Spinelessly Filling the Void
Nancy Pelosi says, “Over and over again, we hear single payer, single payer, single payer. Well, it’s not going to be a single payer.”
How do you like that? Nancy’s tired of hearing what the people want.
It sounds to me like Nancy’s getting a little too complacent. As Republicans drift further into irrelevance, Democrats, spinelessly filling the void, are beginning to feel invincible. What we’re left with is Republican Lite: Compassionate Corruption.
Max Baucus, the Democratic senator given charge of healthcare reform, pounds his gavel and calls for the police to arrest citizens asking why single payer remains absent from the discussion. It’s a good question: Why is the best answer to the healthcare crisis being completely ignored? Most politicians won’t tell you the real answer, which is money. They are bought, and they do as their masters tell them. Master says, “keep single payer off the table,” and they do it. Max, like our very own Representative Mike Thompson, has been well greased by the health/insurance industry.
The parable of the financial meltdown is illuminating. Wall Street implodes in unregulated greed. Government bails out Wall Street with taxpayer money. Wall Street uses that money for retreats and bonuses (“rewarding excellence”), and hands some of it back to government. Government takes the bribe and continues legislating on Wall Street’s behalf.
Somebody’s getting screwed (see mirror).
We need to remove money from politics. Let’s outlaw all political contributions, period. Public servants earn a salary and that’s it, no more bribery. While we’re at it, let’s scale back some of their perks (remember, we’re supposed to be the boss here). For instance, I propose that public servants receive the exact same healthcare package that any newborn gets in this country (currently, bubkes). If this were the case, healthcare would get reformed in a hurry.
Now the reason politicians feel compelled to raise endless amounts of money (besides greed and corruption) is to finance their campaign commercials. The 30-second ad has become the essential campaign tool for the television age. The more money you have, the more ads you can run, the better your chances of winning. These short ads are marketing pieces (commercials), usually negative, whose primary purpose is to manipulate, not inform. We need to outlaw all these campaign commercials, which only serve to elevate the candidate with the most money and the least scruples.
Instead, media outlets should be required to donate a certain amount of airtime during campaign season to intelligent political debate, where all candidates can openly discuss the issues. This way, any competent citizen could run for office, regardless of wealth, and have an equal chance at winning. Money should not be the mitigating factor in politics.
If we let greed continue to run things in this country, I don’t think we are long for this world. Greed is selfish in nature. Money has no conscience. The “invisible hand of the market” does not consider consequences beyond profit.
We can do better. We need to do better.