"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
~ Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America (emphasis added)
The recent demise of anything even pretending to be health care reform in the congress of the Unites States is yet another clear indication of the failure of capitalism in its present form to live up to the ideals of the Founding Fathers and the vision of many of their descendents in what this country should be about. Promote the general welfare? We simply cannot afford it! Providing for the common defense? That only includes making wars, not saving people's lives at home from illness!!
Yet 45,000 Americans will die this year because we will not provide them with health care. This is almost twenty times as many as died in the terrorist attacks of 2001. Where are the memorials for these preventable deaths?
2 comments:
@Ernesto: "This is almost twenty times as many as died in the terrorist attacks of 2001."
And we have spent billions, presumably, to "establish justice, [and to] insure domestic tranquility," by bringing the 9-11 attackers to justice, and by our efforts to prevent terrorists from shattering our "domestic tranquility," by attacking us again.
And in doing so, we have used the Bush doctrine to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis that didn't attack us, and to do it with impunity.
Yet, their thousands dead will not be compensated with "justice," and probably not with "tranquility," for that country is still rocked, almost daily, with terror attacks.
What's that oft-repeated lie from the Bush years: Bush kept us safe for eight years. On his watch, we didn't have a terrorist attack on American soil.
Our politicians, I'm afraid, are chameleons masquerading as politicians, or politicians masquerading as chameleons: It's a simple trick for them to blend into the environment that surrounds them, whether it's the assumption of their electorate's values, or special interest's money.
For some, they go so far as giving up their trunk for a donkey's tail, or their donkey's tail for a trunk.
A good politician has a built-in weathervane, and knows when to pack an umbrella, and when the weather is about to change--when it's going be fair, or cloudy--and when to stay indoors, altogether.
BD...I notice a lot of them are choosing to retire this year. Either they are tired of selling their souls to raise money or they have already feathered their nest rather nicely and will continue to do so as lobbyists for one cartel or another.
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