Getting The Message Out

It's a sad reality that we "Progressives" have ceded much of the space dedicated to the expression of public opinion to a rather conservative crowd. I see this on the editorial pages, on the web forums, and of course "Talk Radio" is massively skewed in their favor. We can't completely blame the reactionaries themselves. We neglect our obligations.

Hate them and cast insults their way all you want. Justifiably despise the powerful figures whose huge sums of money have enabled the Tea Party Rallies to achieve an often impressive turnout. I've done both of those things myself. But learn something from those "Wingnuts."Fools though many of them may be, they FIGHT. I'm not referring to their spitting on Representative Cleaver of Missouri; that was a big-time public relations debacle. When they called Barney Frank a "fag," you knew right away they made a serious error, requiring major damage-control. What I'm talking about is the very significant impact they've made during the last year on public opinion, particularly on the fence-sitters. Basically, Tea Baggers are active and mobilized, unlike many, many progressives who seem to conclude that "Obama is President now, we can indulge ourselves a little." Right now, I see much more indolence, passivity and indifference among (interestingly) both liberals and leftists than I do on the "right side of the dial." At least when it comes to getting the message out, on places besides Facebook.

It's tough, but with a tenacious, relentless and sophisticated approach, it can be accomplished. Every time I see right-wing yahoos getting away unchallenged after uttering absurdities (like calling Obama a "Socialist") there is no doubt in my mind that honest and informed people aren't doing their "job." Shame on us if we let them spread the Big Lie unopposed, when we are perfectly capable of effectively, accurately contradicting them. I'll shut up now and include these sentiments of mine in a letter to the editor of a reactionary-leaning newspaper. May the Infowar continue unabated!!!

On "Obamacare."

If the "Free Marketeers" had their way, we'd have the kind of situation that prevailed under the notorious Sulla in ancient Rome. That very sullen Roman set up a fire brigade of his own, a private venture. When a tenement caught fire, his minions would race to the scene. Then heated (pun intended) negotiations would ensue - under conditions of obvious duress - with the building's owner. A price would be agreed upon for services rendered, usually resulting in Sulla's taking possession of the property. That is, if the negotiations were carried out to completion before the building burned to the ground. With our present system of "Socialized" urban fire-fighting, this approach is not permitted. I think that's for the best. Don't most of you, even the "Free Market" fanatics among you, agree?

Suffice to say that if the precious private-enterprise system were the appropriate means of providing affordable, effective, high-quality health insurance to the majority of the people, we wouldn't have more than 45 million uninsured Americans in the first place! Corporate health insurance cartels have had half a century and more to prove they can do the job; they have failed miserably. Thousands have died waiting in vain for the life-or-death assistance the Humanas and Blue Crosses too often fail to provide. In fact, the Institute of Medicine reports that lack of health insurance causes approximately 18,000 avoidable deaths every year in the United States. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the overall outcome for health care in this nation ranks 37th world-wide, just behind Costa Rica. Costa Rica, a poor country which happens to have government-run health care!

In Britain, home to the much maligned National Health Service (NHS) the average British Subject lives three years longer than the average American Citizen! Companies like United Health Care have made untold billions while sending out letter after letter denying coverage based on "pre-existing conditions." The prohibition of this kind of corporate-imposed death penalty by these venal and greedy companies is just one reason that passage of the dreaded "Obamacare" is, by and large, a good thing. Fact is, under the "Free Market's" stewardship, a majority of all personal bankruptcies in the United States today result directly from unpaid medical bills; yet another reason to rejoice over the beginning of the end of corporate insurance's stranglehold.

"I don't EVER want my taxes raised."

I don't EVER want my taxes raised. Let the roads build and fix themselves. Let the sewage treatment facilities take up a collection in local churches. Let the wounded veterans fend for themselves. Make the irresponsible school children pay all the costs. Let those gold-bricking Medicare seniors march out onto the ice and end it quickly. Let the garbage piled alongside NYC sidewalks collect itself. The snow that piles up on city streets and county roads will melt, eventually. Duh