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The letter below responds to an open letter sent in by
Ms. Olszewski, Chairwoman of the Republican Party of Portage
County, WI. In her letter, she employed the usual Limbaugh-Hannity
talking points about "America changing so much you won't recognize
it. She harped about "taxes and spending" not being a solution to
health care reform (as if anyone ever said they were). She ominously
warned that "November, 2010 is close." She employed a batch of other
content-free cliches and platitudes. This letter is my response.
-Bobby G.

Current political change is minimal 

The letter from the Chair of the County Republican Party illustrates
the low level of political discussion in the USA at this time.
Ms. Olszewski asserts  that "We need common sense and leadership," yet
we find in this letter an absence of leadership. 

As a Wisconsin Green Party member at-large I see cluelessness among
leaders of the two major parties on the health care reform issue.  I'm
not letting the Dems off the hook--I skewer them after a remark about
the County Chair's letter. 

Ms. Olszewski asserts that "no matter what poll you read, most of the
public is not in favor of the health care bills passed by Congress."  She
should know that a huge number of polls have shown that the public is
in fact very much in favor of 1) single payer health-care, failing that,
2) the "public option" and failing that, 3) no forced purchases of health
insurance, and strict controls on premium costs. 

In our AARP household, I can verify that constant polling is done of
the tens of millions of AARP members. The sentiment in favor of single-
payer or public-option is overwhelming. 

The Chair asserts that "to overhaul the entire system in the course of a
few months is short-sighted."  Health reform has been in the works since
the New Deal--it is constant, ongoing. Short sight comes from ignorance
of your history. 

The Chair asks, as if prompted by Hannity, Limbaugh & Beck:  "will we
even recognize this country in 10 to 15 years?"  I can answer as a
working class person: I don't recognize the country I knew as a young
worker in 1970; it has changed ever for the worse, for workers.
The worst changes came under GOP administrations.  Since the GOP does
not represent workers, this should not bother the County Chair. 

The Dems deserve sharper criticism, and many seats lost in Congress,
for their role in allowing the health care corporations to gut the
crucial parts of health reform, under Republican bullying: no single
payer, no public option, and a gift of 35 million new insurance
policies under penalty of law. 

The Dems allowed the most depraved red-baiting of liberal health
reform  proposals, as if McCarthy had never been defeated but instead
was in charge of both houses. 

I too expect our representatives will represent "our values:" Working
class values of economic justice, social safety net, kicking lobbyists
out of Congress, forbidding untold millions of dollars given by the
corporate elites to purchase votes in Congress. 

However, Ms. Olszewski's conclusion that "November 2010 is not too far
away" cuts two ways. She may that right-wing Democrats replaced by far
more left, progressive Dems. Republicans may split in two: The GOP of
old--rational, capable of civil discourse; and the Tea Party of new,
irrational, incapable of any coherent argument without a script from
Limbaugh-Hannity. 

Bobby G--

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Economics, Political Economy, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.