Why? - is the question posed by Norman Goldman, the radio host who is on during my commute home. Most people said it was because the Republicans were obstructionist, or because the Democrats were were weak. I disagree.
I think it is because Americans, in particular liberal/progressive Americans have lost hope.
Yes, hope. And not just "Hope" (TM - Obamacorp, along with "Change" TM - Obamacorp), but actual hope that the government with all its warts was still capable of fixing some problems that Americans face. Not all - we are used to taking care of ourselves to a degree - but some big ones that have come to a head in our time.
Hope is gone because Americans have seen both sides of the political spectrum sell out so thoroughly to multinational corporations that we question our own sovereignty. Hope is gone because our constitutionally protected media falls all over itself to abet this sellout. Hope is gone because our standard of living is being crushed by the elite of the global finance.
And with hope gone, we are left with a lot of anger.
We look at the past with rose colored glasses. The Republicans, and even Obama will refer to the late President Reagan in glowing terms. As if he was a demi-god who could do nothing wrong. I remember those days - we were outraged by the actions of the Reagan administration. Dealing with Iran, even as a campaign, and then selling them weapons. Laundering that money to start wars in central America. Sponsoring death squads, mining peaceful harbors - all against US law - and not being held accountable. And Lee Atwater? The political father of Carl Rove? Union busting? Reagan was a racist, far-right criminal that began the destruction of the American middle class, and the heeling of the Democratic Party.
And the Congress in the 1980s? Remember the S & L Bailout? The midnight vote taken by Tom Foley? This was a half-trillion dollar theft of taxpayer money given to real estate swindlers under the guise of saving banks. A criminal president and scumbag representatives...but we had hope.
Bush senior, was no dream, and continued the corporate looting, as did Clinton (can you say NAFTA?). But the mecca, at least we thought, was with the Bush Junior Administration. Tax cuts, wars, letting oil companies write energy policy, and, along with Clinton, deregulating the banks. Boy, the hope meter was on "low" during the dark Bush years, but then came Obama.
His campaign set us up for the serious gut punch. Hope had sprung! He struck the right cords - not too left, not too extreme - just the right amount of populism. He played on the Democratic fears that Hilary would be a corporate shill, just like her DLC cronies. Well played, he pounded her. He mopped the floor with McCain because it was not even a choice. If you were not solidly in the Republican bag, you chose the smart guy selling the thing you wanted: change!
Obama sold "change" so well, that we actually expected delivery. I think, based on no data whatsoever, that independents and non-crazy conservatives were actually expecting a change in the types of policies we would see, and the way things would be done. We all paid close attention, as we waited for the package. We stayed engaged as policy began to flow from the White House and Congress.
And we realized, with increasing surity as the months went by, that we got swindled. We got fucked - plain and simple. We got no "change," we got at least the corporate, conservative, DLC policies that we feared Hillary would bring.
Our jobs are leaving, and our wages are dropping - and the bankers take our money. Obama wouldn't even take their bonuses back. We can't afford health care, but Obama makes deals with Big Pharma and the Hospitals: no price checks on drugs, no public option. Basically, no price controls at all, and no reforms of any kind until 2014. But he and the Senate will mandate that we buy lousy, over-priced insurance from the corporations who have been killing us, literally, for years. Obama is pro-nuclear power (and nuclear weapons), anti-teacher, pro-war, anti-labor. Where is the goddam change?
What is even worse, is that he treats us like we are stupid. Obama KILLED the public option, he made sure as shit that the health insurance companies would have NO REAL COMPITITION! Then yesterday, he makes a speech where he appears to rip the insurance companies a new orifice. "Pass the health care bill now" he yells, to applause. But it is the corporate giveaway bonanza he is urging Congress to pass. He wants it passed before the Bennett letter gets 50 signatures. He wants to make sure that the heath care insurance corporations - totally needless middlemen - continue to suck up to 30% of the cash out of our health care system. He says he wants lower costs for the people, and then fights to protect the interests of the corporations. His actions betray his words.
Obama's split personality has split the so-called left. Stephanie Miller was cheering his lambasting of health care insurers this morning. Ed Shultz has caved in to what he sees as the inevitable - support the President and pass the bill. But it feels like a funeral to me, not an impending political victory. We know we are getting screwed. And we are angry about it.
The problem is, we are not so stupid that we don't see it. We were sold change, and didn't get shit! As a consumer fraud case, it is a no-brainer - we should all get our votes back. This is why Democrats are losing, but Republicans are nervous too - we see all of you sons o' bitches and the game is up. But you are all too bought to "change," including Obama, apparently.
When we bought "change," we thought we were buying the idea that government would curtail the help it gave corporate America in fucking us raw. We didn't expect every lobbyist to be thrown out of Washington, but we expected a direction change for the common good - a place where corporations could still profit, but a middle class could once again make some gains. We didn't expect a socialist paradise, but a country where government could maybe do a little regulation of the powerful, and give us affordable health care like most of the fucking modern world has! I don't think our expectations were too high.
But Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Rahm all failed to deliver even a little. They thought some great speeches would be enough. They think they can sell us out with their actions, and convince us how great the deal is with their words. They think we are stupid, and that is the final insult. They are treating us like shit, and expect us to support them in elections.
And this is why we are pissed - we are in a democracy with no choice, expected to settle on people who insult our intelligence, and have for decades. I can vote for a pro-corporate Republican who thinks that dinosaurs and men roamed the earth together, or a pro-corporate Democrat who thinks I am as stupid as that afore-mentioned Republican. And since corporate money funds the elections, there is little chance for a non-corporate aligned candidate to win.
Speaking of elections, the Democratic Party is in for a whuppin'. If health care reform fails, they will be seen as totally useless and pathetic, and not worth voting for. If the current version (the Senate version) passes, employer-based health care rates will skyrocket in the fall, before the election, and outraged voters will take it out on the Dems. Corporations will win either way.
Who's stupid now? Not me, but I am hopeless.
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