public option

Such a neat trick that the business community and right wing have convinced many Americans that a "Public Option" is intrusive at best, and evil at worst. We have governments for the purpose of organizing things in the "public" good that "private" systems don't take care of. Thing like roads. Oh, I forgot, Government telling us where roads should go is an imposition on my "right to free roads." Oh, I forgot, Government programs such as social security impose on my "right to grow old in poverty." etc. etc.

It's a good thing that most academic political scientists declared ideology dead in US politics as early as the 1950's. Maybe this was just a funeral for the prevalence of left ideology. As you may have noticed, Obama goes down this road as well. (That's a topic for the future.)

Still, polls consistently say that the majority of Americans favor the public option. So what's with Congress. Are they a bunch of old grinches, who just can't get with the peoople? Or maybe when lobbyists exercise their free speech rights and lobby for insurance company benefits, they are smarter and more persuasive than the rest of us. Or maybeeee, just maybeeee, the color of money (=votes) and sometimes other sleazy benefits that accompanies the lobbyists trumps the "public" voice.

Which brings me to the point of this rant. I'm with Grannie D who at 90 walked across the US to call attention to the need for campaign finance reform. The undue influence of corporate money is the one public policy issue that undercuts and undermines attempts at other improvments that may threaten the excessive profits some some corporation. Grannie D was right to make this her focus. And she was right that we needed dramatic action to galvanize people around this issue. Any ideas?

BTW, this is certainly nothing new. John Williams in his book West Virginia and the Captains of Industry, documents how coal companies in the 19th century spent large sums to buy themselves senators and congressmen from West Virginia so that the coal industry would be sure to have a leading voice present in Congress.

Link to Grannie D: http://www.grannyd.com/