Subject: RE: BS: Kucinich dropping out of race
From:
CarolC
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 03:02 AM
Compromise is a tricky word in this context (and many other contexts as well), Joe. What are we calling compromise in this context?
Was it an "I'm right and you're wrong, single-minded ideology, lack of willingness to compromise" approach that got Canada and Britain their universal, single payer, not for profit health care systems? What did it take for them to get to the point where they could accomplish that? Did they compromise with an insurance industry that was sucking them dry while not providing them with adequate health care for their people? I suspect that had they taken the approach that is being advocated by the three remaining Democratic candidates, those countries would not have the systems they have today.
Sometimes compromise isn't really compromise, it's capitulation. In the case of health care, as long as we are compromising with an industry that hasn't got our best interests at heart, we are not really compromising, we are capitulating.
The way to get the kind of health care system we need is to stop capitulating and letting the insurance industry tell us what we are and are not allowed to do, and start taking care of ourselves and standing up for ourselves. If more people would work to get the word out about the need to do this, pressure could be brought to bear on those we elect to do our bidding to make them do what we pay them to do. But as long as people take the approach you are suggesting, the insurance industry will always be the final arbiter of who can have health care and who can't. That's not compromise. That's capitulation.
Did the founding fathers of this country compromise with the king of England when they determined it was time to free themselves from the control of that government? Had they been willing to compromise, would this country have ever been created? Did the allied powers compromise with Hitler and Mussolini in WWII? Had the allied powers compromised with them, would anything have been accomplished at all? In each of these cases, the only choices were resistance or capitulation. Compromise wasn't an option. The same is true of many of the issues we face today. Dennis knows this. The other candidates say they believe in compromise, but a look at their records shows us that what they are calling compromise is really capitulation.
Obama, for instance, said that he was working to provide the people of Illinois with universal health care. But he capitulated to the insurance industry and the people of Illinois got nothing. That's not compromise, it's capitulation. Clinton and Obama said they were against the Iraq war (after they saw it as being politically expedient to say that), but they voted to fund it. The war hasn't ended, it has continued unabated. That isn't compromise, it's capitulation.
These people say they are all about change, but they don't bring any change at all. All they do is maintain the status quo.
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sj
