Betsy Markey Votes to Support Second Class Citzenship

It deeply saddened me this morning to find Betsy Markey voted against the Health Care Reform bill. While I realize she is playing to the conservative base in Northern Colorado it is appalling to watch someone in office drive the rest of us, also on the bus, over the cliff.

Bye-bye Betsy. You have lost every voter in my family. Sometimes you have to stand up for what is logical and reasonable and in the interest of those without political power. But it takes a spine to do so in this region.

I've never taken to the idea of single issue voting. But in the case of health care reform I believe it transcends other single issues that have become before it. Voting to support the egalitarian viewpoint that there are fundamentally two types of people who live in this society--those who die early and painfully because they do not have enough accumulated wealth or status as compared to those who have status, political power, and wealth is a fundamental undermining of all the principles on which this nation was established. Generations upon generations of my family have worked their fingers to the bone to keep this country moving towards equality.

It is not the 1920's any longer Betsy. We are reaching the carrying-capacity point of many of our current systems. Those systems designed for "the few" cannot be expected to carry everyone into the future. Voting against a reasonable health care reform plan is foolish unless you hold to the egalitarian notion that there are two classes of people in our society and one of those classes deserves to work for the other but be rewarded with only as much gruel as the holders of political power will permit a second class citizen to gain.

Personally I don't want to live in a society based on those principles. My ancestors left Europe in 1660 to shed the suffocating cloak of oppression. I cannot vote for a representative who desires, whether blindly or simply for re-election purposes, to use her power of authority as an elected representative of the people to restore such an abusive and inhumane system.

Second class citizenship based on wealth is class warfare.

For more information on Democrats who voted against the bill, this morning's New York Times is carrying a list.

Betsy Markey(COLO. 4)

+12

MCCAIN

+1%

18%

Bullhorns, Public Protests, Gail Collins, Healthcare, and David Brooks

Love Gail Collins, tepid toward David Brooks, got a bullhorn mentality, and I am really upset about the path the health care reform is going down right now and the blue streak up the Democratic Congress' spine.

But this all reminds me of a discussion I had a while back with a group of friends around the beginning of the Iraq debacle. We were talking about how the media covered modern public protests and how much of the public seemed unmoved or irritated by these protests. Irritated by the intrusion in their daily life of the reality of democratic governance. I wonder, now, a few years and a few debacles down the road, if the same thing would happen if those demanding a real public option took to the streets in every capital city across the nation in a mass peaceful quasi sit-in on capital grounds.

We want an option designed for 'us'--not the insurance executives, not for the wealthy elite, not for the comfort of the election campaign cycle in Congress.

Although in Denver the capital building is already falling down around the groundhogs ears so maybe there is an alternative choice. But I digress.

The poll numbers had it early on. The Republican and Blue-Dog press machines and operatives are rolling up their sleeves and gathering steam. The health and insurance lobbyists are rolling out their green muscles--why can't we all show our own numbers. Those Blue Dogs would be rolling over and howling forgiveness until their bacon got fried in the next election frying pan.

Personally I'd like to see that about now. The peaceful demonstrations that is--the bacon frying has a future too but less productive at the moment. No blocking traffic so the grumpy already well-insured and insulated people can still get to work. No implants to cause trouble to discredit the whole demonstration. Just human bodies all assembled in one place to show the politicos just where the real power of this nation lies. The voter. Collectively, assembled, and demanding accountability from their representatives in both Houses.

What’s Wrong With a Single-Payer System? - The Conversation Blog - NYTimes.com

But actually, they are. And so are we. The reason the country can’t solve the health care mess is because the people with the biggest bullhorns don’t speak honestly and clearly about it. Nobody understands the Democratic plan, and that scares the public. The irresponsible Republicans are just waiting to make whatever comes out sound terrible. The responsible Republicans are working to come up with a compromise that’s going to be even more incoherent than the Democratic version.