The Great American Stupid Test, And Why We Must Build Our Own Base

[Guest guest]

Dear Cass,

I love it. It's "Independent" all the way ;o)))

Hugs,

Doc

 

On 3/25/2010 3:58 AM, Cassandra wrote:

 

 

 

 

Dear Doc,

 

I thought you would appreciate this rant from a source that very, very

heavily promoted Obama before the last election.

 

The "throw the bums out" is very strong here.

 

I'm interested in the Independent option.

 

How about you?

 

Love,

 

Cassandra

 

--- On Thu, 3/25/10, The Pen <activist.thepen

wrote:

 

The Pen <activist.thepen

The Great American Stupid Test, And Why We Must Build Our Own

Base

cassandra1444

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 5:25 AM

 

 

A quick program note: After this will get back to the regular action

alerts, pick up the Supreme Court terrible decision analysis where we

left off, etc. But there is still more more to say about the health

care bill debacle. And the new Facebook resource already has over

2,000 fans. When we hit 5,000 we will all vote on what the founding

principles of the resource will be, so please participate so it will

be as progressive as possible.

 

Once in a while, actually quite frequently lately, a politician will

say something so idiotic on its face that it becomes a test of the

national credulity.

 

Harry Reid made such a statement a couple days ago. But first, there

is an amazing conversation on the policy merits going on over at the

new "Independent Voters" page, especially on the Discussions tab. The

current disapproval rating of Congress is 83%, including both

Democrats AND Republicans. If independents coordinate and assemble

themselves into a organized base, 2010 WILL be the year of the

independents.

 

This is an opportunity for you to get in on the conceptual ground

floor of this coming political tsunami on this new Facebook page.

 

Independent Voters Resource Page:

http://www.facebook.com/Independent.Voters

 

 

You do NOT have to be a Facebook user to follow the dialog. And if

you want to participate in the discussion all you need is a Facebook

ID, even if you do nothing else on the Facebook site.

 

OK, here is what Harry Reid said, in defense of the fact that NO vote

on any kind of public option was being allowed in the reconciliation

bill for health care reform.

 

"I will work to ensure that we are able to vote on the public option

in the coming months."

 

And when exactly would that be, Harry, AFTER the Senate goes back to

requiring 60 votes to pass anything? Let us be clear, 51 senators

WERE on the record that they supported a public option, even if it

were only as weak as the one passed by the House. All they had to do

was take a vote on it NOW, and it would have been the law of the

land.

 

How stupid do they think we are?

 

Do they think they can chalk up 50 plus votes sometime later when it

won't actually count at all and expect us to believe they really

wanted to do it? NO!!! If they really wanted to do it they would have

done it when they had not only the votes but the procedural path

(reconciliation only needing 51 votes) to do it. All else is just a

patently duplicitous fraud.

 

The argument we've been hearing from so many progressives who should

know better was that this health care bill was "better than nothing".

How much better than nothing? Barely? Hardly much? Did all of you

work your buns off getting a new President and Congress elected to be

told the best we can do is "better than nothing"?

 

The fact is the Democrats COULD have put real structural reform in

place, instead of just throwing a couple colored sprinkles as selling

points on top of this massive pile of corporate corruption being

passed off as a health care bill. Instead of just a couple community

health centers to sell our policy soul for we could have gotten what

the compelling majority of the American people WANTED, which was a

robust public option.

 

It could have been an expansion of the low overhead existing Medicare

program. It could have been some other form of a single payer system.

It could have provided for real competition for drug prices by

allowing reimportation or government bargaining. It could have freed

the states from the oppression of industry law suits through ERISA to

stop them from caring for their own citizens. It could have done any

of these things if just ONE member of Congress had put their foot

down, and KEPT it down, demanding any of these things.

 

In short, we could have had a health care bill that would have been

wildly popular with the American people, instead of a rallying flag

for its own repeal, which is what we've got.

 

How stupid do they think we are?

 

Predictably, we got an email from the President, and if you are one

of the other 13 million hopers on his mailing list we are sure you

got yours too, talking about "This is what change looks like." Sorry,

but no. This is what dyed in the wool corruption looks like. This is

what legislation looks like that has been manipulated every step of

the way by corporate special interests. This is what it looks like

for the American people to have been entirely shut out of the debate

for their own health care future.

 

Yes we can? Do they mean that as some kind of sick joke? Yes we COULD

have gotten real reform. But tragically, for the Democrats and all

their supporters, and especially their progressive supporters, NO WE

DID NOT!!! If real change could ever happen under their "leadership"

this was the moment and the opportunity to do it. If they ever had

any intention of putting real reform in place, and not just a couple

cosmetic talking points, this was when it would have happened.

 

And it will not stand. Despite all the paper thin "hooray for our

team", rah-rah partisan talk of the moment, the individual mandate is

going down. At least 38 states are going to fight this to the death.

And if you consider yourself a Democrat this should be especially sad

for you, because it's going to take down the entire Democratic party

with it.

 

There is now NO safe Democratic seat in Congress in the coming

general election. If the Kennedy Senate seat was not safe, having now

gone even further to perversely defy the will of the American people,

how is that not even more the case now with them all.

 

Independent Voters Resource Page:

http://www.facebook.com/Independent.Voters

 

 

Forget the Republicans. The American people at large like them if

anything even less than the Democrats. The 83% of us who disapprove

of Congress must organize ourselves into an independent base. We must

preemptively select and rally behind one and ONLY one independent

challenger for each political office in the country. Because when the

Democrats go down, there must be some other alternative meaningful

choice for the American people. And the link above is the site which

will make it all possible, if only you will join in the discussion

there now.

 

So mark our words. And take careful note of any person who is telling

you now that we needed to vote for this bill as it was. Any such

person who has said such a thing is forever marked as someone whose

judgment CANNOT trusted on an important policy matter in the future.

Any person who tries to sell you that this was a good deal, or even

an acceptable deal, is at the end of the day nothing more than a

corporate collaborator, whether witting or unwitting. Without

exception they are either a coward, corrupt, or a corrupt coward. And

you tell them we said so.

 

How stupid do they think we really are?

 

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed

to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

 

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at

http://www.millionfaxmarch.com/in.htm

 

 

Or if you want to cease receiving our messages, just use the function

at http://www.millionfaxmarch.com/out.htm

 

 

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