I may be a left wing progressive liberal but I'm not an ass

If you really think that life under a Democrat President is going to be much different than it is now, then I hate to burst your bubble. The next President, if he or she is from the Democratic party, may have more respect for the Constitution and for other branches of government but they will not be much different than what we've got now. Sure, they'll be a little more transparent and they'll hold a few more press conferences but by and large what we've got now is about what we're gonna get later.

And the reason is that the Democrats and the Republicans both suckle at the teat of lobbyists and major multi national corporations because as someone once said, money is the mother's milk of politics. Through the years the Democratic party has shifted right and are now about where the Republicans were in the mid to late 1960's. The Republicans on the other hand, to differentiate themselves from the Democrats and to please their new Reich wing religious base, have moved further right. But all members of both political parties still need money to buy those ads to get themselves reelected, they still need money to pay for those yard signs, they still need money to pay for those endless campaigns, and who provides all that money? Multinational corporations like Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Smith Kline Beecham, Ford Motor Company, Exxon Mobil, and the list goes on.

The people in power in Washington DC have shown time after time that they will do whatever it takes to get reelected. They'll take money from most anyone to keep themselves in power. And why shouldn't they? They make a good salary at what they do, they get their ego's stroked and they get idolized by a certain amount of people, and they get all kinds of benefits. And then, if by some miracle an incumbent loses, he or she can turn around and go to work for a lobbying firm.

I vote Democratic in my local and state races, though I never voted for the Republican in Democrat clothing Governor we have in our state now. I usually vote Democrat in national elections as well. But just because I vote that way does not mean I support all the things the Democrats of today stand for. I vote Democrat because I can't stomach voting Republican and I can't vote against my pocketbook and against my ideals. Since there is no socialist/labor party in this country, I am forced to vote Democrat and I hold my nose while I do so.

So, I just outed myself as a socialist. That's socialist with a small "s." I'm not a National Socialist, National Socialists are the Nazis and the Nazis were right wing fascists/corporatists. I'm not a Socialist, Socialists are better known as Communists and I'm not a Communist. I'm a socialist and a socialist believes in some free enterprise but they also believe that the government should be operating some businesses and industries for the common good of all. I believe the government should own and operate all the utilities, especially electricity and water, and they should own and operate all facets of health care. Contrary to the propaganda we get in this country about socialism, the socialist form of government works fine and it is the dominant form of government in Europe. Countries like Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, Britain are all socialist countries of one degree or another and they do just fine. They all still have robust private enterprise yet the government still owns and operates some of the essential industries. I'll bet that if you asked people living in those countries if they wanted to go back to private health care they'd say, "Hell no." Socialist forms of government just make more sense to me and they seem more equitable than what we've got in the USA now.

Years ago the Democratic party was nearly a socialist party but they veered off to the right in order to stay in power and now they have become multinational corporation money loving whores. Are all Democrats money grubbing whores? No. Are all Republicans Reich wing Jesus lovers who hate it when two dudes kiss? No. But by and large elected officials of both parties will do whatever it takes to stay in power, anything from going against what the core of their party stands for and wants, case in point the top ranking Democrats who were briefed on water boarding years ago and who did nothing to stop it then, to taking money from big pharmaceutical firms while they write legislation that benefits big pharma.

Am I being a cynical old fart? Probably, but I've lived long enough to see certain patterns emerge and fade and reemerge. I've seen the political cycles and after a while they all start to look the same. So, how do we break out of this rut? How do we break the grip of the multinational corporations on our government? Well, it's going to take something along the lines of another Great Depression. It's going to take another huge financial crisis that shakes us up like the Depression did. Only when people finally wake up and see that they're slaves to their credit card debt and to Starbucks and Wal-Mart and that their elected representatives aid and abet all the corporate shenanigans will we ever be ready to change our system.

Having said all that, I still believe in working for social and economic justice and that maybe, just maybe, we can convince enough of our fellow countrymen that the path we're on now is not the correct one. Myabe we can change things without a huge economic melt down, I'm hopeful but I'm not going to hold my breath.

You can't make this stuff up

It looks like I made quite the new "friend" over at my blog buddy Freida Bee's blog.
She did a post about the Hermit giving the smack down to Ron Paul. Since Ms. Bee is a staunch Kucinich supporter she has Kucinich widgets and links to all things Kucinich on her blog and one of the offended Ron Paul supporters noticed this and he wrote a "scathing" comment about single payer health insurance after I made a comment in support of same. Here with out edit is his comment:

Those who support socialized health care, never address the issue of those of us who would care to completely opt out. Would they force us into such a system at the point of a gun? Maybe march us off to Gulags or Re-education camps to support their Nationalistic Paternalistic schemes? Anyone who supports Socialized Health Care is no better than a Nazi-Fascist. Force and coercion are at the heart Socialized medicine.

I nearly spilt my sides from laughing at that comment. This guy is, according to the blogger profile he wrote, an intelligent politically aware person. But his comment tells us he is as dumb as a the rest of the Americans who buy the crap the corporate media is spewing. And he's got his politics wrong.

First of all socialized medicine is not a "Nazi-Fascist" scheme. The very word "socialized" should lead one to believe that it sprang not from the right, which is where fascism comes from, but from the other side of the political spectrum, the left.

Second of all, though it's not like he's gonna read my blog but what the hell I'm gonna do this anyway, I think maybe this guy is stupid and he doesn't understand what the words he's throwing around mean so I'm gonna define a few of them for him. And no worries about me getting the definitions wrong because I have a degree in political science and a degree in history.

Fascism, also called 'corporatism,' is an extreme right wing political movement. The basic tenets of fascism are the privatization of most all industries and the expansion of the military's power within the state. Control of the power is centered at the top and is passed down through those loyal to the current dictator. Examples of this right wing political system in action would be Germany under Hitler, Italy under Mussolini, Japan in the 30's and 40's, and America under George W. Bush.

Socialism is a left wing political movement. The basic tenets of socialism are that the state should control some major industries, including health care, and operate them in the interests of all the people. There is still a vibrant private sector of the economy where private businesses can and do flourish. Examples of this political system in action are modern day Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and to some extent Britain, France, Canada, and most of our European allies.

For many years the American media and our government have distorted the definitions of the words fascism and socialism. The system of government we have to day, an alleged democratic republic, is actually closer to a fascist system of government. And the form of government that most all corporations fear, which is why they spread lies and falsehoods about it is, socialism. They fear a true socialist government because they think that their profits will dwindle and that the people will have too many rights. That's why they want you to think of health insurance as a privilege and not a right.

Socialism is not Communism. Socialised medicine is not fascist, it's humane and it's enjoyed all over the world and the only reason why we don't have it here is our government is being held hostage by multi national corporations and rich white people who do not want the vast majority of us to have what they have. When libertarians decry national health insurance what they are saying is, "I don't want to pay for the blacks, the poor, and the Latinos to have health insurance. I want all that money for me and my family."

Instead of paying for a single payer national health insurance system for all, our government spends obscene amount of money on defense. Here's a graph I stole off Ice Station Tango:

We are the sole superpower left in the world and we still spend almost $450 billion dollars a year on defense? Who are we defending against? The terrorists? Hell if we stopped supporting the governments that abuse them and deny them their basic human rights then we'd stop making terrorists right there, if we got out of Iraq then we'd stop turning people into terrorists right there. Hell if we did those things then we could cut back on that spending by about $350 billion and use that money to keep out whole nation strong instead of just keeping the munitions companies bank accounts strong.

It seems to me our national defense ought to be defending our people against disease and sickness. But then again I would not want to force or coerce anyone into getting and staying healthy so that they could defend our country if need be.