Ramblings from a crazed wannabe politico..

Taken from my personal blog on March 21st, 2010.

Today is just too heavy a day to keep my mouth shut in some form. I loathe that I can’t be embroiled in this battle. That I’m stuck on the sidelines and unable to roll my sleeves up and work with my brother and sister Americans to work together to create a better future.

This Healthcare fight has such a putrid stink on it after everything that has happened over the past couple months that the fact it could actually be voted into effect today breaks my heart.

As an American, I was willing to give Obama a chance. I am a staunch conservative (thats conservative, NOT Republican. I may vote that slant, but I represent myself by my beliefs, not by party affiliation), but if the American people voted him into office, then it was what the people wanted, regardless of my beliefs. Though I may have been supremely disappointed because I didn’t feel he was the correct candidate, I also realize that that is the base beauty of our system- it doesn’t rely on what ONE person feels, it is solely based upon what the entirety of the people believe. Everyone has a voice and a vote and the choice to use both or neither.

But this healthcare fight has gone too far. It has crossed from a potential reform to help the people into a self serving “accomplishment” for the Democratic party (not liberals, but the party. Again, differences). At its core, the healthcare bill will serve to provide care for most* Americans (but not quite all), remove outrageous insurance premiums, close the “doughnut holes”, increase how long children can be on parents insurance, remove the pre-existing condition clause, regulate care issues and laws through the government, etc. All in all- those aren’t horrible ideas to BEGIN on. But too basic to END on. Too much wiggle room. Too much room for liberties to be taken with the rules and the ideas. Then, politics get in the way. Public options. Abortion options. Further government funding. Favors, codicils, and porkbarrels for certain congressmen/women to ensure their vote (for the uninformed, a porkbarrel is a special addendum to a bill that adds in special consideration for others, such as the pork added for the state of Nebraska)

The bill gets bogged down in politics. It becomes less about enacting healthcare to help people and more about how to pad more pocketbooks and how to make the Democratic party save face in the all the gaffes it has pulled off in the past year. More concerned with Obama’s approval ratings (which sit around 40/50% currently) and the 2010 mid-term elections then about changing something to help the people.

And thats where I get so sick about it. Wake up Democrats! Do you not realize what your elected officials are doing? They are NO LONGER acting in your benefit, they are acting in their own! The people are saying NO to the healthcare plan and that sound is absolutely deafening! But the politicians are saying yes with earplugs in. THEY DON’T CARE.

These people are more concerned about saving their jobs by enacting something they foolishly believe is on the level of Social Security or the Civil Rights Movement. But its NOT. FDRs New Deal and Social Security plans were hailed as social revolutions, because they were. Because the people KNEW what they were getting. Congresspeople didn’t need pork or earmarks or special executive orders to get votes- after reading the bill it was understood that what could be enacted could greatly help the people.

Civil Rights? Please. That was a no-brainer. People were being oppressed by a government meant to reign for the people, by the people. What do you do? You remove that oppression. Easy. Yes, there were ignorant people against it (both D and Rs, nobody is innocent), but look where they are now! In a tiny minority pushed to the fringe. They get their ability to speak freely and have their say, but the people choose to turn them down. Thats where we need to be. I will never begrudge somebody their opinion, no matter how racist, ignorant, sexist, bigoted, etc it may be. Because we live in America and that is their CHOICE to feel that way and speak that way. Will I debate with them the merits of their beliefs compared to mine? Damn straight. Because that is the CHOICE given to me in America, given to us all.

Healthcare? None of the above. It gives us a system that, although it will be cheaper and more affordable for everybody, the quality will be substandard at BEST. People come from all over the world to participate in our current health care system because it is so good. Mind you, not the insurance policies or companies, etc but the system itself- the doctors, the hospitals, the medicine, the research. This bill harms all of that. The progress we make in the colleges, the kids we turn into world class doctors, the hospitals and practitioner offices created.....its all affected negatively. How does that help Americans? Give them healthcare, but KILL the system that we’ve worked so hard to create and make better! That doesn’t help anyone.

Not to mention, what you will quit paying in premiums, you will pay in taxes. Is it really that much cheaper? Stop paying your bills to one set of devils and pay them to a bigger devil. With the insurance companies, at least you had the choice to move to a different company if that one was unsuitable. Now? Well, good luck moving to a different country if you want to continue to have a reasonable choice.

I’m disheartened as an American today, but energized as a conservative. I’m so angry at the Democrats for pushing this substandard bill through just to save face. Yes, I understand your agenda is social healthcare reform. I will meet you in the middle in that reform does need to happen. But this bill is absolutely NOT the answer. It doesn’t help you save face and it doesn’t save the American people. It does nothing but leave a black mark on the US policy system.

You know, when Obama came into office, when he was out stumping, he promised to end political division, to help bring both parties together to work to improve America. Not a bad idea, is it? Nope. Not at all.

But what has he done? Has he done that at all? No. What has he done besides posture himself as doing so? His State of the Union, he constantly chided Republicans for not falling in step behind him, but where was his bipartisan movement to meet in the middle? He came to a Republican Congress meeting and spent the entire time chastising and belittling. Where is the bipartisanship? He used SOTU to reprimand the Supreme Court. Bipartisan? Hardly.

When it comes to meeting those lofty goals he set when he was elected president, he’s done nothing but disappoint and fail. There's a reason his approval ratings are so low. For all his verbosity, his posturing, his finger wagging, his appeal to the “regular” people, he’s done nothing but FAIL at holding up his promises. He is NOT a good president. That has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with his race, his party, his religion, but has everything to do with HIMSELF. He speaks, but he doesn’t act. Has he actually rolled his sleeves up and gotten dirty and helped the people? Has he really done ANYTHING besides divide the country even worse than before? With Bush, at least we all could agree that he wasn’t the smartest dude in the world. Obama is too busy trying to build a legacy instead of focusing on the present and working to help the people who elected him out. How many people came out and voted for the first time to put him in the office? That number is in the millions. How many of those people don’t believe in him anymore because he can’t live up to his campaign promises? I guarantee you that number is in the millions as well.

We need a new healthcare bill. But, more so than that, we need a change over in government. Its our fault, America. We have spent the past ten years so focused on party divisions, on politics, then on what really matters. Officials are elected to represent us. They’re not gods. They’re not absolute. They should NOT vote on what they feel. Again, democracy is great because its a collective voice, not a small group. We elect these people because they should be listening to us. They should be ONE OF US. But the ones in office are not, both D and R. They should know the political system better than us, which is why we elect them to do this job, but they should never transcend that and begin to believe they know us better than we know ourselves. Their job is to create ideas to help the people. It is not to shove things down our throats and tell us its good for us. Which is what healthcare is. A poison pill disguised as a placebo to make us feel better. Make us feel that our government is working to ‘help us’.

Disgusting. I can’t sit on the sidelines much longer. I’ve had a taste of the system and I’m smitten. This just fuels me. I need to find a way back. I want to work alongside the people and build a better future. I want to be involved in campaigns I can believe in, people and issues I can fight for.

How do I get there? I don’t know. But words aren’t enough anymore. I want to work in politics, but I want to be a different breed. I want to speak and act at the same time. I want to be better. I want to create a future we can all be proud in.

I have no idea how to make that happen yet. No idea how to get there. But I have the desire. And thats a start, I suppose.....