Tag Archives: decision

Tomorrow, The Election

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Tomorrow the United States of America votes. At stake, the control of the most influential country in the world, and the application of a vision of how America the country should operate itself. One candidate has the possibility to continue the progress that has been made over the course of our history to keep our nation great. The other has the ability to take us back into that history, as if the past 50 years never happened. We cannot let ourselves make the wrong choice.

Political theory is abstract, disconnected from time. Political reality is linear, each year building upon the one that came directly before it. Republicans today fail to realize that energy spent fighting time is wasted, squandered on a directive with an impossible end. The only thing that we can do, that we can or will ever be able to do, is control what we do today. The past is gone, the future is our responsibility. What we do today is our character.

Millions of Americans will vote tomorrow, in an exercise of the greatest right that society has ever created. Around the world people sacrifice their lives everyday to get anywhere close to where democracy for America is today. We take it for granted, we often feel disenfranchised, that the mechanism is too big for our little arms, our singular voice.

But there is nothing without a vote. There is no progression, there is no adaptation, there is no collective voice that is not started by one, and amplified by many. The vote is not merely a bit of ink and stock paper. It is a decision, one that we make for ourselves, which determines the leader of our collective wills.

Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Obamacare

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We were wrong! We were wrong! The title of this website aside, The Wrong Wing had predicted in multiple posts, even as late as this morning, that the Supreme Court would slash down the Affordable Care Act, after all, they had given the middle finger to the American people more than a few times before…

Terrific news from Washington DC today as the United State’s Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional and the thorniest issue, that of the individual mandate, was valid as a federal tax. The news is a huge victory for President Obama but much more importantly, it shifts the fundamental focus of medicine in America from that of treatment to that of care.

obamacare victory

Thank you John Roberts

The Affordable Care Act, as we have often said, is not perfect. Parts of it looked impossible constitutionally considering the current judges’ leans. But it is, however, the step that the nation needs to take to dissolve the profit-oriented interests of people and corporations who are supposed to be providing care. Insurance has always been counter-intuitive; why would you sign up for a plan where you pay money just in case you are injured or need treatment for a disease, and when that time comes the person you have been giving money to this whole time tries to fight to save every cent, at the expense of effective treatment?

Now, at least, everyone will be insured, or at least bearing the costs of the nation’s healthcare. Right now, taxpayers and the national debt fund people’s care who aren’t insured and who don’t pay their medical bills. This is a huge reason why healthcare is more expensive. That cost should start to come down as the costs are shifted across the spectrum.

But all of these points pale in comparison to the fact that we as a nation have been able to start a dialogue about the proper forms of healthcare and the ways that we pay for them. Our booming health crisis is only getting larger (pun intended), and there will need to be more seriously drastic steps taken on a federal level to head off a disaster. The Affordable Care Act at least starts to get everyone, especially the troublesome people who rebuffed paying their bills, into health schemes where they should in theory see a doctor every once in a while and who might be able to nip problems before they grow into chronic diseases.

The Wrong Wing has always said that we don’t have a healthcare system, we have a stop-you-from-dying system. Once you are brought back from the brink of death, a hospital rep shows up with forms and asks for your insurance card. Now, everyone will have one, in the hope that the health system will provide just a little more care, and perhaps a few more moments to recover before hounding you about what treatment you can afford.

Supreme Decisions: Obamacare Ruling Expected Today

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The John Roberts’ Supreme Court has made some questionable calls since the W Bush years. The biggest and most blatant injustice towards the citizens of the United States was its ruling on the perversion of free speech in campaigns and unlimited political donations from the rich and corporations. Today, the court looks poised to strike down all or part of the Affordable Care Act. It will only be the beginning of the trouble.

fat americans

If only support for Obamacare was this robust

As we have seen, the Supreme Court gets to evaluate how it feels about certain laws and programs, without ever having to understand or plan out the consequences of what follows a ruling. In the case of the health care act, the Justices will say that citizens cannot be regulated or forced to purchase anything, less they face a fine. The broken health system — which is already the most expensive in the world per capita, piling up debt, depressing our nation’s preventative medicine, and effectively killing our citizens — will go right back to the way it was; a fast track towards a health apocalypse.

Republicans hate Obamacare because it came from Obama. Mitt Romney created an identical legislation when he was governor of Massachusetts, but has separated himself from the initiative that he championed. There is no single reason to oppose Obama’s health care bill, except for the inexplicable idea that the government is forcing people to do something they don’t want. This is ludicrous. There is not a single citizen of this nation that does not eventually need health care.

Republicans themselves are also a giant part of this problem. Ballooning waste lines, skyrocketing diabetes, all-you-can-eat-buffets; Republicans are rapidly pushing the limits of elastic pants, with foreseen consequences that in the near future will mean a huge portion of our population managing multiple chronic diseases and trying not to lose their limbs. Why Republicans, who dominate the fattest states, would not want some system to help to manage their self-inflicted conditions, is startlingly unknown and reflects the same “me, now” mentality that led to their obesity in the first place.

Moreoever, why Republicans think that health insurance companies are the answer should be an important question, but Obamacare eliminates the need for it because it keeps the system of private insurers in place! Even the executives of insurance companies love Obamacare, because it means more customers! So there is no reason that anyone who is happy (ha) with their insurance coverage should have to change.

If the Affordable Care Act is struck down today, there will be retaliation. It will not come from the wounded Democrats, or the great thinking minds of today. It will not come from rationality or reason. It will come from the bankrupting of this country to pay for the poor decisions and laziness that we as a rich nation have come to expect. The cost of health care will continue to skyrocket until we approach the edge of the heliosphere, and even at that point, there is nothing to stop it from continuing to increase.

 

Romney’s Running Mate 2012: The Mystery Man

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As fingers touch keyboard to write this post, the GOP and Mitt Romney’s campaign team are vetting possible candidates for the running mate to join Romney in the race to the White House in November. But this year’s election is unusual in a few ways. First, there is a strong absence of powerful options. Second, it is more important than ever to be reserved with a choice (after the Republican’s Sarah Palin disaster of 2008). And third, campaign rhetoric — if it can indeed be called that — by the Republicans during the primaries revealed irreversible damage to the intra-personal relationships of candidates and their supporting bases.

mystery man

Not as sexy as Biden

Normally, a vice presidential candidate comes from the group of presidential candidates during the primary season. Lots of hopefuls toss in their hats at the beginning, most knowing that they will not secure the nomination in the end, but will gain valuable exposure and possibly a route to higher office. The Republican primary contests earlier this year seemed more like a matinee circus show than a political event, with amateur leaders milking the life out of the Tea Party movement. No one in the GOP hoped that Romney would end up with the nomination, even though he was correctly labelled as the front runner the whole time.

Yet here we are now, the Republicans have their #1 man, and now they need a #2. Looking at the other candidates from the primaries, very few of them have any desirability left. Herman Cain came out about an affair. Michele Bachmann was exposed for what she really is: a legislative distraction. Rick Perry was too much like W Bush (which makes you wonder how terrible it is to be a voter in Texas). Newt Gingrich promised the world, lied to everyone’s faces, attacked the field, but ended up with the black eye himself. Ron Paul is never taken seriously by the Republican Party (and there is a Libertarian on the ballot in November already). The only one left is Rick Santorum.

Rick Santorum would be the conservative choice, but not a conservative choice. Just like Palin before him, Santorum is too much of a wildcard. His words are aflame with religious doctrine that would bring an uncomfortable spotlight onto faith in a race where Romney wants to avoid discussing Mormonism. He also has proven widely out-of-touch with the American population through his unpopular views on homosexuality and his practice of isolating his children from society. In a race where every candidate is accusing the other of being out-of-touch, it would hurt Romney to go radical.

That being said, many Republican pundits believe that Romney must choose a running mate that is to the right of him, to shore up support from the evangelicals, Tea Partiers, and social conservatives who look wearily upon his record of tolerance. This is nothing more than Republican pundits trying to satisfy themselves, and is the wrong strategy if Romney really wants to win. There is no way that Republicans to the right of Romney on the political spectrum would ever vote for Obama. Even though they might be unhappy with the Republican nominee, they will undoubtably vote for Romney. Half of the trash they spew is about getting Obama out of office, with no apparent reason (i.e. he’s black, he helps the poor, he doesn’t start wars under false pretexts, he cares about progress).

The intra-Republican attacks during the primary season revealed one thing: the GOP has lost its mind. They and their donors spent millions of dollars to paint other Republicans as hurtful, profligate, socialist, and insane, only to have to try to congeal before facing the real enemy: the Democrats. After the ads, the debates, and the statements, there is no way that Romney returns to that pool to pick his fish. So his campaign is certainly looking outwards, and looking for one thing: economic prowess.

Jobs and the economy top the list of American priorities, and Romney’s resume both helps him and harms him, depending on who you talk to. But Romney could gain a valuable boost by selecting a running mate who has proven himself (or herself, but really who are we kidding?) as a strong economic steward, a leader who has taken a state or a city and kept it from bankruptcy, default, and maybe even found some growth. The duo might look like the board room at a major corporation, but that might be just what Americans are looking for. Let’s hope for the left that Romney chooses Santorum.