Vote Independent
I’d like to elaborate on something I wrote last week: for years, polls have reported that a majority of Americans want National Health Insurance in this country (like Medicare for All). 2009 was supposed to be the year that Washington finally addressed the issue. So what happened? The influence of big money in Washington completely perverted and derailed the effort. We the People are just not being represented in Washington anymore, only money is.
There are some minor exceptions. In the Senate, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) proposed a single-payer bill (S.703). Thus far, no other senator has bothered to cosponsor this bill. On the House side, John Conyers (D-MI) put up H.R.676, which has a total of 86 cosponsors (see thomas.loc.gov for the list). So that’s a total of 87 representatives and one senator on our side, and 99 senators and 348 representatives against us.
What to do? Vote accordingly. Elections are coming up next year. If your congresspeople aren’t behind either of these bills, tell them they will lose your vote. For example, those of us along California’s northern coast will be asked to re-elect Representative Mike Thompson and Senator Barbara Boxer in November of 2010. Both have chosen to represent the insurance industry in this fight. Tell them if they don’t switch sides, pronto, they will lose your vote.
Then, keep your promise. Don’t be a no show, that doesn’t help. Instead, vote Independent: not republican, not democrat, but for some third party candidate. The time has come to abandon the two major political parties in this country, as they abandoned us a long time ago. It’s time for the people to rise up and take this country back. Vote Independent.