Wednesday, October 10, 2012

For my delusional progressive brothers and sisters

Dr. Jill Stein made an appearance last night on The Young Turks. When she broke down her policy positions, I agreed with every single one. She was critical of President Obama and obviously, she's much more progressive in her stances as a representative of The Green Party to our centrist President. She supports a Medicare-for-all system at the moment of conception, ending our occupations overseas by bringing our troops home, supports cracking down on corruption on Wall Street with much stricter regulations where she would nationalize our banks, and ending our drone surveillance programs that have tragically killed innocent civilians. I thought Dr. Stein appeared to be a very affable, personable, and thoughtful individual who has ideas that are desperately needed to shift our narrative and status quo. We need more Dr. Steins out there. Of course, there is a but to this. But.... Here's why:

Let's start with her Medicare-for-all system. Even if passed, we've seen in other European countries how their systems need continual improvement. It's not an end all, be all fix that could happen overnight. Dr. Stein can't sign an executive order for this, since Congress controls the purse. It would have to be approved by Congress. With this said, more than 20 million workers were excluded immediatley following the passage from The Social Security Act of 1935. Dr. Stein seems to believe she could've done better than President Obama with who he had to work with in Congress to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Look who he had. Max Baucus, Democratic Senator from Montana, was the number 1 recipient at the time for campaign contributions from the health insurance industry. Sen. Ben Nelson, known well by my extended family in Nebraska and should just be considered Republican, voted against this. We needed two moderate Republican (endangered) Senators from Maine to pass this bill with 60 votes to avoid another filibuster.

Is this a giveaway to the health insurance industry? Yes. However, this will also save millions and emphasize again, MILLIONS from paying out-of-pocket that could lead them to foreclosing on their homes and possibly living on the streets. It's still imperfect. I consider this an unprecedented civil rights law passed that was long overdue.

Just about every rational American has seen, read, and heard about the mass corruption on Wall Street and has denounced it. To say it's been run like a casino, is an understatement. We've seen a few mid-level executives charged with SEC violations. Yet to this day, no one leader from these major institutions who caused the economic meltdown has faced prosecution. It's tragic and inexcusable. I agree with Dr. Stein on this. The Obama administration receives a failing grade for not being tougher on Wall Street and using a very weak Dodd-Frank bill without reinstating Glass-Stegall that will do little to nothing in the days ahead. However, what's he supposed to do? Money doesn't grow on trees. His #1 campaign donor from 2008 was from what many feel is public enemy number 1, Goldman Sachs. With Obama on numerous occasions denouncing the Citizens United Supreme Court decision to allow unlimited amounts of money to be spent on elections, how else can he compete? One family, the heirs to Wal-Mart, have more net worth (combined six of them) than the bottom 30 percent of American income earners combined. In short, he still needs the banks to get re-elected. Will he go after these guys if re-elected? I'm confident he and the Justice Department will.

Goodbye, Magna Carta. On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed by executive order the controversial National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In this bill, there is a provision that states anyone who is deemed a foreign or domestic terrorist can be indefinitely detained. A federal judge lifted the ban, admonishing it for its unconstitutionality. Unfortunately, another judge reinstated this provision. This was a class action lawsuit brought by several litigants who most notably were Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky. I also agree with fellow progressives. There should be no excuse for indefinitely detaining anyone without the right to counsel. And yes, if this was under Bush, I would also call it abominable. As I've said, I realize the Justice Department has vigorously defended it, while I will continue to vigorously defend Hedges, Chomsky, and the rest of the plaintiffs. I don't think this one thing should be the deciding factor when we have so many other stark differences between Romney and Obama.
Specifically, let's look at something that coincides with NDAA as the drone strike surveillance program. Many progressives say this is used to indiscriminantly bomb innocent civilians and villages where strikes have already happened. I question who is giving the intelligence and has it been presented as if the people are an imminent threat who had been struck? After reading some articles on this, I've yet to see one answer to that question. Who are the players telling President Obama a strike is needed? O.k. He has these controversial meetings on Tuesdays. What has been said to him? If it was Dr. Stein, I wonder how she would react if say, an individual or group may strike a village and are deemed military and/or enemy combatants from intelligence.

All and all, progressives haven't gotten what they wanted. They blame Obama when they don't see the reality he has worked to build bridges with all Americans opposed to "47 percent of Americans believe they're entitled to everything" from his opponent. In a previous post, here are some things rarely if ever mentioned I'd love to see: re-introduce the Employee Free Choice Act, strengthen unions, introduce teachers' councils as a substitute for school boards, integrate our schools again with a focus on a humanistic philosophy where limited facilitation is provided to empower our youth in learning, high tax for all polluters to move towards clean energy, more investments in clean energy, and reallocating resources to our most vulnearable communities i.e. black urban areas where unemployment for our black brothers and sisters is over 14 percent. After taking several political litmus tests with popular historic and progressive names like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Dalai Lama, and Mandela showing, the only one to my left was Mandela. Yes, I consider myself a strong progressive but not a fool. And to all those out there who may consider voting for a Rocky Anderson, Ralph Nader, or Dr. Jill Stein, I'd say you're a damn fool thinking Obama and Romney are one in the same. Still, what has been done from the ground up to legitimize these guys as candidates? It seems to be the same response every four years: very little to nothing.