Revolutionary Ideas

The Republican and Democrat Blues (poetry and art)

The Republican and Democrat Blues

When both sides are lying

and voters are trying

the lesser evil to choose,

the dilemma they find

every time

is the Republican and Democrat blues.

And when election day comes

and it's all said and done

we always find to our surprise

that the winner's the one

who was the very best,

the best at telling lies.

© David H. Roche

The Question Of How To Pay For Medicare For All Answered

The Question Of How To Pay For Medicare For All Answered...and it's a simple answer.

Citizens of the U.S. are petitioning their government for fully paid healthcare so that when they get sick they don't have to worry about being able to pay the doctor.  Americans pay a lot more for medical care than most other nations and because healthcare is a for profit industry in the U.S. treating sickness is a means to making a few people very wealthy.  At this point in time both the Republican and Democratic Parties are officially opposed to helping Americans with this very real problem.  Smug politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, ask: "How are we going to pay for it?" with a  grin on their face and a donation in their treasury.

That's the logic that rules the day for Establishment politicians but it is not the logic one would find in a democratic republic.  If we were to consider the United States to be a democratic republic we could put forth the following argument and have the answer to where the money is going to come from to pay for Medicare for all.

Let's begin logically solving this problem from a small 'd' democratic point of view. 

To begin all the funds the government has to spend comes from taxes.  A democratic solution would reason this way.

1.  The taxpayers pay for everything the government decides to do.

2.  Medicare for all, as Bernie Sanders is promoting, could legitimately be understood as the taxpayers deciding to give everyone in society a really nice gift.

Do you see how the solution is apparent when it is  remembered the U.S. is a democratic republic that should be of some tangible benefit to those who invest it with authority to govern. So why won't we the People give ourselves this gift from the tax revenue we alone have contributed?  Ask yourself why we haven't made good use of the democratic principles inherent in our form of government.  You can readily see how those principles provide the answer to how to pay for Medicare for all. If we change our minds and begin thinking like small'd' democrats there is no limit to how many improvements can be made to society.

The reality of course is that the majority of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have given their allegiance to a class of non-voting, non-citizen donors who profit from disease and injuries whether there's peace or war.  The initiative to replace these worthless political hacks with people centered Progressive lawmakers is beginning already.  There's no reason conducive to a democratic republic that could argue against the idea of the taxpayers in a democratic republic themselves simply deciding to gift their fellow citizens with complete fully paid healthcare from the revenues of their own tax money.  In a democratic situation the people have the authority to make that decision.

So if we begin to talk about Medicare for all as if "Hey, it's our money, let's do it." enough minds might be changed to make it happen.  It just makes sense to look at it that way.

So how do you pay for Medicare for all?  Just start thinking and talking as if this were a democratic republic instead of a corporately owned business opportunity for a few filthy rich nere do wells. If you do that you can change the world.

November 2, 2019: a question of 'right' or 'wrong' or neither (Poetry)

November 2, 2019: a question of 'right' or 'wrong' or neither

When daylight was taking the place of the departing night

and coffee steamed in my cup

a squirrel climbed the birdfeeder to compete  with scrub jays and red-winged blackbirds

for peanuts and seeds in the front yard.

In the afternoon Not-Spot

returned from the bushes around the pond

with a small bird in his mouth

and dropped it at the bottom step.

 

Kali stepped from the porch to sniff.

She hasn't hunted in nine years. 

She sniffed and sniffed wrinkling her nose, her lips parted but she wasn't attempting to bite.

She appeared to be gathering information about the creature.

What she might learn

I doubt I'll ever know.

After picking it up the bird was motionless in my hand.

One leg appeared to be injured.

It's downy belly was the light brown of dried leaves,

its wings almost indigo.

I thought I saw it move slightly in my hand.

Placing it in a pet carrier with water it rested just a few minutes inside

out of the heat of the sun in the darkness.

Kali sat next to the carrier sniffing

and peering inside before laying down and keeping watch over it.

The bird began making a racket

and I took the carrier to the porch

and opened the door

hoping it could fly.

Zoom…it was gone like a dart. 

Kali and I watched. I was surprised,

I don't know what she thought.

Not-Spot sniffed at the concrete

where he had dropped the bird.

I was glad it had recovered,

but I couldn't scold Not-Spot.

He's a cat!

It was a bird!

What else was he supposed to do? 

If he did what he was meant to do

why did it feel so good 

to see the little bird fly away,

and was I  right to intervene?

Was right and wrong involved at all? 

Does it matter if the bird had lived or died?

As the evening grew darker than the day

a flicker arrived for suet,

chickadees appearing as hopping shadows

picked seed from the grass around the feeder and between the dead stalks of summers sunflowers until vanishing with the light.

Down the hall Kali and Not-Spot

are curled on the blankets

waiting for me to turn the lights off

and join them.