[Peace-discuss] Fwd: The Great American Stupid Test, And Why We Must Build Our Own Base

[John W.]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Pen <activist.thepen at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 4:35 AM
Subject: The Great American Stupid Test, And Why We Must Build Our Own Base
To: jbw292002 at gmail.com



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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