“Opting Out” Undermines Core Democratic Values (GD-P Edition)

Tom Rinaldo

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Tue Feb-26-08 01:53 PM
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“Opting Out” Undermines Core Democratic Values (GD-P Edition)

Most core Republican Party special interests, with a partial exception for some elements of the Religious Right, essentially believe in Social Darwinism. They heap high praise on “The Individual” because they usually are, as individuals, heaped high with special privileges. If not they are wealth groupie wannabes. Which is why Mike Huckabee meets with such disdain from the Republican establishment – he sometimes gives a nod toward right wing populism. The Republican establishment prefers an ideological argument that supports “every man for himself”, since the members of their establishment start out with big advantages in that scenario. Even IF “a rising tide lifts all boats”, the boatless eventually drown, but that is not a yacht owners problem, in a sink or swim world.

The living core of the Democratic Party though celebrates the common good, and our common humanity. It is the Democratic Party that strung America’s social safety net to keep the less fortunate among us from falling through prosperity’s cracks to shatter on the rocks below. And the Republican Party has never ceased their efforts to cut widening hole in that social safety net, stealing the twine that protects the least of us to tie down their own high privileges.

The “Opting Out” option is the knife the Right wields when they try to cut up social safety nets. The “Opting Out” option is how they hobbled the ability of Organized Labor to organize workers to effectively counter the concentrated power of mega capital interests. They call it “Right to Work” legislation. The “Opting Out” option is the battering ram they are using to bring about the collapse of public education in this nation. They call it “School Vouchers”. The “Opting Out” option is their plot to divert multi billions of dollars that our government saves for all citizens for retirement into capital “investments” to fund the growth of their multinational corporate empires. They call it privatization of social security.

“Opting Out” is divide and conquer. We need the unity of many to oppose the power of a few. Once that simple solidarity is compromised, the peeling off of the support necessary to guarantee the basic rights and needs of all starts. Siren calls to narrow short term personal interests pierce and tantalize while less immediate appeals to the long term common good don’t get past call screening.

The privileged in America advance their interests through “cherry picking. Those advantaged enough to send children to private schools want their school taxes back to enrich private schools with extra curricular activities, while those who can’t afford private schools, or whose children aren’t deemed acceptable enough by private schools, remain in public schools unable to update their text books with modern curriculum.

No where is cherry picking more obvious than in the insurance industry. The less inclusive insurance providers must be, the more profitable insurance providers will be. Create a system that does not insure that all will be provided insurance, and the games begin to game that system for all the insurance providers. But even leaving “cherry picking” aside, the economy of scale always requires that our social safety nets be supported by the inclusion of all of our citizens, or they will be bled dry caring for the needs of those dependent most upon them, who have no other options, while those who are blessed with other options are independent enough not to care. And then that net grows tattered, and then that net fails.

Like with Social Security, like with Public Schools; affordable Universal Health Care will never be universal AND affordable until we mandate that health care be affordable AND universal. “Opting In” is a core Democratic principle. The people united will never be defeated. Or, harkening back to yet an earlier generation possessed with revolutionary fervor; United we stand, divided we fall.