we don't have anything like that where I live.
Hi Anne,
I just finished reading a really great book called "For All The People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America," by John Curl. Disclosure - John is a friend here in Berkeley. But the book is full of information about cooperative strategies from the past 200 years which we can use again today.
Enjoy,
Laurence
And yes, the organic farms here in Northern California which supply both Farmers' Markets and neighborhood CSA's (Consumer Supported Agriculture) dropoffs in the cities, cooperate with each other in an exemplary way. The CSA's are cooperative as well. One house gets boxes of food dropped off at its door, and then the neighbors come and pick up their boxes.
Some of the farms also invite us city slickers up for festivals and classes.
Everywhere we can find seeds of the future. Our job is to sow them and cultivate them.
Thanks for the recommendation on the book, Laurence. I'll check it out.
You don't live in an apartment in a large, crowded city, do you?
Apartment buildings have roofs, nice flat, exposed to sun and rain , roofs....One sees, more and more, such rooftop gardens blossoming. Further a portion of the rain is not left to run down drains and gutters and into sewers, creating more problems.
For every question there are answers, if one only abandons negativity and uses ones brain.
Some apartment buildings have accessible roofs.
Most landlords will not give you access.
Aye, you've got an answer - but it doesn't reflect reality where I live.
Negativity often comes from experience.
Seattle is embarked upon a program of roof gardens. Why? Because some folks worked to make it happen. What a fine thing, to work for what you think is important.
I have never, not once, found extreme negativity and hand wringing to be anything but an impediment to progress.
But then there's HOA to obstruct gardening on the roofs and most apartments, condos, and townhouses prohibit it just to inflate the value of their generally worthless complexes anyway. I wished I could share your optimism but I have friends and relatives who have shown and explained to me the realities of living in those hell holes.
"if this particular legislation doesn't pass, Republicans will win the upcoming election..." oh, has a greater delusion ever been promulgated?
"this is the "last chance" for reform" vs "we'll start fixing it right away"
Our social-darwinist corporate masters must be chuckling themselves to death over this.
""if this particular legislation doesn't pass, Republicans will win the upcoming election..." oh, has a greater delusion ever been promulgated?"
The real delusion is thinking that anything will change when control passes from one of these party's to another.
fyi: the above link for Sirota is broken, you can read his other columns here:
http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota/the-senate-s-lesson-about-democracy.html
another fyi:, if you haven't seen it, tom tomorrow, about health care, one of my favs:
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/comics/this_modern_world/2010/03/15/this_modern_world
Sirota comes closer to the truth than Greenwald whose piece yesterday was poisoned by his statement that he could understand Democratic support of the 'reform' bill.
Still, the views of even our favorite pundits and big-name commentators focus on the 2-party system currently in place, one which obviously is not working!, instead of on the issue that is a common goal of a majority of Americans, access to quality, affordable medical care.
That said, I do respect any and all attempts at untangling 'what's really going on' in the bubble full of smoke and mirrors we are forced to call the capital of our country.
the point to remember is that Obama and his team are threatening ANY progressive democrats with primary challengers and ZERO party money while supporting the blue dogs and the conservative democrats wholeheartedly.....
that's all we need to know about this white house.....
it's too bad - because now we'll be subjected to another 4 years min. of republicans in the White House - while STILL waiting for even 1 person to support the average American against the vampires running our country.....
as Obomba says - take your 2% happily and gratefully as they screw us on the other 98%! OR ELSE!
This is why we need term limits. Politicians are more concerned about maintaining a career in Congress than serving the public.
I sort of see your point in that spending an entire lifetime trying to hold onto political power is corrosive. At the same time, California has term limits in its state legislatures here and the system is notoriously broken. Just instituting term limits without making a lot of other changes isn't going to be enough to make a meaningful positive difference.
I think it would be more important to start with a new Constitution and provide updates like proportional voting, public election financing, eliminating the Senate, and severely restricting the power of corporations and the Supreme Court.
hamsher has done it again: must read:
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/19/fact-sheet-the-truth-about-the-health-care-bill/
lucky; Thanks for posting this link -- I just finished reading through the fact list, most of which I knew, but it's always GOOD to see it in writing!
The Hamsher article should be posted on CD!
It's not democratic party lite enough, anything hard hitting they won't post here, you have to read real left publications and websites for that, this site is a more an organ of the democratic party, like fluff post and kos.
Good post (link):
Here is an excerpt from the article but it is better to follow the link:
"Real health care reform is the thing we’ve fought for from the start. It is desperately needed. But this bill falls short on many levels, and hurts many people more than it helps.
A middle class family of four making $66,370 will be forced to pay $5,243 per year for insurance. After basic necessities, this leaves them with $8,307 in discretionary income — out of which they would have to cover clothing, credit card and other debt, child care and education costs, in addition to $5,882 in annual out-of-pocket medical expenses for which families will be responsible. Many families who are already struggling to get by would be better off saving the $5,243 in insurance costs and paying their medical expenses directly, rather than being forced to by coverage they can’t afford the co-pays on."
It's numbers like that which will empower the Republicans in all those "purple states" ... I live in one ... the ads are ongoing and relentless ... So far, as far as I have seen, the Democratic arguments for this bill have not come close to the "real world" pocket-book fear mongering of these ads.
I am without insurance. In theory, up until a couple of years ago, I could afford my monthly premium -- if I could get anyone to cover me (preexisting conditions) but I'd have to settle for a $5000 deductible and 80/20 coverage ... I decided to hold off until I had at least $10,000 saved. So far I've been lucky, health-wise - but now my roof needs to be replaced and my car is approaching age 20.
Hamsher's numbers are terrifying if you factor in things like a roof or a car -- inevitable sizable expenses that become unaffordable with yet another monthly, monthly fixed expense (Elizabeth Warren has written about the rise of these fixed expenses in America's household budgets and how they make saving and accommodating sudden large expenses more difficult to financially survive -- there's less "wiggle room" in which to meaningfully "economize" than ever, which creates a lower and lower tipping point into foreclosure, etc.).
I think the party line Democrats believe that the general public will not vote in the next elections for "the people who want to take this away from you" -- they are going need to do a massive education campaign if these think this bill -- which is not going tangibly help many people this year or next -- is going to stave off backlash and apathy.
Too many liberals and progressives are still identifying too closely with the fate of the Democratic party ... too hurt and disappointed when they fail popular causes over and over.
>>>>>>"A middle class family of four making $66,370 will be forced to pay $5,243 per year for insurance."
That's a steal!!!! Have you seen what average families are paying today for bare-bones coverage? One family of four I recently read about pays $1,250/month which comes to a grand total of $15,000 a year! They'd gladly jump at equally abysmal coverage for 1/3 the price!