Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Keith Olbermann Slams Healthcare Reform Sham

This Healthcare Reform is turning out even worse than I expected. It has clearly turned into a debacle.

Here, Olbermann tells it like it is.... tells it like it has been for the past 6 months. KO talks as if he is giving a concession speech....like a man finally coming to terms with the failure of something (Healthcare Reform) that he probably knew wasn't going to be successful a long time ago... or at least I would like to think KO was sharp enough to read between the lines back then. Perhaps he wanted his viewers to have some sort of hope to hold onto...so he kept coming out every night pushing it. I commend that.

This is an epic failure of sorts...
I have stated many times that this was a combination of bad timing and poor strategy on the part of Democrats, for a whole list of reasons that I won't rehash.

But clearly, Obama misread the national mood.... (I have mentioned that many times). He's an intelligent man for sure... no question about that whatsoever. However, I don't think he fully understands the Country... particularly in terms of voters, voter behavior, the national media, the racial dynamics, etc etc. Obama seems to miss the point (and even Keith Olbermann missed this point too) regarding how & why he is coming out on the losing end of this fight - and i'm not sure if we can even call it a fight since Dems didn't really participate. Obama seems to be clueless regarding the fact that this was a PR war for the most part and that the other side completely destroyed Progressives in that PR war. He seems clueless to the fact that this will continue to happen as long as there is no Progressive media infrastructure that can match and someday exceed the power and influence of Conservative media. Obama seems to be under the delusion that there is a level playing field and that the Democratic plan really had a fair chance.

This situation only reinforces some of the things that I feel about the Country....mainly that the nation is headed for an inevitable decline and we're in fact in the midst of that decline. This is partly due to the fact that the U.S. political system has become dysfunctional and that dysfunction will mean that the nation won't be able to keep up with future challenges and won't be able to make the Progressive changes that will be necessary to mitigate future threats and improve the lives of Americans. The changes to the world in the next few decades are going to be lightning fast...and there is little chance that this political system will be able to keep up in any meaningful way. Only those Countries that can keep up will be able to compete. Life will get tougher for people who live in Countries with archaic political systems... because these Countries will be left behind. For example... watch what happens with Climate Change legislation. I can tell you now that it is dead on arrival in the Senate. As is Immigration Reform. In fact, most of Obama's major initiatives (those requiring Congressional approval) are already dead.

With this kind of gridlock in place for the foreseeable future - not to mention corporate whores like Joe Lieberman contaminating the halls of Congress - and with K-Street literally controlling legislation, the U.S. is going to wither on the vine. With a government so inherently corrupt at its core, and with ideas like government of the people for the people having died a long time ago.... the citizens are left with a political system that doesn't work.

Solutions?

Besides moving to Canada or out of the Continent completely... I am running out of remedies.

1 comment:

redante said...

I watched Olbermann's editorial and felt the rage within me rising. I was so angry at how correct and spot on he was -- and what the implications are in terms of the political climate in the U.S., and how easily the White House and the Democratic Party caved in to corporate Dems and the Right. Worse of all, Olbermann I think got it right that this bill as it stands is probably what the White House wanted all along and wasn't willing to expend the political capital to fight for better terms and real healthcare reform.

I could understand and accept if those who are in power are not in favor of reform. Just don't string us along in a big, flim-flam production promising something that they have absolutely no intention on delivering on all along. Why can't they just be honest about whose interests they represent and drop the faux-populist pretense and rhetoric.