I was sitting in church the other day listening to the importance of caring for others – being reminded that Christ cared for the sick, the poor, the hungry – that he said “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.” And he also said the same thing substituting the word “to” for “for” – causing me to attempt to apply what I learned in church to the reality we, as Americans, are facing during these tumultuous times. It became painfully obvious to me that the Republicans have virtually “stolen” the debate, by making one preposterous statement after another, statements which are so “out there” that they end up being what is focused on, instead of an adult discussion of some very critical issues relating to our future as a nation. Despite the FACT the Republican party’s “base” is the “Christian Right” – I fail to see a connection with what the Republicans are saying and what I hear in church or read in my Bible. Let me give you some examples.

Health care is a great place to start (although, I’m not sure it’s the most important – despite all the claims to the contrary):

There are several questions that I don’t even understand why there’s any debate at all. In fact, as I sit here writing, I guess some of the questions I have explain why the other questions seem to be so prominent to the discussion. For example:

When there are reportedly 45 million Americans without health care, 45,000 dying annually because of the lack of care, and we have a system which is twice as expensive as (better) systems in other developed nations where EVERYONE is insured, WHY IS THERE SUCH A DEBATE OVER THE SO-CALLED “PUBLIC OPTION?”

In fact: Why is there NO DEBATE over a single payer system similar to the VA which is, reportedly, the most effective AND cost efficient health care system in this nation?

Here’s a good question: Why has the health care industry invested almost $400 MILLION DOLLARS TO DEFEAT HEALTH CARE REFORM? (does that give you an idea of how much profit they make?) In my mind, that question – in itself – should be the basis for the most intense debate in this nation. Like, WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY GOING? (maybe, the question should be where is it coming from?) Well, I believe we all know where MOST of that money is going – it’s going into the “coffers” of our elected representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate! Most famously, one area where we have a bit of bipartisanship is in the Senate Finance Committee, which seems to be the place the final health care bill is coming from. It is a commonly known FACT that both the Republican and Democratic members of that committee have been PROSTITUTED by the health care industry. HOW MANY PEOPLE REALLY THINK THESE SENATORS CAN TAKE MILLIONS IN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THESE COMPANIES AND THEN VOTE AGAINST THEIR WISHES? I might be dumb, but you’d have to be stupid to think these people are going to serve the interest of the general public under the present system.

Here’s another good question: Why are our Senators and Representatives getting away with this public prostitution with seemingly no recourse for us, the public? It is apparent that there is NO SHAME in Washington DC. I’m approaching retirement age, I’ve been an active observer of our political scene for close to 45 years. It is beginning to feel as if there is no stopping the corrupt nature of our nation’s Capital. IT KEEPS GETTING WORSE! There is a sense of “populist rage” in the nation that is not getting through to these Congress people because, I believe, it’s too fragmented. There’s the gun lobby angry for their own reasons – and they don’t trust the “liberals” who are angry for their own reasons – who don’t trust the “militia movement” – people angry about illegal immigration and who are angry for that reason – who don’t trust a growing class of “intellectuals” who are getting angrier by the minute as their unemployment figures soar (while their jobs are shipped overseas) – and I could go on. There’s no cohesiveness to this anger (oh yes, as much as I hate to mention this – there’s all the racists out there who can’t stand the idea of a person of color in the “White House”) and the people in Washington seem to fully understand this and they’re going to continue “laughing all the way to the bank.”

Speaking of laughing all the way to the bank, here’s another question: Why are people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, etc. allowed to continuously make seditious, racist, anti-American comments over the public airwaves? Is it legal to encourage the overthrow of our elected government? (Sedition) Why are sponsors continuing to support these people? Are there really enough Americans who think like them to support these sponsors? Or, is it just a reality that people like me don’t know who the sponsors are so that they can’t boycott them? The other day I heard both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck CHEARING the fact that the United States didn’t get the Olympic games in 2016 – despite the FACT that securing a commitment for the games would have been a tremendous boost to the economy and prestige of the United States and the city of Chicago. Do these people HATE Blacks enough to wish TOTAL FAILURE on this nation so that they might be able to defeat President Obama in 2012? I really don’t get that one. Just imagine the outcry if Democrats (or Independents like me) would have been rooting for the FAILURE of our nation under President Bush.

Well, now that I think about it – it almost seems like that is exactly what Bush/Cheney were trying to do – that is to totally undermine the very institutions of our government that has been the longest lasting “self government” in the history of the world? I’m still not sure what their alternative would be – accept that Karl Rove was always lobbying for the so-called “Permanent Republican majority.” I realize they were trying to control both houses of Congress, the White House, and the Courts (and Justice Department) – so, I guess there could be quite a discussion as to what their ultimate goal was. In fact, maybe that is why they’re so angry with President Obama. They realize they were so close to achieving that goal – only to be undermined by the incompetence of Bush/Cheney. I’m guessing that maybe they think that if they can regain the White House in 2012, they can still manage to achieve their “permanent majority” – and, of course – I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT!

I could go on and on with these questions that are puzzling at best. I’m trying very hard not to join in on the attacks on President Obama, although, I’ve got questions for him as well. Like, When are we REALLY bringing the troops home from Iraq? And, are you serious when you say that we’re leaving 50-75,000 “non-combat” troops there after the so-called (modified) deadline? What is a non-combat troop in Iraq? (Remember, we were going to be out of Iraq in 16 months – that was a CLEAR CAMPAIGN PROMISE – and there was never any mention [that I heard] of any 50,000 + non-combat troops remaining)

Here’s another one while I’m at it: Has Obama ended the Bush wiretapping policy? No one’s asking this and since President Obama is defending the Bush policy in court, I have a sneaking suspicion that our phone calls and emails are still being “data-mined.”

I’m almost ready to end with this question (and if you’ve spent much time around here, it will be redundant – but I believe it’s the most important question of them all) What are these Republicans going to do if they win the White House in 2012 regarding all the illegal activity that President Obama has “looked away from?” I believe I can answer that one – they will start up right where Bush/Cheney left off! There’s already rumblings of the like. If there are no prosecutions for war crimes (torture) the Republicans will continue the policy. They are unashamed in their support of torture and Obama’s refusal to hold them accountable will simply tell the next Republican President that it’s OK, as far as Democrats are concerned. They might whine about it publically, but they won’t do anything about it legally. What about these two occupations? Well, if we continue them, what kind of message are we sending EVERYONE? The voters started DEMANDING an end of the Iraq fiasco in 2006, and here we are in 2009 – almost 2010 – and the troops are still there with no end in sight. IT’S GETTING VERY FRUSTRATING TO BE AN ACTIVE PROGRESSIVE VOTER.

Here’s almost the last question: How many years are we going to spend mired in Afganistan before we decide to pull out? Or, how about this, we know that al Qaeda is in Pakistan so WHY ARE WE GIVING PAKISTAN BILLIONS IN AID? Why didn’t we go in there and just get al Qaeda? After all, they are the ones who attacked us on 9/11. Are we going to wait until they get control of Pakistan’s nuclear warheads before we finally finish the job of September 2001? Why did President Bush call off the search for bin Laden? (did you ever spend a few minutes pondering that one?) I’m (really) almost done: Are we going to have to go into COMPLETE national bankruptcy before we stop all this vitriole and start making decisions that are in the interest of the middle class people of this nation and not the corporations who “OWN” our politicians and their other “puppets” (Limbaugh, Beck, et al)? Are we, the voters, so powerless that we just have to continue to watch the plundering of our great nation by the aforementioned corporations and the politicians who do their bidding? I voted for Obama and I hope he succeeds, so I almost hate to ask my final question: Is the “Change we can believe in” really MORE OF THE SAME?