Trey Smith
Single payer, living wage, cutting the military industrial complex. The American people want it. And we can’t get it. Why not?I sometimes feel like a lone wolf howling in the wilderness. So, it's nice to see more and more progressives coming to the realization that Barack Obama is no panacea, that the Democratic Party really isn't that much different than their counterparts.
Because good people continue to lie to themselves.
The big lie? The Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party.
Check out how the big lie tricks good people into doing stupid things.
In August 2004, Michael Moore and Bill Maher got down on their knees and urged Ralph Nader not to run against the two corrupt political parties. They feared Ralph would hurt the Democrats.
In September 2004, a group of former Nader supporters from 2000 — including Noam Chomsky, Ben Cohen, Phil Donahue, Barbara Ehrenreich, Jim Hightower, Bonnie Raitt, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Cornel West and Howard Zinn — urged voters to “support Kerry/Edwards in all swing states.”
They feared Ralph’s candidacy in those states would hurt the Democrats.
Again a month later in October 2004, a group of more than 75 former Nader’s Raiders urged voters to oppose Nader’s people campaign.
“This November, none of us will vote for Ralph,” they wrote.
Have we learned our lesson yet?
That the Democratic Party is the flip side of the corrupt political coin?
Apparently not.
Case in point Wendell Potter — the health insurance industry whistleblower.
Does Wendell Potter go after Obama and the corrupt corporate Dems?
No.
Instead, Wendell Potter goes after the single payer activists who were in front of the Supreme Court with signs saying — Strike Down Obama Mandate, Single Payer Now.
Wendell Potter goes after the activists who filed a brief with the Supreme Court on behalf of Single Payer Action, It’s Our Economy and 50 medical doctors arguing that there only one constitutional way to cover everyone, control costs, and prevent 120 deaths a day from lack of health insurance — single payer.
In an article in the Nation this week, Potter says that those of us who challenged Obama’s law are playing into the hands of the insurance industry and we must “bury the hatchet” and come together.
Translate — come together to support Obama and the Democrats.
I agree we must come together.
But we must bury the hatchet and come together and oppose Obama.
~ from Wendell Potter, Single-Payer and the Big Lie by Russell Mokhiber ~
It's sad to understand that, of the two viable candidates for the presidency in November, neither one of them has any interest in serving the needs of the vast majority. For those who feel compelled to vote for one or the other, you'd do just as well to flip a coin!
I like the concept of choosing political leaders via lottery (Athens!). No lotttery would give us anything as consistently bad as a Trent Lott or a Michelle Bachmann.
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