Doctor, Doctor, give us some news...

[kitsap_charles]

We've got a bad case of W.

riverheart and I attended the Seattle kick-off rally for Howard Dean's campaign for President tonight. By the time we left Paradux Hill, about 860 people had registered (via Howard Dean's own official weblog) for the meeting; well over 1000 people crowded into the meeting place, to watch a video of Doctor Dean's announcement speech earlier today and view a streaming video link direct from the candidate to the various west coast venues.

To be honest, I don't think Dean is the best candidate in the field; I agree with Dennis Kucinich's values and positions more than I do with Dean. But Dean is the best electable candidate now running, and I think it's mandatory not only that Dubya and his coterie of unspeakably vile excrescences on the Body Politic be lanced forthwith, but that the so-called Democrats (a.k.a. "Republican Lite") who have tacitly supported his policies be turfed out of their own positions of entrenched power, so that the true owners of government— We, the People— can take our country back.

Governor Dean's speech (I don't really know which title is preferred; he's an M.D. who's a former state Governor...) can be found on his campaign website, linked above. But there are two highlights I want to quote in parting.

Here's the first:

The history of our nation is clear: At every turn when there has been an imbalance of power, the truth questioned, or our beliefs and values distorted, the change required to restore our nation has always come from the bottom up from our people.

And so, while the President raises $4 million more tonight to maintain his agenda, we will not be silent.

He calls his biggest fundraisers Rangers and Pioneers.

But today, we stand together with thousands in Burlington, Vermont and tens of thousands more, standing with us right now in every state in this nation. And we call ourselves, simply, Americans.

And we stand today in common purpose to take our country back.

And here's the second:

The great lie spoken by politicians on platforms like this is the cry of "elect me and I will solve all your problems."

The truth is the future of our nation rests in your hands, and not in mine.

Abraham Lincoln said that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth.

But this President has forgotten ordinary people.

You have the power to reclaim our nation's destiny.

You have the power to rid Washington of the politics of money.

You have the power to make right as important as might.

You have the power to give Americans a reason to vote again.

You have the power to restore our nation to fiscal sanity and bring jobs back to our people.

You have the power to fulfill Harry Truman's dream and bring health insurance to every American.

You have the power to give us a foreign policy consistent with American values again.

You have the power to take back the Democratic Party.

You have the power to take our country back.

And we have the power to take the White House back in 2004.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Jesse Ventura is electable, if you get the signatures.

What we need is Jimmy Carter III. (Jimmy the original *is* a Junior, if memory serves.) Someone who can run on honesty. And serve the slogan, "It's the Constitution, Stupid."

PROVIDE for the Common DEFENSE, and PROMOTE the general welfare... not build empires foreign and domestic. *sigh*

I know. Choir. Preach. *sigh*

[kajunhippie.livejournal.com]

jesse ventura doesn't want to run for president.

i hope kucinich gets nominated. i say he's electable, if the moderates in the democratic party would quit friggin' compromising so much and just vote for the guy. there is no law saying you have to vote for the most whitebread candidate. you can vote for the guy who shares your values. if all the potential democratic voters out there would get that through their thick heads, we might get someplace.

i don't like dean's willingness to fall for the whole "we gotta spend tons an' tons of money to protect ourselves from attack from people we provoked in the first place" schtick. the defense budget is out of control. the defense department has never passed an independent audit. there are a trillian dollars in unreconciled accounts in the dod budget. kucinich is the only candidate proposing we do something about that. all the while redirecting some of that money to making this country better.

if dean's nominated, i'll vote for him, because he's my second favorite. none of the other candidates really inspire me. but i really hope kucinich gets it.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

You have the power to fulfill Harry Truman's dream and bring health insurance to every American.

Nope, can't vote for the guy. That's a deal-breaker right there.

We don't depend upon the government for food, for clothing, for shelter, for daycare for our children, for a million other things that we, as independent and sovereign citizens, feel we should have the right to decide for ourselves: what to eat, what to wear, where to live. We have a responsibility to ourselves to make trade-offs regarding how much we can afford, and how hard we're willing to work, and what sacrifices we're willing to make, to get the kind of food, clothing, and housing we want.

Why should health care be any different?

Once, taking charity from anyone was regarded as shameful, something to be done only in the direst of personal circumstances and to be forgone at the first opportunity. We understood that charity was at the grace and forbearance of our neighbors, who sacrificed their own hard-won earnings to help others.

Now, it is called an "entitlement," which gives the impression that it is shameful if we don't get it. It is not freely given but is torn from us at the barrel of an IRS agent, who can and will call in armed agents if you provide too much trouble. It sets arbitrary "values" on medical and other resources, distorting the market so badly that the actual value to individuals of various medical practices cannot be determined in any meaningful way. And Dean wants to make it worse.

There is no way to eliminate pain from human endeavors, not even the endeavor of surviving day-to-day. Markets are self-correcting and and pain they create has always been limited. The Soviet Union, with its socialized everything, so badly distorted the medical market that now everyone there suffers, and suffers badly. There is no evidence that any socialized system anywhere serves its citizenry as well as the U.S. system serves its own.