First anger, now acceptance.

[dawg]

I am a parent of two children with pre-existing conditions. It is now likely that their conditions will never be covered by insurance. Fortunately, I have a pretty good income and have been able to pay our expenses out-of-pocket (around $15K a year). But many families like ours just don't have that much money. When I think how frustrating it must be for them, to live in a land of such abundance and not to be able to provide basic medical care for their children, well, I can't really put into words how angry it makes me feel.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why anyone who wants to expand health coverage in this country would vote for a republican to sit in Teddy Kennedy's seat. For that matter, I can't understand why someone who gave a damn about families in need would just stay home.

I can't understand why anyone calling themselves a "liberal" or a "progressive" would be unwilling to vote the Senate bill out of the house, so at least something could be accomplished for the families who need help. Everyone on DU hates the Senate bill, but it would, at least, abolish pre-existing conditions. At least that is a good thing, right?

I'm getting old. I'm now on the bad side of 40, and I remember the Clinton health care effort. They excoriated Mrs. Clinton for trying to find a way to provide health insurance to those who did not have it. They criticized every single thing she tried to accomplish, and, sadly, I bought into some of that criticism at the time. Now, I realize the truth. America has missed her chance to become a modern social democracy. The money-power in this country has become too powerful, and we liberals are too weak and unfocused to mount any credible resistance.

We on the left are divided, and we retreat to the world of our fantasies. We delude ourselves into thinking that a much more progressive bill was possible. It never was. Seventy years of U.S. history bears this out. Even the modest reforms embodied in the Senate bill were violently opposed by the plutocrats who control this country. And they won.

I don't know why I felt the need to post this rant. If anyone replies, it will only be to unrec the thread and to tell me how the Senate bill is an abomination and that we are better off without it. DU isn't what it used to be, and I feel more alone (politically) than ever.

[StarryNite]

1. I think you felt the need..

to post your rant out of pure frustration for what is and what is not happening in this country. I recommended you for expressing not only your feelings but my own as well.

[GCP]

2. I've given up on this country ever changing for the better

I think the mass of people are just brainwashed by corporate media into thinking America is truly exceptional and why ever would we need that socialized health care.
If they're just too stupid to think for themselves, how the hell can we do it for them when we're so vastly outnumbered.
My husband wants to return to the UK, I'm torn because my kids will stay here, never having known anything different. One is enlightened, (and still UK subject), the other has become somewhat of a winger. But he's my kid and he's married a nice girl, and they want to have a family.
It's a horrible decision to make, leaving them here if we go back.

[cilla4progress]

3. You are NOT alone!

I have been thinking these very same things. And I'm on the downhill side of 50..and laid off as of December. I pay $300 / mo. out of my unemployment benefits for catastrophic coverage for my daughter and self. Thankfully we are healthy, and my husband is employed. For now.

I agree - from my perspective I can now fully see that the money-power always has, and I fear always will, trumped even well-intentioned leaders (Obama). It's not because we are liberal / progressive and disorganized; it's because we stand for the disempowered, the ordinary working folks, sometimes the unemployed or down-on-their luck folks. We are up against money and power of longstanding. Status quo rules.

I have a bullshit meter. When things get too complicated, like the current HCR bill, yes, you know it's not a straight road to the true objective. It would be so simple, technically and strategically, to do single-payer or Medicare for all. But its - obviously - the politics. All this blahblahblah about pre-existing conditions, exchanges, Medicaid reimbursement, BS! It's not really folks trying to solve a problem; it's the plutocracy, as you say, holding onto their power and wealth.

[Rainngirl]

4. I'm totally with you.

The only reasons I can think of for the way the Massachusetts election turned out is low information voters and people who like to keep their heads in the sand. Even if we're trying to send a message to the Dems, voting for a scumbag like Brown or staying home is NOT the way to do it. I'm pissed and sad at the same time. Dear Mr. Kennedy is probably rolling over right now. I hate that someone with Brown's track record gets to sit in Kennedy's Senate seat. I'm ashamed of the Massachusetts voters. (okay, now I'll get flamed, but since I haven't figured out how to check back into the thread, I won't see them.) :)

[GCP]

5. No flames from this Massachusetts voter!

I voted for Martha.
Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Rainngirl]

7. Yay!

I found my way back here! Thank you. And thank you to Dogmudgeon. Beautifully said.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. It's discouraging, that's for sure.

DU is really getting to me these days. It has become too much like a leftist reflection of Free Republic. It's all Scream, no Primal; all Tantrum and no Temper. As much as I admire Messrs. Allen, Allsopp, and Leitner, and am in awe of their contributions to political discourse and my pathetic little life alike, there is only so much they can do. Anger has festered into self-loathing. We think we're too hip for the room, and the walls are closing in on us.

I'm 51, and have suffered poor health since I was 18. Over that period, I became less and less able to get appropriate medical care that would have kept me productive. So now I am (gratefully) being supported by the taxpayers. But what I lost along the way! Marriage and kids are now but a dream I once had. I shoulda moved to Canada.

But that was yesterday.

I'm of the school of thought that says, even when the bully has beaten you to a pulp, keep fighting. Keep after him. Never let him rest. Crawl into his mind and haunt his dreams. We should have that attitude.

We liberals/Democrats have made one single, fundamental error: we have allowed ourselves to believe that elections are consumer transactions, and we elect contract fulfillment specialists, political valet service. And it's killing us. All any election gives us is an administrator, an executive, and it is to be hoped that the exec is a leader, too. But the struggle never ends. We can't just sit back and let politicians do our work for us. Engagement is a way of life, not a means to a trivial electoral end.

We are going to have to fight and claw every inch of the way to get health care reform, financial reform, civil rights for the LGBT community ... everything we value, and things we haven't even dreamed of yet. But it could be the most ecstatic thing we ever do. I can't begin to tell you how much of a thrill I still get calling any of my elected reps to nag them to vote this way or that, and to keep fighting the good fight. Exercising even that little bit of power still gives me goosebumps.

Too many good men and women have DIED so that I may exercise that franchise, that right, that thrill, and live in that kind of world. I OWE it to them to use it.

I OWE it to those uncounted patriots to kick ass, and to keep kicking. We ALL owe it to them. And you know, I truly believe that our politicians YEARN for the freedom that our renewed political fight would give them.

If we would live as men and women, so we must fight as lovers of freedom and justice. Spartans of the human spirit. Like Basques and Catalonians taking on the Franquistas in the Pyrenees foothills, fighting to the last bullet, and chucking stones when they ran out.

I liked your rant. I plan to do more ranting myself. The troops need to be rallied, and if I have it in me to do the rallying, I will.

So keep fighting. This is the very best time in American history to actually MAKE American history. The fights are small and trivial, but The Fight is our very lifeblood. It will renew us and revitalize us.

--d!