Alternet Posters on the Uselessness of the Kucinich Amendment

Source: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/141404/how_dennis_kucinich_may_save_the_health_reform_battle/?comments=view&cID=1265323&pID=1265300

No Thank You
Posted by: NoPCZone on Jul 18, 2009 12:24 AM

We Need A SINGLE PAYER, COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE, UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. What a state-by-state system will condemn us to is an unequal system where the redneck states have a crappy, poorly done system laced with cronyism run by the good old boy network, while other states have better systems. Since I live in the Blue Tick state of Arkansas, where people working at Wal-Mart who live in trailers consider themselves Republicans- I think I'll pass.

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Don't bother with another meaningless struggle
Posted by: Moonray on Jul 18, 2009 4:45 AM

Commenter NoPCZone is right in saying "no thank you." From now on all discussion on the issue is wasted anyway. In fact, our unending discussion -- our psuedo-democratic process -- ensures that the yammering continues indefinitely and nothing ever changes significantly.

You see, that's how they continue to screw us. Our government process is so completely controlled by big-money interests and corrupt politicians that attempts at reform are quickly co-opted into more opportunities for the corporations to gouge us. Entering into a long fight over whether states could create their own single-payer systems would delight the big-money interests because it would merely add to the yammering.

When Obama was elected I hoped that America was turning around, but that obviously is not the case. What little democracy we have is slipping away, down the black hole of corporate greed and growing militarism. I have been putting off getting a passport, but it's time.

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RE: Don't bother with another meaningless struggle
Posted by: poetac on Jul 18, 2009 1:17 PM

You give up awful easy. You have no sense of the time scale of "turning around" a situation like the one we're in. And in any case, Obama's election is just a sign of underlying tectonic shifts, not in any sense the solution. The solution is US--we, the people, organized democratically and making change ourselves. There are no saviors and there never were. Good luck with your emigration plans.

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I'd say the last poster is an optimist that hasn't already lived through decades of watching corporations utterly take control of our government. I'm not saying the situation is totally hopeless - good things may yet come if people move more to the "left" and put up a real fight against the corporatist style fascism that threatens the U.S. Most people really haven't a clue as to what will prove necessary to retake our democracy and to regain the top leadership position of the world economy. How clueless are they? Well, something approaching 50% of them are still Republicans if that tells you anything.

Nations are becoming old news and corporations are ascendant. That's bad news.

And rebellions are for the young and crazy, or possibly those with nothing left to lose.

For those of us with something we still cherish about life the time frame is off - recovery will take too long. Maybe leaving is the smart move.

For a long time people came to the U.S. for a better way of life. Now, there is no new world, no new frontier, where one can seek to build things from scratch. But there are other places. And the U.S. is not the bastion of freedom it once was either.

I'm getting my passport ready too. Call it Plan B. Everyone else can get fucked. Patriotism is for suckers. And momma didn't raise no suckers.

The only flag I wave is that belonging to the nation of Me, Myself, and I.

Alternet Reader Quotes on the Failures of the Democratic Party

Plexius2 said:
Basically, those of us on the ground trying to support LIBERAL (yes, I said the L word)candidates have been tearing our hair out for years now, because the Democratic frontrunners are always just Republican Lite from our perspective. We support them ONLY because, though voting for Nader felt good, it resulted in Bush's election. So we are always supporting spineless cowards like Clinton, and perhaps Obama, who won't act in a truly Democratic fashion, when what we need is someone bold like Kucinich. I am hoping that the pendulum must swing back to a moderate like Obama first, before it continues on further left to a Kennedy. I am sooo sick of living in a Conservative world governed by repressive Repubs and wimpy Demos.

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mmckinl said:
At least from what I've read. He wants 70 or 80 Senators to support his Stimulus Plan. This would of course need the support of 15 to 25 Republicans ...

Ask yourself what "real change" are we the people to get if Obama wants to cater to Republicans ... The answer is not much. Looking at Obama's stimulus it is all temporary, there are no structural or permanent changes.

We need bold, daring proposals such as "Medicare for All", a Public Central Bank and higher taxes and eliminated loopholes on the well to do and corporations.

Obama 's incrementalism will only lead to disaster. We do not face "normal problems" in normal times. We face a crisis that will consume us if economic, structural, political, moral and philosophical changes are not made. These needed changes will not be born out of compromise but out of bold even radical ideas ideas pressed by bold and courageous leadership.

Obama is trashing his own mandate with small ball, incremental, compromised proposals that give away progressive ground in return for nothing.

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Sickening, ain't it?