I don’t normally talk about politics on the blog, and this election season I didn’t intend to join the battle. President Obama has profoundly disappointed me in so many ways that there was no way I was getting involved in the 2012 election. I think he deserves to lose office. That said, the Republican Party has been hijacked by profoundly dangerous and irrational people and this morning I will start walking for Obama – getting the vote out door to door. (We really do need a viable third party in this country!)
It turns out that the North Carolina race comes down to the county in which I live. If Obama carries my county he carries North Carolina. If he carries North Carolina, the Racist, Misogynistic, Homophobic, Lying, Science-denying, White Male Dominated Republican Party with its Zombified, Non-Critical Thinking and Dangerous Female participants is even less like to capture the presidency.
While my vote is based on the large picture and Obama has failed many aspects of the large picture (like the Patriot Act, prosecuting government Whistle Blowers and more), I believe he will cause less damage to Americans than the Republican candidates. Still, there may be some merit to the argument that we need to experience the pain of extreme Republican leadership to cause us to snap out of our comas and actually field candidates not beholden to corporate America. We aren’t citizens of a country anymore, but citizens of a corporation.
On the lesser profile issues of food and health Obama and the Democrats are enemies of Food Choice Freedom and Health Care Freedom. They drive me nuts. Monsanto and others pull their strings. The Republicans aren’t much different.
Moving on to Obamacare. Obamacare will insure up to 30 million uninsured people. While I am not the biggest fan of western medicine when it comes to chronic illness, western medicine is the bomb in an emergency and there are great, critical thinking, non-Kool-aid drinking MDs who are treating and healing people from chronic illness. In addition, the uninsured who must go to the hospital face a significantly higher risk of injury and death than the insured. I have found studies going back as far as 1991 that illustrate this. No insurance = greater chance of death in hospital.
There are many criticisms of Obamacare, some of which are legitimate. It will result in greater expense to some people and some people will pay penalties for not participating for various reasons. But the Congressional Budget Office finds that it will insure 30 million people, meaning fewer people will be injured or die in the hospital, and it will reduce the country’s deficit.
Now for the extremism. Many are fear that Big Pharma’s record-breaking profits won’t break records as robustly because profits will be reduced. Those who earn $200,000 a year will have to pay a bit more. Medical appliance manufacturing companies may not hire as many people. The entire health insurance industry will disappear in a few years. We will lose our ability to seek second opinions. Seniors will be kicked out of Medicare. The list goes on and on. While some of the points may be true (Big Pharma, Medical appliance manufacturers and more cost to those making $200,000), is it worth letting more people die because the rich are inconvenienced a bit? Seriously? As for the seemingly untrue stuff, which is the rest of my above list and more, I challenge anyone to find a study from a non-partisan group that supports these contentions.
We are supposedly a caring country that helps one another out. Disaster strikes and we supposedly step up here and abroad. Yet the ultra-conservative faction of America will continually allow 30 million Americans to be put at risk due to lack of health insurance for fear of impacting the rich. Most of these ultra-conservatives who fear for the rich aren’t rich. Whole stole their minds?
Really, who did steal their minds? Maybe it is due to the crap food that we eat. Junk food, chemicals, GMOs have drained their big picture, critical thinking abilities. Regardless, corporate America, including extreme religious institutions who should not be tax exempt, has divided us and I am not sure how that divide will be healed.
President Obama, you may have undermined your election because you support corporations like Monsanto and brain/health stealing crap food for regular people. You really don’t deserve another term for so many reasons. It isn’t because of you that I am campaigning this weekend. It is because I am afraid of the Racist, Misogynistic, Homophobic, Lying, Science-denying White Male Dominated Republican Party with its Zombified, Non-Critical Thinking and Dangerous Female participants.
Many people think America is really a one-party system, and in many ways it is because America is a corporation, but in other human ways the parties remain distinct. I sure hope a viable third party makes itself known soon because we need to shake things up. Our country’s Founders would be appalled by where we find ourselves now.
P.S. I have to give the President a nod on the environment – I know he gets it and I know he tried to do something about it, but those who are more corporate-owned than he stand in the way. And I appreciate him in other ways, but my expectations are higher than his performance.
P.P.S. Some corporations are responsible global citizens and I do not mean to lump them in with my sweeping anti-corporate statements.
And I know there are many more caveats to be made.
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