Our time is short. Using facts, statistics and common sense is not going to work. The right seemingly has no shame, so we must put forth an argument that goes to the very heart of the GOP/Conservative perceived strengths. What are those strengths? We know from the last 8 years the right has lost the argument they are fiscally conservative with taxpayers money. So they are left with being strong on National security, and "supporting the troops, right? Wrong, wrong wrong.
So let's expose the mirage the GOP has become. In fact, let's just erase this mirage once and for all. If any semblance remains, it will be the Republicans who are silent, silenced by the brainwashed people it embraced for a "permanent majority".
I am not referring to FDR's magnificent speech of his second inauguration, but I highly recommend reading, or rereading it.
In 1963 President John F. Kennedy appointed the President's Task Force on Manpower Conservation. Following the assassination of JFK, President Lyndon B. Johnson released the finding of the task force in the report(pdf): One Third of a Nation, A Report on Young Men Found Unqualified for Military Service.
The findings of the Task Force are dramatic evidence that poverty is still with us, still exacting its price in spoiled lives and failed expectations. For entirely too many Americans the promise of American life is not being kept. In a Nation as rich and productive as ours this is an intolerable situation.
It was from this report that what we know as Medicare, and more importantly, Medicaid was founded. The EPSTD component was added to Medicaid directly as a result of this report, to give the poor access to preventative health care, as they typically make up a large part of an All Volunteer Force.
This report was described as seminal, and is no less important today as related to national security, underscoring that the general good health of the U.S. population was necessary to stand and sustain the modern military.
In 1967, at the height of the Viet Nam war, fifty percent of Draftees were deemed unfit for service.
Jumping to the present, we have recruits unfit for basic training. We actually have "fat camps" for recruits, or units for physical training before they enter boot camp.
We are seeing decreasing amounts of high quality recruits, along with decreasing education levels. The geographical evidence is shown here.
Revisiting One Third of a Nation is an eye-opening account of where we are today, still. If our general population is not healthy, who will fight our wars? Could this be an unspoken reason for the rise of private armies of military contractors/mercenaries, besides the obvious profit motive?
If the Republican party is strong on national security, they, as the Republicans in the past had to admit when voting for Medicare/Medicaid in 1965 did, the need now for National Health Insurance for all is even more dire today. The stretch of years from 1965 to present hides the facts that the Republican party, when in power, have undermined both of these excellent programs, in order to say they are under-funded and are on the verge of being bankrupt.
I and millions of other can't wait until 2013, or what ever year the beginning of reform starts. When Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965, Harry Truman was in attendance. Johnson credited Truman with the following:
..."planting the seeds of compassion and duty which have today flowered into care for the sick and serenity for the fearful."
Then he handed Truman the first Medicare card printed, followed by immediate printing of millions more for the citizens who qualified.
So let's just see who really is strong on national security, and who supports the troops. We on the left have always realized it isn't done with a ribbon magnet.
This is my first diary, and I don't know if I ever would have written one if it really wasn't so important. The soul of our nation is at stake, with guaranteed health care one huge component of that soul.
I haven't seen this aspect of the debate mentioned, and frankly, I see no other way but to make the Republican party, for once and for all, to put up or shut up by proving to the rest of the United Stated just who and what they really stand for. National Health care for all, or bring back the draft, Republicans. If you think I am off base, please say so and I will delete.
I leave you, this wonderful community with this quote:
"This is not a contest between persons. The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. I come to you in defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty - the cause of humanity." - William Jennings Bryan