Left Wing, My Eye!

I am really, really tired of hearing right-wing nutjobs call Obama and other elected Democrats "liberals."  I am tired of hearing tales of the mythical Liberal Media, which allegedly brainwashes us with left-wing bilge.  And today, I heard the coups de gras: some dorkwad (O'Reilly or Hannity, I think) called Obama a "left wing radical."

Please.  Let's just take a moment people.  Left wing radical, seriously?  Now, I know that the people spewing this crap day in and day out know darn well what a REAL lefty radical is like.  But the poor, ignorant masses don't.  They lap up this sh*t like a kitten drinks milk.  And then they vote these idiots into office because they are afraid of the "crazy muslim black man" running our country. 

What's the matter with Kansas?  I'll tell you what: they believe this baloney, and they would soil their drawers to discover what a REAL leftist radical wants. 

Of course, they would soil themselves because they have been brainwashed (by corporate, not liberal media) to be very, very afraid of people like me.  People who believe in the common good, who understand that taxes are the way a society pays for that common good.  People who actually read books instead of watching non-reality tv night after night.  (Do we really care what happens to the Gosselins?  Really?)

Knowing many people who actually live in Kansas (and others who fit the bill), I believe that they just don't know better.  That they are not skeptical enough -- either by nature or upbringing -- to distrust what they see on tv.  After all, CNN seems pretty reputable, right?  Heck, even I used to think O'Reilly wasn't so bad --- until I discovered what a lying liar he is.  But one only learns such things by reading dark, evil, lefty literature.

But I digress.  My beef is not with the masses.  It's with the talking heads who repeat this same boring mantra day in and day out.  I am tired of hearing Obama's centrist ideas being called radical.  I guess you could say I'm feeling a bit left out.  After all, if Obama is a lefty radical, what then am I?

This is why I've decided to take up the mantle for true left wing radicals.  No, I'm not going to accept the current Senate health care bill because "it's better than nothing."  No, I'm not going to sit quietly as we continue to bail out Wall Street.  No, I'm not going to let the O'Lie-lly's (TM Al Franken) of the world defame my good lefty name.  I believe in calling a spade a spade.  Obama and most of the current Democrats are nowhere near being Left.  They are maybe, just maybe, a tad left of center.  That's all.

You wanna see true Left?  Listen to Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich.  Read yourself some Marx.  Watch some Michael Moore movies (Sicko, anyone?).  These are the Real Lefties.  And they are proud to say it.

Don't believe me?  Well of course, why should you.  I'm just another Lefty Radical myself.  But Thom Hartmann is the most reasonable, balanced human being I have ever encountered, and I have heard him repeatedly assert that "there is no Left in America today."  Look up today's broadcast in fact, and you will hear him say just that! 

I can agree to disagree.  I can respect a True Conservative's ideas (hail George Will and Andrew Sullivan).  But I cannot tolerate the bigoted, bullshit scare tactics of the Right Wing Lunatics any longer.  They aren't even the fringe any more;  they are the mainstream of the Republican Party.  Sad, but true.  I dearly hope the True Conservatives splinter off and form their own party.  Because the teabaggers aren't doing anybody any favors.  Oh, except the rich, Wall Street fat cat corporate businessmen.  You think Glenn Beck, who lives in a gated community, gives a shit about you, worker bee of the American blue-collar "middle" class?  Think again.

All I ask is that we get real.  Let's discuss reality, not this fantasy world Fox News has created for us.  Obama is not a left-wing radical.  From where the teabaggers stand, sure, he's pretty left.  But just because they are far out in right field doesn't make the Center left.  In fact, most of Obama's decisions thus far have only supported right-wing corporatist ideals (anyone remember the Wall Street bailout of last year?  Anyone know anyone who's benefited?  No?  Well gee, I do: the mega banks have posted record profits since then).

So please: can we stop listening to crazy teabaggers (btw, the lamest name ever -- don't they know what it means?) and start listening to actual facts?  F-A-C-T-S.  Google it.

Health Care: Should we Settle for Less?

Recently, I've had a few discussions with friends regarding the current Senate health care bill.  Is the death of the public option ok, since it got Medicare eligibility lowered to 55?  That helps some people, right?  More than are helped now, right?  So that's good, right?

Wrong.  We have apparently been subjected to the obstructionist policies of the right wing for so long that we now have some form of Stockholm Syndrome.  They toss us some scraps in the guise of "reform," and we are thankful.  Though every day the bill moves further and further away from anything resembling actual reform, still we are so thankful to get whatever crumbs the Right deigns to allow us. 

Why should we be thankful?  That they've watered down the bill enough that it doesn't deserve the word "reform"?  That our own representatives (with a very few exceptions) never even TRIED for a single-payer system, that they just wimped out and "settled" for less right from the start?

My friends are intelligent, educated, and well-meaning.  But I must respectfully point out that they are playing right into the Right's hand, behaving like good little Democrats who take the beating they are given and then say "Please sir may I have another?"

If we never fight for the highest, fullest goal that will bring about true change, then how can we possibly ever achieve it?  If we say, "that's not realistic," then how can it ever be?  We are cutting off our own hands by not even trying. 

If we had started out with single payer as our stated goal, then a strong public option might have been a reasonable compromise.  But we didn't do that.  We gave up before the fight even started.  And let me tell you, right or wrong, turning the other cheek and "reaching across the aisle" doesn't mean squat to the Right.  It only shows that we are weak and defeatable, that they don't have to take us seriously, that they can bulldoze whatever they want through either house and will get it in the end.

These friends of mine will say I'm too idealistic.  As if that is an insult!  It is only by striving for our ideals that we can make them reality.  Yes, we must compromise along the way and take baby steps -- but on the bottom line we are still aiming for the highest goals.  Sadly, being idealistic (on the Left) is not viewed as a viable option.  It is instead akin to being a naieve dreamer. 

But someone has to dream, and someone has to fight to make that dream come true.