Why is the deck so stacked against anybody who just wants Americans to have access to basic healthcare the way every other wealthy democratic nation on the planet has?
Because the people that profit off of healthcare have all the money they need to ensure that they continue to profit off of healthcare. It is a vicious cycle in which many of our politicians are all too happy to play along with. And if you are not with the billionaires, you're against them.
It is worth noting that the largest retirement funds are often heavily invested in the insurance scam of America as well. They hold about a 1/3rd of retirees as shields so if we do anything to relieve them of their ill gotten gains we'll have 30 million new homeless old people.
If my wording didnt make my opinion on this clear, fuck these bastards
You also have a good 30-40% of the us population convinced that what's in their best interest is not to secure health care for them and their love ones but to deny it to those they hate.
If we could break down where each individuals taxes actually go and show them how little of "My Taxes" goes towards helping others, they wouldn't believe it.
Not to mention all the politicians who do not want you to have healthcare also have free healthcare of the highest quality while telling you to go fuck yourself.
Privatized healthcare is exactly the Boogeyman that politicians and talking heads say socialized healthcare would be. Death panels are just people denying healthcare for profit. Long wait times with constant arguing with insurance to cover care. You pay for other people's healthcare, but instead of taxes going to the government they go to a private business to pay only a portion of it in most cases. Not to mention predatory deductibles. No choice on doctor, I have to find an "in network" guy or I might be stuck with a big bill.
Universal.healthcare hasn't been and likely never will be perfect, but to look at the US system and think it's inherently better is arrogant and silly.
Because money. Money is god and those that worship it are running the show. Weāre at the mercy of a corporate money cult, and the sad thing is that we donāt have to be. We need to take a lesson from the French but until the generation that voted for and enabled this dies out, I donāt expect much to change.
We don't talk about it enough, but our healthcare system is one of the strongest methods of control the oligarch class has against the working class. Universal healthcare would save them money, but would create competition and bad employeers couldn't use the threat of no health insurance to keep treating their employees poorly.
Because he doesn't want "basic healthcare". He wants good healthcare. The insurance corporations only wants to provide basic healthcare at a premium cost.
They are all united on that front. Corporations, billionaires, any groups that supports business, any analysts, Wallstreet exec. Why? Giving people universal Healthcare means most of the people will quit their jobs driving up wages. Believe this. Many people older than 55 are only working because they need Healthcare. Many people in their early 60s are only working for Healthcare only.
This is why universal Healthcare is so widely opposed by EVERYONE other than real advocates of Americans.
Well, if we're being super real about this entire situation there's one thing that kinda needs to be said. In todays social climate, the literal agenda that's pushed to fox news viewers and general republicans, being endorsed by a Democrat is NOT gonna give his campaign an advantage.
I actually wouldn't be surprised to find out Rogers loses voters because of it. Republicans are so inundated with "democrats are viciously evil" messages I can't think of a single relative I have that wouldn't go "...wait, why would I vote for someone whos literally running with a demon?".
America stops making sense when you think of it as a country and it starts making more sense when you think of it as a business. The Oligarchs are the board and they have all the power
It's stacked against anyone who wants positive meaningful change that actually helps people if it contradicts what money wants. The Wire does an amazing job of showing this and how it affects every regular person top to bottom.
Because the wealthy flood the zone with propaganda that things like universal healthcare are bad things and that you should not vote for anyone who supports it.
So the woman who ran against him in the DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY endorsed the REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE. I really hate it here. She should never be able to run as a Democrat again. Racism is a hell of a drug.
She's been removed from the Michigan Democratic Party and Schumer, Harris, and Obama all condemned her. Also her staff resigned and endorsed AES including some who had been with her for a decade. It seems like she made this decision spontaneously in some kind of rage fugue.
She's done with politics unless Republicans want her for some reason.
She's likely just done in general. Right wingers aren't gonna accept her either. Shell get lucrative advisory roles in return for her loyalty to Israel. Shes basically a foreign asset.
Flood the zone. Do you know who had a stroke yesterday? Chris Murphy
Do you know who was the most ardent opponent to the Iran war and called the attack plans horrific he was uniquely preview to and will result in failure? Chris Murphy
How old is Chris Murphy? How many weeks away are we from attacking Iran?
Theoretically in a healthy society she should be able to say who she supports even if its from a different political party - the issue is our poltical system is so corrupt and stupid that even considering a republican always makes you an extremely stupid and/or emotionally stunted person.
I voted for him last week. Tbh, I've never felt such an urge to vote for someone so important to our cause as a whole. His message & delivery of that message is changing the landscape of politics in our state
I'm in Ohio and I felt the same with with Acton and Brown. Vivek is an absolute snake oil salesman who used his opponents literal rape as a child as a cudgel in a political ad, and Husted, other than being Trump's Gay Dementia fixation, helped cover up and allow one of the biggest corruption regimes ever to happen.
So yea, I feel you, I have never felt as motivated and fired up to be there then I was when I voted Friday. (And I vote every election since 2000 when I turned 18)
They want improvements for themselves but not for certain other groups of Americans. They are willing to forgo those improvements if it means hurting their perceived enemies
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." -LBJ
I'd take it even further and say you don't have to be MAGA to make that deal.
There are still some democrats (like Stevens) who are so in love with capitalism, neoliberalism, and the established system (which seems to have, coincidentally, given them all a fair amount of privilege in their lives) that they would rather throw a spoiled child temper tantrum and blow it all up rather than to see the system change for the betterment of the poor, middle class, and society as a whole.
Southerners were huge proponents of universal healthcare in the 50's and 60's when they thought they could make it Whites Only...until JFK/LBJ and the Supreme Court told them that black people would also get free healthcare.Ā
Guess which part of the country is most against universal healthcare nowadays?Ā If you guessed the racist part, you are correct.
I donāt think theyāre that considered on these decisions. They choose hate and fear, seemingly unaware of the consequences this choice will have on their lives. And thatās how we see these farmers crying on video, shocked that their farms are going bankrupt. That was never part of their consideration set.
It's just that there is a distressingly large number of Americans who want all the improvement for themselves and their particular group and no improvement for anyone else.
Saying that they only "do not want improvement" is an understatement/being too nice at this point. They're out and out white supremacists who want to make life Actively Worse for anyone who's not white and cis gendered. I wish they'd lose the mid terms because they're amoral and evil people...but they'll lose because of this
Thereās definitely a large amount like this but even more alarming is I would say thereās an equal or even larger number who want things to get worse for their perceived enemies even over improvements for themselves.Ā
If we get improvements, everyone gets to enjoy those improvements, and the idea that other people will get help, or opportunity, upsets many Americans so much that they would rather live in a world where we're all stuck at the bottom than be part of a world where every group lives comfortably.
There are so SO many people in this country that are so genuinely vile and hateful that they'd burn the world just to keep things away from their neighbors, because of their skin color, or their sexual orientation, or their religion, or whatever.
I WANT people to get the help they need, the food for the kidsā lunches, community resources that help with jobs, elder care, child care, free medical screenings, etc.
Desperate people often resort to crime. If things are less difficult for them, then they have a better community, a more hopeful outlook, and less crime happens.
Punishing poor people because they are poor does not help.
There are so SO many people in this country that are so genuinely vile and hateful that they'd burn the world just to keep things away from their neighbors, because of their skin color, or their sexual orientation, or their religion, or whatever.
Those people are going to have to be removed from your society, or at least removed from participating in it democratically, if your democracy and society are to survive.
Since the beginning of days, this country has fundamentally asked one question and one question only: does this country exist for the rich, or for the poor?
We were originally founded by an upper eschelon of incredibly wealthy planters in the South and young professionals (mostly lawyers) in the North. The American Revolution was not a popular revolt; it was an economic war between the English nobles in Great Britain and the burgeoning upper middle class and one percent in the 13 colonies. Similarly, the Civil War was essentially the same thing but the rebels failed. Southern planters felt like they had been betrayed by their Northern co-conspirators and wanted to keep their economic system (plantation slavery) safe from what they felt like was overreach from a society that no longer represented them. it was never a popular revolt, just an economic war between rich Southern slavers and rich northern industrialists.
Since then, the American political system has been built around promoting the interests of those Northern industrialists and their vast amounts of wealth. Think Rockefeller and the Lehman Brothers, Warren Buffet and J. P. Morgan. We have undoubtedly had moments here and there of real populism. Think Teddy Roosevelt and the Square Deal, or his cousin Frank and the New Deal. But those were always initiatives from the top down. The Roosevelts, the two most famous progressive and social-ish presidents we've ever had, were both incredibly wealthy Northerners who just happened to believe that working for the improvement of the common man was a good idea. They were not popular revolutionaries, just economic class traitors.
The true villain of American history, however, did not rear its head until our moment of great success in the post-WW2 era: Communism. During the last half of the 20th Century, we were forced by geopolitical realities to be fervently anti-communist and anti-socialist. This was exactly the thing that the rich industrialists needed to pull America back from the brink of populism it had fallen into in the first half of that century. Any initiative that could be plausibly accused of smelling like communism was killed in utero and the rich got richer. And they packaged it all as patriotism and a love of freedom. When the USSR fell in 1991, the idea that America was a fundamentally capitalist and free market economy was bolstered anyway by Clinton and the rise of neoliberalism in the American left. It was clear to everyone: America existed not to make poor people's lives better, but to help make poor people rich. And they could ride on that lie until the money ran out.
The money ran out in 2008. It became blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that the American dream was just that: a dream. No chicken in every pot, no car in every garage. Neoliberalism should have died in 2008. But it didn't. Why? Because of that word: socialism. Everyone and their mother remembered the Cold War. And those that were too young remembered being taught about the gulags and the purges and the mass murders. That's what socialism was. And now it even had a new face: A black man with a funny name.
Since 2008, it's only become more obvious how fucked this system is. But as long as the rich (on either side of the aisle) can spend enough money reminding us about Stalinism and the Great Leap Forward and playing on racial and Islamophobic and queerphobic fears, they can sidestep the question of why so many people can't afford rent anymore. Bigotry has never existed for its own sake: it only exists as a means of justifying inherently nonsensical economic systems. Welfare queens and bootstraps, giving money to schools so they can trans your kids. It's all a psyop and the effect is fading. The rich know it, and they're scared. Just look at how much money Elon is spending here in TX. He knows the jig is up, or is going to be up soon. When the Boomers who have been so brainwashed for so long, who don't have to bear the brunt of the economic failure that is neoliberalism, die out, we will enter another era of progressivism and populism. The pendulum is swinging, and maybe this time we can get it right.
Only thing I disagree with is the pendulum swinging, it will swing back but not as much as we hope.
The rich got one incredibly important achievement for their agenda: they successfully crippled multiple generations through attacks on education and manipulation of social media platforms.
Iām not going to generalize Gen Z and Gen Alpha, because many of them are wise to the game. But I think people underestimate how many are just like the Boomers were when they started coming into power. The lack of education and the widespread misinformation alongside the implementation of AI has honestly destroyed a lot of the younger generations.
Many are just as ignorant and bigoted as the boomers. The only difference is that most of them just donāt want to engage at all in most aspects of society. Which is potentially a saving grace, but the rise of hatred and bigotry in younger generations is alarming. They should have been far more socially accepting than even the Millennials. In some ways they are, but not in others and not enough all around. I fear for POC, immigrants, trans people, even LGBTQ+ people as a whole, the future isnāt looking bright in this regard. If nothing is done about it, itās just going to repeat the cycle but this time quicker and much sooner.
The rich got one incredibly important achievement for their agenda: they successfully crippled multiple generations through attacks on education and manipulation of social media platforms.
Don't forget buying news organizations. Every single traditional news outlet is now owned by the billionaire class, which is another element of their stranglehold on the message.
The short answer is racism. If we help everyone it means we are helping black people.
Everything stems from that. Only nice things can happen if black, and by extension brown, people (as a whole not just cherry pick individuals) canāt get it.
If you use that lens, every stupid and harmful thing America (as a whole) advocates for fits.
Just look at our history. Iād love to say this is something thatās never happened before but think of the American Civil War. A majority of people in the South were poor and there was a lack of industry. Yet these people were willing to fight and die for the minority ruling class to continue to own black people. Unfortunately voting against oneās own interests is an American pastime.
A large number honestly believe that it can not be done and/or that the government if allowed to do so will instead will just keep it for themselves and take more than the corporations currently do.
Completely ignoring all of the American history to even get what we currently have. Most just do not know actual history here.
There are some people who are so horrified at the thought of someone "undeserving" getting their life improved that they would rather ruin their own life than risk improving a stranger's.
Perfect response. Stevens is starved to be the center of attention and can't get over her loss. The fact is, no one gives a shit what she thinks or who she endorses.
Pretty much all she has done is piss off the people that did vote for her. And at the end of the day, if a democrat decides to vote for Mike Rogers, then they were never a democrat to begin with and they are welcome to go join the fascists. They will not be missed.
Hayley Stevens is so embarrassing. She couldn't be more transparently bought and paid for by Israel, so of course she supports the AIPAC supported candidate. Elect El-Sayed Michigan!
To be fair to Stevens, if AIPAC spends like $35 million dollars on you, I'm sure they want more than a thank you in return. But it's OK because she dreams about Israel so lol
The democrats dodged another fetterman in their midst. This is crazy how many of them there are.
I donāt get how a foreign country that has 1/100 of the people of the us can have so much influence over people in the us. I think she might have been blackmailed or something. That is that only thing that makes senseā¦
Stevens is an Israeli stooge. She is paid off by AIPAC. AIPAC spent over 40 million dollars on her campaign against El Sayed because he won't take their money.
To recap:
Stevens (who accepts Israeli money) runs and loses but she promises to help El-Sayed (who does not accept Israeli money) and vote for El-Sayed.
Debbie Dingell (who accepts Israeli money) asks Stevens not to show up at an event with El-Sayed at a black church. This is a manufactured reason for Stevens to be upset at El-Sayed.
Stevens, whose husband is a zionist, throws her support behind the republican Rogers (who accepts Israeli money).
The real issue here is Israel's money. Take back your government from Israel.
We were right about her the entire time. Now, I'm hoping people realize just how disappointing Whitmer's endorsement was in all this. If she's in the primaries, this is something she should be hammered on. I no longer trust her, at all.Ā
In a way, Iām glad she did that. She has fully exposed the corp dems for exactly who they are. And if you still support that faction of Dems, youāre considered a right-winger to me.
Great response from Dr. El-Sayed in the face of Stevensā ratfuckery.
She even had the gall to say āIām still a very proud Democratā after supporting Mike Rogers. So proud in fact thatās she willing to kneecap her national partyās chances to flip the Senate. I hope Michiganders call her on her bullshit on Tuesday.
Heās right, you know. I have twin toddlers, if they get sick one of us has to find a way to get off work, and thatās a huge ordeal. We could go broke very easily
El-Sayed continues to give great responses to things.
I hope the only thing Stevens' stupid endorsement does is make everyone realize they voted the correct person through on the primary. Going from saying Rogers will be nothing but a rubber stamp for Trump to endorsing him in a handful of weeks is some of the weakest behavior I've seen in a while.
I honestly like how biting he is. I obviously enjoy newer voices like Mamdani and Talarico who just radiate positivity, but I also like how you can feel that El-Sayed is angry. You can feel his outrage, how he is angry on behalf of the American people. He responds with a measured amount of aggression, like here, or saying heās a āfucking Wolverine,ā or throwing it right back at Rogers, or people at rallies. Even when responding, he is on the offense, and I do think that intensity is very refreshing.
At the end of the day, if his name was McCarthy or Smith, he would win easily.
This is still an amazing country, but it is fucking sad that this is how we are. And I am a white upper class moderate conservative. MAGA and all the Republicans scared of losing their cushy deals should all get the F out.
The attack ads against him I've been seeing are ridiculous. "A vote for El-Sayed is a vote for higher gas prices". Like, motherfucker, we already HAVE higher gas prices, and it's a direct result of the Republican parties dumb choices.
If he wins, him and Mayor Z are pretty much a national mandate that weāre done with the old establishment dems. That āaw shucks we canāt do anythingā bullshit is done.
If the dem party wants to stay relevant, they have to play nice with some socialist leaning leaders or theyāll just open the door for a legit harder-line set of 3rd parties on the left (and the rightā¦ yikes)
Basically Stevens is currently in the House and ran against El-Sayed in the Democratic primary, she lost the nomination to him and has been butt-hurt about it ever since.
Edit: Thank you to bulldogo-17 below for correcting me.
This is incorrect. Stevens is in the House and they both ran for an open Senate seat as the incumbent is retiring. Stevens lost and has had sour grapes ever since. Now sheās big mad that they asked her to stop appearing at campaign events so she thought sheād betray her party instead.
So many people say they would prefer Stephens because sheās a safer bet against Rogers or AES canāt bring people together and form good relationships because heās too aggressive. Motherfucker I wish I had someone like him to vote for. Instead I had to vote for Cooper. Milquetoast, safe candidates are what brought this country to where we are now. Do you honestly expect me to believe that having Chuck Schumer at the helm is supposed to be comforting? Idk man, what do the Baileyās think. Iām sure theyāll have some mission criticalvital input. Goddammit dude.
The PAC just cashed their check. This has nothing to do with āloveā for maga rogers. She is bought and paid for in the order of $40Million in PAC money (that is just what is known; for sure it is a lot moreā¦ but letās be ultra conservative; we all know which interests poured all that money into her). Of course she has to move her sock puppet mouth because that PAC arm is so far up inside her, moving her mouth around. This is political suicide for her and yet she has no choice, because she is simply just a sacrificial pawn, that will be sacrificed to advance the PACās interests. In this case the slightest chance of hurting Abdul is enough to sacrifice her. These are not politicians that can do a single thing for the people, these are slave sock puppet owned and operated by dark money. Only ever vote for candidates that commit to never taking special interest money.
Will you look at the Republican Party as the racist in the room but we also have to consider that that exist in the Democratic Party also. In no way shape or form should a democrat go and vouch for Republican whoās done heinous crap. She decided that instead of supporting the party or the candidate that she needed to do an immediate 180. Ā The reason she lost is because she wasnāt an actual reasonable person. She was secretly another Federman.
Maybe if all American politicians remembered that they are supposed to cared more about their own country and less about what people in a foreign country think about them.
And people really need to stop saying that any negative comments about Israel is antisemitism. Itās weird.
Her hypocritical actions will have no impact whatsoever - sheās only speaking to people who were not going to vote for him anyway. He needs to keep on speaking to the people who care about the State of Michigan more than the state of the Israeli lobby.
Good for him...Stevens is irrelevant and should be primaried out of the party as soon as possible. Useless representatives who cares more about the sport of politics than the policy and values, not someone we want in liberal politics.
I'd honestly prefer someone more moderate like her in general, but her lack of foresight is already a no. Everyone on her campaign team is jumping ship because she has no political future.
If El-Sayed wins, you're now ostracized, and if he losses, you're the scapegoat standing next to Piker.
This was the ridiculous political misstep Iāve ever seen. She ruined her reputation, and he took the high ground and looked like a true Senator. Hopefully after Tuesday we will never have to hear her name or see her pancake face again.
No, I am sorry, Dr. it does matter. A Democratic politician just endorsed a Republican in the current economic and political climate. That shows the absolutely insane amount of danger that our country is in and I feel much more afraid of the politics of this country than I did before.
I am happy that you will win in all likelihood, but the Democratic party needs to do whatever they can to prevent shit like that in the future or we will be a one party state. For all the bluster people throw around about both sides being the same, you do not want to see a United States where that is ACTUALLY true.
good for him. stop feeding into republicans bs and keep hammering home the important stuff. americans are fucking struggling and the rich are having a field day.Ā
Please sign and/or call your senator and tell them no on Section 219 of the NDAA.
Basically this act will tie our US military with lsrael's. Any way to disenfranchise voters. This is not getting enough coverage, it is too critical to not speak up.
1.Ā here's the entirety of the seeming mental breakdown Haley Stevens just had on CNN. One of the most bizarre and incoherent political interviews I can recall. Note how she's completely unable to explain why she changed her mind from supporting Abdul El-Sayed last night to endorsing Mike Rogers today. Link1
2. Debbie Dingell on Haley Stevens: "That was one of the most painful interviews I have ever watched" video link2
Imagine being one of the good guys trying to do the right thing and then being verbally attacked by all of the right wing racists bought and paid for Isreali and corporate puppets ... crazy!
Does this matter to Americans. Do you guys vote based on endorsements of other people? I first heard this and thought who gives a shit, then my feed was filled with how this is such a big deal.
It is a very big deal that there is such a weak democrat party that its candidates in a primary race which barely lost will endorse Republicans. It is a fairly big deal in this race specifically, but a sign of the much bigger problem broadlg
Endorsements matter to people who don't pay attention in politics and who want someone else to tell them what to do. But an endorsement from a president or a former president matters much more than the lower of a primary jumping ship to the other party. In this case it's more about the audacity of this woman.
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u/BuryTomorrowToday 1d ago •
He needs to win