Both parties claim that they care about the middle class, but this a big lie and a trick to keep the middle class voting for them.
Both parties are beholden to big Money/Business and serving it is
their primary objetcive, and in reality they don’t give a shit about the
middle class or the poor.

Obama to Single Payer Advocates: Drop Dead (Corporate Crime Reporter, March 3, 2009)
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/march/obama_to_single_paye.php

President Obama’s White House made crystal clear this week: a
Canadian-style, Medicare-for-all, single payer health insurance system
is off the table.

Obama doesn’t even want to discuss it.

Take the case of Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan). Conyers is the leading advocate for single payer health insurance in Congress. Last week, Conyers attended a Congressional Black Caucus meeting with President Obama at the White House.

During the meeting, Congressman Conyers, sponsor of the single payer
bill in the House (HR 676), asked President Obama for an invite to the
President’s Marchy 5 health care summit at the White House. Conyers said he would bring along with him two doctors — Dr. Marcia
Angell and Dr. Quentin Young — to represent the majority of physicians
in the United States who favor single payer.

Obama would have none of it.

This week, by e-mail, Conyers heard back from the White House — no invite. Why not?

Well, believe it or not, the Obama White House is under the thumb of the health insurance industry. Obama has become the industry’s chief enforcer of its key demand: single payer health insurance is off the table.

Earlier this week, Obama named his health reform leadership team — Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy-Ann DeParle. Single payer advocates were not happy.

Since leaving Medicare, DeParle cashed in as a director at major for
profit health care corporations, including Medco Health Solutions,
Cerner, Boston Scientific, DaVita, and Triad Hospitals.

Now, what does the health insurance industry make of the Sebelius/DeParle team?

Here is Karen Ignagni, president of the lead health insurance lobbying group, America’s Health Insurance Plans:

“Today the President is putting in place a team that is ready on day
one to provide the leadership necessary to achieve health care reform.
Governor Sebelius is the right person to move the President’s health
care agenda forward. She is a proven leader with extensive knowledge of
health care issues and a long history of working effectively across the
political aisle. As a former CMS
administrator, Nancy-Ann DeParle brings considerable experience and a
strong track record working on all of the health care issues facing the
nation.”

Karen sounds really upset, right?

Dr. David Himmelstein is a founder and spokesperson for Physicians for a National Health Program.

Himmelstein’s take — Obama is caving to the insurance industry.

“The President once acknowledged that single payer reform was the
best option, but now he’s caving in to corporate healthcare interests
and completely shutting out advocates of single payer reform,”
Himmelstein said. “The majority of Americans favor single payer, and
it’s the most popular reform option among doctors and health
economists, but no single payer supporter has been invited to
participate in the administration’s health care summit. Meanwhile, he’s
appointed as his health reform czar Nancy-Ann DeParle, a woman who has
made her living advising health care investors and sits on the board of
many for-profit firms that have made billions from Medicare. Her
appointment — and the invitation list to the healthcare summit — is a
clear signal that the administration plans to propose a
corporate-friendly health reform that has no chance of actually solving
our health care crisis.”

Obama to single payer advocates: drop dead.

It is our stupid liberals and some on the left who are still in denial of the critical role that class struggle plays in shaping the social and political contours of our society. I understand the stench of the culture of slavery lives up to this day and might be responsible for some of our servile attitude and behavior, but there is a limit to everything. There is a limit to how long we remain content with Democratic Party politics and remain silent, for example.

The essence of democracy is accountability, not faith, hope, or trust. We cannot witness business as usual when it comes to war or the continued deception on the part of the banksters, politicians, and corporations and complacently remain silent.

Real change requires non-compliant, mass protests (see Naomi Wolf at commondreams.org/video/2009/03/03-0). We need to protest the ongoing destructive wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan. We need to massively protest the ongoing political-economic policies geared predominantly to benefit the rich corporate power structure. We need to demand accountability and punishment of those responsible for war, torture, and economic destruction of this country.

And here in USA we gotta do the same thing that Chavez did, teach the US poor for some months or years what is capitalism and what is socialism before trying to do form any political party. Almost nobody in USA have taught the masses the evils of neoliberalism, not even Kucinich, Ron Paul or any other candidate. Ron Paul was the only one who talked about the US constitution and nobody listened to him, but he didn’t teach the masses about the evils of capitalism, because of the fact that Ron Paul was a capitalist, not a real alternative for poor people.

Very astute analysis. You are right, education is very much needed but the biggest problem is the MISEDUCATION not only from the “mainstream” but from posers on the so-called “Left” who goes to great length to confuse people and stymie solidarity.

First of all, what people need in this country is to create a united-front composed of the plethora of alternative socialist parties that exist in USA (The Green Party, The Socialist Equality Party, The Democratic Socialists of USA, The Socialist Party of USA, The Revolutionary Communist Party of USA, The Workers World Party of USA, The Marxist-Leninist Party of USA, and other alternative socialist parties) which would be a real vehicle in which the masses, the majority of americans who are pissed off with the capitalist-system, would have an answer out of this mess. to caste their votes every 4 years.

However there is a catch-22 with a creation of a United-Socialist-Front composed of small socialist parties. The catch-22 problem is that the USA corporate fascist system thru the media and its other evil things it has, will not let that united-front succeeding, The media apparatus would denounce it as a cult or an evil organization, and would spread dirty propaganda against it, just like it did and it has done many times against Ron Paul, Howard Dean and even against Obama.

Second: An educational-propaganda campaign

In order to create a third united socialist party we would also need an educational campaign in order to spread knowledge to the masses about the evils of capitalism, fascism and imperialism and the only alternative to it is participative democratic socialism. The American masses are real confused and ignorant about how the world works. Trying to wake up the masses from their delirium would pose us as a threat. I read the biography of Hugo Chavez and that’s how he started his political program in order to change Venezuela. He first tried to wake up Venezuelan poors about the evils of neoliberalism, he talked about the importance of teaching the masses about capitalism vs. socialism. And then when Venezuelan’s poors learned about capitalism, Chavez started to do his thing (To overthrow the fascist capitalist venezuela system)And here in USA we gotta do the same thing that Chavez did, teach the US poor for some months or years what is capitalism and what is socialism before trying to do form any political party. Almost nobody in USA have taught the masses the evils of neoliberalism, not even Kucinich, Ron Paul or any other candidate. Ron Paul was the only one who talked about the US constitution and nobody listened to him, but he didn’t teach the masses about the evils of capitalism, because of the fact that Ron Paul was a capitalist, not a real alternative for poor people.

Only socialist parties can be a real alternative for victims of this corporate bailouts and socialist parties don’t have access to TV and the press in the USA and that’s why most americans don’t know the ideology of socialism,ge in TV. So before starting a third party, i suggest to spend some months or years trying to teach the poor people of America about the evils of capitalism and the wonders of a participative democratic socialist system, a people’s system. In fact socialism is so good, that it is the only ideology in this country that proposes a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour. No other ideology proposes 15 dollars for minimum wage: http://socialistparty-usa.org/platform/economics.html 3. We call for a minimum wage of $15 per hour, indexed to the cost of living. 5. We call for all financial and insurance institutions to be socially owned and operated by a democratically-controlled national banking authority, which should include credit unions, mutual insurance cooperatives, and cooperative state banks. In the meantime, we call for re-regulation of the banking and insurance industries

“We can only beat our pots and pans and put pressure on those who do hold office. To fail to do this, for me, is self-destructive and lacking in mental health.”

Some people would say that one is completely wasting their time by trying to “put pressure on those who do hold office” because most of them don’t give a damn what any of us think, unless our name is Halliburton, Bechtel, Boeing, et al. What evidence is there that those in office—at least those who call themselves a D—don’t care what we think? The last 8 years where the Bush-accomplice Dems served as an accomplice to Bush and helped him achieve his agenda despite all the international and national protests, faxes, phone calls, visit, e-mails, petition and you-name-it. “We” tried it all and nothing worked, because these politicians don’t care what “we” think. I don’t see these politicians “changing” (and caring what “we” think) just because messiah is in the White House.

“If we all acted instead of writing, and enlisted our friends and neighbors, we might get somewhere. ”

All 20 of us is going to do something? Have you tried to talk “politics” with people lately? I have (I live in a major city) and the usual response is: a distracted look as in “I don’t care about this stuff,” a bored look, turning off as if the person is thinking “I don’t want to talk about this stuff.” Many, if not most people, don’t have the attention span needed to talk about politics. With most people, I have found that I have to talk as quickly as possible and get what I’m trying to say out in as few words as possible, otherwise the person will turn me off. Their attention span is about 5-10 seconds and that’s it. Otherwise, they turn you off. I’ve have friends tell me that this is their experience too.

For anything major to have the possibility of changing, it will require millions and millions of people in the streets in all major cities, including the District of Columbia. Honestly, I don’t see that happening…at all.

What’s my solution? (That’s usually the question asked at this point). I don’t know that there is one. I would say stop voting for D and R “celebrity” politicians, but that’s not going to happen either. Most people are indoctrinated with D and R politics and they are not about to “change.” It is The People who need to change and I don’t see that happening. Most will continue in the same rut of voting for D and R politician. Most can’t conceive of voting for a so-called “third party” candidate. It’s just not in their programming. Most people are not going to do anything until they have no food, no access to food, can’t get any money out of any bank (because they don’t have any) and have no television to lay in front of, no home and no vehicle to live in.

A friend of mine who listens to NPR (National Pentagon Radio) said that yesterday when the Dow dropped below 7 that NPR used the word “depression.”

This is the kind of delusional talk that keeps us with a pathological war machine. Falling for this Obama “change” crap (99% MSM marketing) and then “demanding” or “holding” the elected official to some self-induced principle of change is really arse-backwards.

The change we need is not TOP down Fed rule. That’s clearly been in place since before 1776, believe me.

There are a set of problems, very critical problems, which can best be addressed from a national perspective: demilitarizing the military industrial complex, pulling out of the 800 world-wide bases by a time certain, collaboratively eliminating all nuclear arsenals, significant reduction in developed countries consumption attributing to climate change and energy depletion, while shifting resources to poor developing areas. Those are a few that come to mind that cannot be done locally.

The hierachical structure of the government needs to be challenged. The old notion of power-concentration to assure stable governance need to be rethought. Elimination of all monopolies by placing them in the public domain should be job 1. Economics should be based on real day to day relationships and a monetary system which is tied to the clear concept of balance of trade at the most local levels rather than the aggregate of all localities which creates a pathological response to markets needs to be transition to.

We need to harmonize federal, state and local governments based on clear understanding of sustainability. Here’s a definition from Herman Daly: “(D)evelopment without growth beyond environmental carrying capacity, where development means qualitative improvement and growth means quantitative increase.”

Call it neo-Marxist-Leninist-Georgist whatever if it makes more sense to you, but it is real and necessary change.