--- John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> life or death to many. If you're in a position to
> label it merely
> disappointing (as I am) then you're privileged.
> It makes sense to get upset at them when you
> consider this.
>
[WS:] But this is like getting mad at a doctor for prescribing analgesics for illness for which there is no cure at the moment. The difference between doctors in such situations is merely frand names of palliatives.
Ditto for political parties. The main difference between them is the type of rhetoric - for example, all want to do some changes in the health care system, all want mostly cosmetic changes carried out through the private sector. That is, they all agree on the essential elements of the proposed changes. Where they differ is political rhetoric - Dems wrap their proposals in the language "people before profits" whereas Repugs wallow in the language of free market. These are merely semantic differences - they bottom line is that nobody propoposes a universal public health care system, they all propose delivering the uninsured public to the insurance industry, and do so by different rhetorical devices.
So I do not see how different parties, let alone candidates, are going to have diiferential effects on what you call "less privileged." The only thing that does make the difference in this situation is whether one has employer-provided insurance or not. That is hardly being "privileged" - "lucky" would better describe the situation.
I am lucky to have employer provided insurance at the moment, but the coverage of that insurance is shrinking and the copayements and other costs are growing. If this trends continues, having insurance will soon make no difference than having no insurance at all. None of the proposals of the health care "reform" - either from the Dems or from the Repugs, is going to change this situation, except perhaps for the worse. At least people who do not have any insurance at the moment, can look forward into any of those proposals, because they may change thier situation for the better, just a tiny bit.
So it is people like me who should be upset here, because they stand to loose from these proposals, no matter who will get elected. Those who are "left behind" will not get any worse than they are now, and may even even end up better off a tiny bit.
However, I do not get upset or even disappointed not because I am not affected by politics of either party, but because I think that politicians of any stripes cannot do much to change the situation in the direction that I would like to see. In the same vein, I do not get upset at doctors that they cannot cure cancer or HIV.
That reminds me of my friend who died of cancer a couple of month ago. She was a medical professional herself, but when she was diagnosed with incurable cancer, she became very upset at the medical profession, and started seeking help from various "healers" and assorted quacks. However, soothhing words and snake oil remedies that made her feel better for a while did nothing to cure her. She died as diagnosed, and it was the doctors who she cursed that provided her with the last relief in the form of palliatives.
Although I was not at all upset or even disapoointed that doctors could not cure my friend, I also understood that a dying person cannot give up hope. Cursing doctors and turning to quacks was an effort to find such hope, in a siuation when no hope existed. It was an act of belief that despite all odds something actually could be done, and if it was not being done it was only because people who tried to help her did not want to, or perhaps they did not know what they were doing. Turning for help to quacks was an expression of hope that something can be done - and that made her final days easier.
I see analogy between this situaton and what you, Carrol Cox and others write about Democrats. Like my friend, Carrol curses Democrats because he believs that if it were not for them, a cure for the current situation would be found in the form of his mass movement fantasy. I can understad that this fantasy gives Carrol hope that something can possibly be done in a situation that there is no hope, and that makes his life in this country easier. I also understand that others, who were born here and remember better days, feel the same way.
I do not stoop to such illusions. True, I have been disappointed too. I thought I was coming to the America of the 1970s, but I got America of Ronald Reagan when I got off the boat on one sunny day of the AD 1981. I too hoped that this would change if "our" guy gets elected to the WH, but with time I realized that such were vain hopes. The capital won, and eletoral politcs would not change that balance of power. What is more, the power of US capital ceased to be threatened from the outside with the demise of the USSR, and it did not face any serious challnege from the general lack of legitimacy, because the great majority of the US population see free market and capitalism as the only legitimate system in this country.
So for me there is no hope for any change here in the foreseable furture - no matter who gets elected to the WH. However, unlike my fellow lbo-sters, I see hope outside the US rather than within it. So I do not need to believe in Democracts, as many liberals do, or mass moblization of the undepriviileged as many leftits on this list do. I just believe that if things start going really badly, or even if they stay as they are but I will get really tired of it, I can pack my stuff and get on the boat and go back to EU. It does not matter whether I will actually do it, but I know that I can do it if I want it, as I am still an EU citizen. At the end, this may prove to be as delusional as waiting for the "third party" or a mass movement to emerge in the US - but at least it looks like a more realistic hope. Not to mention the fact that that it insulates me from the emotional hype created by electoral politics.
Wojtek
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