I'm writing this in my apartment in Paris, recovering from surgery for appendicitis. Living in France these past nine years, I feel less and less like an American, and more and more like a European, especially as the quadrennial Presidential election cycle moves into focus. I could write about the jaw dropping difference between the French health care system (best in the world as far as i'm concerned - and the global surveys seems to agree) versus the U.S. system - as a quick aside, I had no paperwork to speak of as I arrived at urgent care last Sunday; I just presented my health card (Carte Vitale), and within four hours I was diagnosed after a series of Echo/CT scans and blood work, and in surgery a couple of hours after that. I could write about that, but I won't. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.
Instead, I'd like all of you in your Sunday pajamas sipping your coffees and teas this morning to consider the following - no one on the Democratic side will bring any change to the crumbling status quo in the U.S. after the 2016 election. Neither Bernie, nor Hillary.
All of the apologia I read on Daily Kos and elsewhere regarding Bernie's magnificent positions on income inequality, the need for a single payer system, living wages, increased investment in our schools and infrastructure, and all of the wonderful ideas being put forth by Hillary focusing on the needs of middle class families as they struggle with college bills and debt - they are all great ideas, and we need those ideas to move us towards a better future. The United States is a country that is in decay, since the late 1970's wages haven't kept up with productivity nor with inflation; bridges and roads are third-world quality in many areas, power generation and distribution is outdated; the US rail system is a joke; policing and state surveillance resemble Fascistic states; and racism, poverty, and gun violence remain stains that make me wonder how Americans can look in the mirror each day.
In a modern society elections are the vehicle for the citizenry to express their voice. Yet in America, access to the ballot box is in many states being restricted, with the courts and U.S. Justice system slow in responding to abuses being perpetrated by Republicans not only in the retrograde South, but across the country. Minorities and the poor are being disenfranchised, and Europeans are looking at the U.S. as if it is incapable of administering their own elections in a "free and fair" manner - offering to send observers. Yet, Americans as a whole - not you, gentle Daily Kos reader, but our fellow citizens who are what the media call "low information voters" - continue on with their lives, attached to their smartphones, enslaved to an oligarchic "capitalist" economic system where they can lose their jobs tomorrow, are mired in personal debt, and all the while slowly killing themselves through stress, addictions, and living in toxic relationships and environmentally challenged neighborhoods. Elections should be the way people express their wish for a change.
But even when they do vote - as in 2008 for Obama - change is haphazard at best.
In 2016 it will not come. We will still have a Republican House, and most likely a closely divided Senate. We will still have an opposition, the Republicans, that is completely off the scales and incapable not only of governing, but of compromise. We will still have a the incapacity to deliver on any of the wonderful ideas and promises offered by Hillary and Bernie. It will all be an exercise in sophistry at best.
Sadly, I don't have a remedy for this other than the eternal mantra of organize and mobilize. I was drawn to Howard Dean back in 2004 because he dared to offer a 50 state strategy to bring hope to every American. Because the US electoral college is going to end up focusing the attention of our nominee on six or less states, the vast majority of the country is going to be neglected, and the chance for bringing in progressive voices into the national arena diminished. I don't have any respect for DWS, I think she, as well as the rest of the Congressional Democratic leadership are corrupt and worthless, and I wish that our nominee would run on a pledge to push for a change in attitude amongst our Congressional leaders to fight and obstruct and sabotage anything that moves us in the wrong direction. Having someone like Schumer as Senate leader just makes me physically sick.
So enjoy the spectacle, my fellow Kossacks. It's all a bit masturbatory actually, because once January 2017 gets here, unless all of us - yes even me, working with my Democrats Abroad chapter here in Paris - get working to bring about a change in Congressional leadership, changes in the DNC, and majorities in the Senate AND the House, NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE.
NOTHING.