the surreal american political climate, and my imminent doom, er, return there...

The absurdity of the American political system is really getting me down recently, which means it must be election season, though it seems anymore there isn’t a time when people aren’t campaigning. I suppose especially with the looming move back to the states I’ve been bummed out even more though due to the fact that it will soon have a direct effect on me. Here’s what I do not understand about America:

1. Why do people try to put themselves on a moral high ground with certain issues, i.e. abortion, separation of church and state, stem cell research and whatever else it may be, while at the same time, paradoxically, are so immoral with issues such as the fact that millions of people within the united states are without healthcare and many other basic needs/rights. They might as well look at the blood on their own hands, because they are effectively aborting their fellow countrymen by not helping them. I don’t see how people who claim to be religious can look at the state of America and continue to naively look on as people suffer in front of them. So this democrat believes in abortion, so what I say. What makes him any worse than the republican who keeps giving to the rich and allowing normal people to be crushed under avoidable debts that are amassed by something like a chronic medical condition because they work a job that doesn’t provide healthcare and can’t afford it? You don’t have to be in full agreement with someone to vote for them, if people would educate themselves about whom they voted for, and not just look down party lines, then you’d realize you will never have every viewpoint in line with one candidate. I personally do not know how someone could be so passionate about saving the life of an unborn child, and yet so complacent about people who they could be “saving” that are currently living in less than ideal situations, i.e. the 53+ million Americans without any healthcare, and the 30 more who are under insured. All it takes is to have a bad toothache to realize how much your quality of life is affected by it. Imagine if the situation was more grave than just a little toothache, diabetes or another chronic condition that without medication can be lethal. How can you say someone shouldn’t kill a baby, but can say that this person doesn’t have the right to live a full life, thus effectively killing them in a way? Anyone who would believe that it’s just because they don’t want to pay for health insurance has been thoroughly propagandized by the wrong side. If it were affordable, people would pay.

2. How do republicans continue to buy (republican voters)/sell (republican politicians) this rhetoric of tax cuts, while simultaneously, somehow being able to miraculously reduce the deficit. Is the average republican really that uneducated? It takes less than basic math to know that if you are taking in less money in, you have less money to spend, hence perpetually compounding the debt. Anyone who has a credit card knows that there’s interest on all debt, and if you barely have enough to make the minimum payment, and then continue to take less and less money in (taxes), how does one feasibly propose to eventually pay back a debt? Well, in the case of the government and the republicans, they’d have to cut government spending, to things like Medicaid, Medicare, veteran services, etc, these exact ideals they so strongly purport to champion (the elderly and the military). They won’t say this of course, just like they do not say that the bullshit of “trickle down economics,” doesn’t work. What rich person do you know that “invests” his tax break back into society? Of course, there is the charitable, tax deductible gift, as well as the investments to ultimately grow his own fortune, but creating jobs for the average American or helping to build the country up for the future generation, i.e. a sound infrastructure (roads, bridges,etc), education, healthcare, are not seeing any direct betterment from these top 2% and their tax cuts. When will people wake up and look at statistics and not just jingoistic party line jargon? This “socialist” Obama, wants to raise taxes on the highest 2% of people in the country. Do you make over $200,000 a year and are single? Or $250,000 a year and have a family? Then you can put yourself in the category of the taxed. Otherwise, you don’t have to worry about it because your taxes are staying the same! Paul Krugman summed it up quite succinctly in his September 19th article entitled, “The Angry Rich”:


These days, however, tax-cutters are hardly even trying to make the trickle-down case. Yes, Republicans are pushing the line that raising taxes at the top would hurt small businesses, but their hearts don’t really seem in it. Instead, it has become common to hear vehement denials that people making $400,000 or $500,000 a year are rich. I mean, look at the expenses of people in that income class — the property taxes they have to pay on their expensive houses, the cost of sending their kids to elite private schools, and so on. Why, they can barely make ends meet.

People, rich people that is, are living well, very well. If you’re rich and an American, life is great, you have everything and more. If you’re poor and an American however, then you have very little going for you. Hell, if you’re a middle class American, things aren’t easy. Myself for example: I’m moving back home, where I will have no health insurance, at least for a time. It takes just one unavoidable accident to completely jeopardize everything. One car wreck, one broken bone even, and suddenly, you’re thousands of dollars in debt. I’m a college educated, middle class, white male. This is not typically the demographic you expect this from, this is typically the “privileged” demographic, but due to a simple, preventative issue: health insurance being too expensive (especially if it’s viewed with through the eyes of the American consumer, constantly on the lookout for the bargain and a better price to performance ratio, $113 a month for blue cross/blue shield medical, no dental, no vision, with a $1000 deductible and very limited coverage just doesn’t cut it), one can be rendered helpless under unpayable debt (the astronomical amount of the bill, compounded by the fact that due to the medical emergency, you are unable to work). This makes me indignant, and it should make you indignant as well. Why? Because it is quite simply unfair in a land of “limitless opportunity.” For all the Tea Partiers out there who champion the constitution and it’s right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and simultaneously want to overturn the health care bill without proposing one, one, soluble, concrete alternative, one question: how can you pursue happiness when you have an insurmountable debt over your head due to a medical condition that bleeds you dry and can’t get any insurer to take you on because you’re not “profitable?” Answer: you can’t.