Politics: A Government That Works

We often wonder why government in this country is so inefficient. All over the world, other, poorer, smaller countries manage to do much more and much better with much less. The health care systems in France, Sweden, and Singapore are to be envied. The barefoot doctors of China and Bangladesh take medicine into rural villages without clean water or electricity.

Yet here we sit, so wealthy we can throw away up to half the food we grow, or give it away in aid to the less fortunate. But we can't give rural children vaccinations. And we let people die from lack of basic care. We can afford fancy pacemakers and heart surgery for worthless evil scum like Dick "I Shoot My Friends In The Face" Cheney. Basic dental care that could prevent a child from dying &mdash that, we can't afford.

We can't afford to monitor our food for poisons that will kill our elderly and our children.

We wonder about these things so much, we rushed out and bought Thomas Frank's What's The Matter With Kansas shortly after it was published and read it avidly. It left us feeling bitterly disappointed.

Today, we found a discussion on DailyKos (to which we never link because it would be like a fly trying to ride on an elephant fer cryin' out) about America and government and we think everybody in this country ought to read it, although DK has a much wider readership than we do and linking to this diary on our teeny-tiny blog will maybe just annoy some of our readers and amuse the rest. Nevertheless. Kos nails it. This is about why Republicans during the Clinton administration did everything in their power to kill Hillary Clinton's efforts towards health care for the masses.

[2008 Republican defeats] would probably also mean a national health-insurance program that would irrevocably expand government involvement in the economy and American life, and itself make voters less likely to turn toward conservatism in the future.

Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry, as cited at DailyKos.

Because these lousy scumballs would rather see you and your children, parents, friends, and neighbours die in your ones or tens or thousands if necessary, as long as they get another four, or eight, or umpteen years in power.

Republicans, riddle me this: Can you look in the eyes of this little girl's parents


and tell them it was OK for their daughter to die to ensure KKKarl Rove's "permanent Republican majority"? Can you?

Can you look at the face of this child

and tell his mother it was OK that he died because you don't want "government interference" in issues like health care?

Because if you can, you are fucking scum and should immediately kill yourselves rather than waste the oxygen, air, and other resources that you are consuming while condemning the poor, the helpless, the defenseless to death.

As for you "religious right" hypocrites: For what shall it profit you to gain a fetus or a hundred and lose the lives of these children? If you're serious about the "sanctity of life," start by ending war, hunger, starvation, disease, and the power of a system that deems fetii sacred but does nothing to provide for sick and hungry children except to institute harsh penalties including loss of life if they become so twisted from want as to steal or rob. Start by imprisoning those who steal from millions, who condemn others to penury so that they may live in luxury.

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