Tonight while having coffee with my soon to be Poland bound friend Mark Tardi he said what I think is the biggest question for our President- why are we consulting the losers and letting them make policy in the healthcare debate?
It seems to many of us that a victory in the electoral college, a majority in the House and a large majority in the Senate means nothing in the face of Fox News- the crazies- and the screamers.
Who by the way are being paid/motivated by corporate interests to oppose change.
It is the special interests who are trying to change the results of an election by deceit.
Why is it that Liberals cannot speak the truth- every Conservative issue position of the past 40 years. The Liberal answer has been right and the Conservative one has been wrong so why not just say the truth that these people do not get to stand in the way of progress?
Look at The Record
1) Social Security and Unemployment Insurance: In 1933 and throughout the 30's and 40's Conservatives opposed these programs because they put 'undue' burdens on business. Progressives passed these laws and in the end America is a better place for it. They did not listen to the opponents of these policies, they passed them and made America better. Can you imagine America today without these programs.
2) Medicare: In 1964 Conservatives lead by Ronald Reagan opposed Medicare. Can you imagine an America today where the elderly would have to pay to their healthcare? The average cost for a private plan would be over $12000 a year would seniors prefer that? The Conservatives were wrong on that issue as well.
3) Isolationism: It was Conservatives lead by right wingers like Robert Taft and Charles Lindbergh who opposed American involvement in World War 2 in Europe and Japan during the 1940's if Liberals had listened to them Nazism and Japanese Militarism would have won World War 2. Roosevelt invented Lend Lease to circumvent Isolationists and he was right Roosevelt made America better. Again the Conservatives were wrong.
4) Racial Justice: Conservatives, especially those in the South who are the Grandparents of today's Southern Republicans were opposed to Racial Justice. Conservative thinkers as grand as William F Buckley and Ronald Reagan argued that the Federal Government had no right to "impose" Racial Justice on the United States they favored separate but equal. Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy fought these people along with true racists like George Wallace and Bull Connor. Lyndon Johnson did the right thing and forced through Civil Rights laws that were opposed by a Majority of the US population but he did it because it was the right thing to do. Should he have consulted Bull Connor or George Wallace and sought common ground? Oh and by the way it was Conservatives that opposed the North in the Civil War because the Federal Government was imposing on states rights. Lincoln did not consult with Jefferson Davis he burned Atlanta and Marched to the sea .
5) Unionization: Before the 1930's most Americans worked 6 days a week. They had no pensions, no health insurance and they could be fired at any time for any reason. It was Liberals and the Labor acts of the 1930's opposed by Conservatives that made these things and the middle class possible. Since the 1980's Conservatives have dismantled these laws and our national standard of living has fallen. The Liberals were right and they should have stood with their labor supporters instead they abandoned them.
6) Internal Improvements: In every instance from the canals of the 1840's, Land Grant Colleges of the 1850's, Intercontinental Railroads of the 1860's, Dams in the South and West in the 1930's (that made the Sunbelt possible by the way), National Parks, Environmental Rules, Food Safety Rules and on and on Conservative opposed all of these things. Advocates did not consult their opponents and today America is a better place for having all these progressive things in place.
If all these issues had been handled the way President Obama has conducted this debate where would be be today?
The facts are....
- Conservatives lost an election by a huge margin.
- Conservatives created the worst economic shock in 50 years because of their policies of deregulation and untethered corporate greed.
- Conservatives have opposed every major improvement in this country for the past 50 years. So why are they right on healthcare when they were wrong on everything else?
President Obama do what history calls for.
Burn Atlanta and March to the Sea.
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