Canada’s very successful healthcare system was not started on the national level, but began in the great Province of Saskatchewan. There was no painful gridlock, no death panels, not even one teabagger. Instead, the successes of Saskatchewan were simply emulated by every other province until every Canadian citizen was covered. If your idea is good enough, someone will steal it. Canada seems to understand a cornerstone of American political tradition better than we do: states’ rights. Of course I’m not talking about the poll tax and Jim Crowe kind of “states’ rights,” what I mean is the idea of using our states as political “laboratories.” This is a long cherished American political tradition, allowing the states to try out new policies for themselves instead of on the national level, allowing the rest of the country to observe how successful a new policy could be. If this were done effectively, our Congress wouldn’t have to debate the hypothetical impacts of some new policy, but instead could say: “It worked for California, it could work for America.” Now of course just because something works in one state doesn’t mean it would necessarily work for all of the states, but why not allow those states to run more of their own policy if it works for them? Why not allow Californians to legalize marijuana if they want to, does someone from Tennessee really care? (more…)

This past week the College Democrats were lucky enough to host Michael Moore in a town hall style meeting. He made some brilliant points and I am happy to say he really made me think about health care in America. Later that day, I watched Sicko which made me think even more, and by the end, I was extremely angry. You’re right Mr. Moore, the way we treat our citizens when it comes to health care is immoral.

One thing that Michael Moore touched on, but doesn’t talk  about specifically, is mental health care in America. It is an issue that I am passionate about and I wholeheartedly believe that we need major reforms for the mental health care system in America.

Fifteen to eighteen percent of Americans are said to suffer from some type of mental illness. According to the NIMH, about 20% of adults will at sometime seek treatment for a mental disorder. Suicide accounts for more deaths than homicide and HIV/AIDS combined. Mental health is real, it’s prevalent and it needs to be addressed. (more…)

Hannity can moan all he wants about how Obama is a “radical leftist,” but he’s dead wrong.

For all that Obama has achieved for the left thus far, he refuses to go as far as Kucinich. Don’t get me wrong now, we have made 2 steps forwards in the past 8 months while Bush took us twenty steps back in the past 8 years.

Environmentally friendly laws have been signed, we are on our way out of Iraq and increasing our presence in Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay is on its death bed. But those of us farther to the left are feeling more and more frustrated as the Obama presidency continues. We have a lot more to do in changing this country for the better, but Obama is failing to deliver in key areas.

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By now just about everyone has seen the video of Rep. Barney Frank clowning on a crazy right wing protestor who decided it was a good idea to compare President Obama to Hitler in front of a gay Jewish man. While I understand his reaction (and really enjoyed watching it), Rep. Frank should have avoided the all-too-easy ad hominem attacks and stuck to criticism of the protester’s ideas themselves. Here’s what I would have done if I were in old Barney’s shoes: (more…)

I’d like to make a quick follow-up to my post yesterday about the health care debate and rightwing mobs. One of the hottest YouTube videos in the last 24 hours is a video of an Israeli expatriate defending health care reform at an event in Las Vegas. Off-camera, a woman shouts at him, “Heil Hitler!”

Conservatives need not distance themselves from crazy people like this, or from the lady who called Barack Obama a Nazi to Jewish Congressman Barney Frank’s face; we know that they are not representative of mainstream opinion in the United States. Unfortunately, this just goes to prove my earlier point — that a few far-right screamers have hijacked the political scene with the help of a news media interested only in conflict and people showing up to town hall meetings with loaded assault rifles.

Want to get an idea of how skewed the health care debate in this country is? Perhaps you know my Congressman, Barney Frank. The guy who got re-elected in 1990 with 66% of the vote even after he was nearly unanimously reprimanded by the House of Representatives. Yeah, that guy . . . and that district. So he had one of those town hall meetings on health care, where lo and behold, he confronted the same kind of rowdy conservative mobs that have been getting an awful lot of press coverage. It just goes to show you that even though they scream the loudest, they are not representative of the average viewer at home — they only appear that way by showing up en masse and shouting down any and all opposing views.

This is confirmed in a recent NBC poll: Obama’s health care approval ratings — while not impressive — have not gotten any worse in recent weeks. Meanwhile, misinformation on the proposal abounds. As Jon Stewart remarked on the TV coverage of politics, “The race to the bottom is done with tenacity.”

I’m going to preface this by saying I’m sick to death of hearing about the “groundswell” of public outcry against President Obama’s efforts to reform our nation’s inadequate healthcare system. I’m tired of the media legitimizing the wackos that lobbying firms are recruiting to swarm at town hall meetings and shout down the elected officials who dare to mend a broken system. And I’m not even going to begin to talk about the off-the-chart irony of medicare receiving senior citizens lambasting the Obama administration’s proposal for a government-funded public healthcare option. It’s too easy, and that’s not something worth writing, let alone reading.

However, you’re probably thinking that I feel bad for Obama and Congressional Democrats, who can’t seem to sell the reform promises that helped sweep them into office back in November. I do not. In fact, it is my contention that stupid missteps on our side are to blame for the “backlash” with which we must now contend. Here’s what I mean, after the fold… (more…)