A Collapsed System, and the Dean of the Harvard Medical School Declares the Health Reform to be a Failure

Donna Smith has been a hard working advocate for a truly good health care system. Her pre-Thanksgiving article on Common Dreams brought up her common themes.

UNITY-PROGRESS COMMENTARY
Not a single job in more than 10 years. And despite the increase since March, not a single dollar added to the stock market averages in more than 11 years. Interest rates on savings are below 2 percent. Homelessness, hunger, abandoned housing etc. are all at, by far, all-time records. Adding both insult and additional injury is that there is even a half-abandoned city: New Orleans, Louisiana. Detroit Michigan and other cities are also virtually half abandoned.

This is obviously a collapsed, failed system, yet it grinds on because of the super forces of greed and arrogance, because of the closed, corporate-controlled political system, because of good old-fashioned living in the past, and perhaps because non-right-wing people do not seem to understand the concept of political marketing, as for example the Canadians running the New Democratic Party do and as many Europeans, Asians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Americans, and still others understand, as shown by the healthy existence of their successful to one extent or another non-right-wing parties.

Meanwhile, in America there is just this big political hole and this show of futility by marginalized figures like Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, and Bernie Sanders, in the background. Overall, it seems that American non-right-wingers are more likely to be arrested where they are not welcome for trying to make their views known than they are to be serving in Government!

As a result of the futility of the non-right-wing in the US, there is virtually no real representation in US government anymore for workers, so it will be no surprise if we reach a 15 or even a 20 year milestone with no jobs.

By the way, is it actually essentially a conspiracy that American non-right wing forces develop only futile political parties, such as the Greens, who are inevitably tagged as one-issue wonders? Very plausibly so, because although it is the right wingers who are known as the great marketers, it seems hard to believe that ALL non right wingers could be naturally less than competent at political marketing. I mean, I know I am probably less than competent at political marketing, but are ALL non-right-wingers less than competent? I find that hard to believe, thus the conspiracy theory.

Anyhow, it was nice not only to check out this Donna Smith article, but also this from Jeffrey Flier, the Dean of the Harvard Medical School:

Dean of the Harvard Medical School Declares Health Care Reform a Failure

As you can see if you go there, the Dean of the Harvard Medical School knows that this legislation is dead on arrival in the sense that it does almost nothing about what was most in need of doing, which was real, true, no pretending, and no kidding cost control. What was by far most needed was left out.

As a major member of the establishment, Mr. Flier had to support the mandate, since there has been an unstated rule in 2009 that every respectable member of the establishment must support the mandate. He had to support people, unless they wisely dodge it, being on the hook for the gross overcharging for health insurance. But at least he was honest about the overall failure and futility of this legislation, which when all is said and done is simply about the Democrats being able to say they did something.

Let's face it, American politicians, the ones in the two corporate parties anyway, in the context of a collapsed system that has been very, very right wing for 30 years and counting, are most likely not going to think of themselves as being responsible for passing legislation that is actually good and effective.

Admittedly, it’s a lot harder to pass truly good legislation in the present context than it was before the system collapsed. So maybe we should have some sympathy for their passing garbage? No, common sense tells you that no one in government should ever be excused from peddling garbage and playing pretend games.

Which brings us back to the need for a non-right wing party that is not a dead on arrival marketing failure like, unfortunately, the Socialists and the Greens and the Independents are. A New Democratic Party-US would be one option that would actually work.