It's Just Not Practical

I may never forgive Ralph Nader for killing the Corvair (my first car), or worse, for taking enough votes away from Al Gore in 2000 for the election to be stolen.

But he speaks the truth:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/11

Last year, the excuse was a Bush veto. So the Democrats didn't even try to advance reforms they believe in, knowing Bush and his Republican Party would stonewall. What's the excuse this year with Obama in the White House?

After all, it was only a year and a half ago when nominating and then electing an African-American President was "not going to happen, was not practical."

But since it did happen, why aren't these and many other long overdue beneficial redirections and efficiencies happening for the American people? Why aren't there rollbacks, at least, of the Bush-driven inequities and injustices that have so damaged the well-being of working people?

Why isn't a simpler and more efficient carbon tax more "practical" than the complex corruption-prone, corporatized cap and trade deal driven by Goldman Sachs and favored by most Democrats? The avaricious tax cuts for the super-wealthy are still there.

The statutory ban on Uncle Sam negotiating volume discounts on medicines purchased by the federal government are still there. Taking the huge budgets for the Bush wars in Iraq and Afghanistan off their annual fast track, and putting them a meaningful House and Senate Appropriations Committee hearing process has not happened.

Face it, America. You are a corporate-controlled country with the symbols of democracy in the constitution and statutes just that-symbols of what the founding fathers believed or hoped would be reality.

Even when the global corporate giants come to Washington dripping with crime, greed, speculation and cover-ups, and demand gigantic bailouts on the backs of taxpayers and their children, neither the Republicans nor the now majority Democrats are willing to face them down.

It's really depressing that a lot of elected Democrats are acting like they have the moral high ground, but are just as beholden to corporate benefactors as their wingnut Republican counterparts.

There's a difference between "giving the Health Insurance Industry a seat at the table" and presenting Aetna president Ron Williams as a friend to health care reform.