We desperately need another FDR - Democratic Underground

Taverner

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Mon Jul-30-07 03:18 PM
Original message

We desperately need another FDR

Edited on Mon Jul-30-07 03:18 PM by Taverner

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. - - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1932

As true as this was in 1932, it is true today. We face a corporate onslaught never seen before in US History. Corporations, which are not living things, enjoy all of the same rights an individual does. Because of this, they can buy politicians, alter public opinion and willfully ignore anyone that puts them in a bad light. "It's good for business" has become our mantra, much like "Serve the Angkha" did under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge - we do not serve ourselves, our country or any being but this invisible god-like corporation, which can cast us off at will without any hesitation or remorse.

Health Care simply does not exist for Americans. Even the insured are not immune - today's managed care system is predicated on corporate greed rather than health. In fact, they were built this way - as a for-profit institution, they serve their shareholders, not their customers. As a result, the insured cannot get the medical attention they need, and the Doctors have a choice of either denying their patients necessary care or hiring a staff solely to combat insurance red tape. My doctor, a family doctor, has a staff of eight constantly calling and fighting for every service rendered. Without them, my doctor wouldn't get paid.

Americans are homeless and starving. You don't see it - but go beyond the nicely painted streets and colorful marquees and you will see our dispossessed. Homelessness is at an all time high, and these aren't just the unemployed - 45% of the homeless are working homeless. Sometimes they even have 2 jobs, and they still can't afford rent. Food is another matter - with Clinton's gutting of welfare, which was given the euphemism "Welfare to Work," simply feeding yourself and children is an unsurmountable task.

Then add to this day care costs, the fact that our own schools cannot afford simple supplies such as paper, pens and even light bulbs - and you really have to wonder how much our government, Democrat and Republican alike, value "Family Values."

I think Randi Rhodes put it right when she called the policy "love the fetus, hate the child" - because that is the fruit from their seeds.

We need a New Deal. Something innovative, experimental, and calling on the kind of "brain trust" FDR had. You see, FDR was no partisan. He brought in Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, Communists, Libertarians and all sorts of political stripes to put together a set of policies that just worked. He didn't care if it came out of Das Kapital or Princeton University - He merely wanted to solve the problem that Capitalism had become. Capitalism was broken, and he fixed it.

Capitalism is broken again - it didn't break all at once like it did in 1929. This time, it was a slow, methodical, dismantling by years of Republican and Democratic rule. By Republicans like Reagan and Bush, but also by Democrats like Clinton and even Carter. It happened slowly, so most people didn't notice it until they found themselves 66 and working at Wal Mart.