This would not be happening if the Democrats called for a full mobilization of the American people to put an end to this kind of thing treachery; or, if our union leaders and civil rights organizations called out their members as has been done in Greece.
Of course, if the Democrats and Republicans were to see a new progressive party rising on the horizon in full support of peace and real reforms this would not be happening either.
It should be obvious to everyone by now that Obama and the Democrats have kicked liberals, progressives and the left under the Wheels of the Wall Street bus which is now headed to take those living in the suburbs and gated communities to the polls in 2010 and 2012 leaving the rest of us completely disenfranchised unless we start a new progressive party willing to stand up for peace, healthcare and jobs:
PEACE=Healthcare+Jobs
Tell Barack Obama and the Democrats:
No peace; no votes.
No healthcare; no votes.
No jobs; no votes.
We can pay for a national public healthcare/socialized healthcare with money saved from ending these dirty imperialist wars which would create almost ten-million new, good-paying jobs employed at over 30,000 community based healthcare centers across the country. Instead, we get to pay for wars and over 800 U.S. military bases dotting the globe protecting Wall Street's profits and investments in quest of cheap labor and resources.
If we had policies based upon the needs of the people rather than corporate profits before people, everyone would be working paying into Social Security and we wouldn't have to be worried about paying people unemployment benefits because with a full employment economy producing for human needs we could open up the more than 3,800 presently closed mines, mills and factories across this country.
We are paying a terrible price because we lack a progressive political party like the old Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party which had been set to go national when its leader, the socialist Governor of Minnesota, Floyd. B. Olson died.
Come to think of it, we are paying a terrible price for failing to take the time to understand our real history, too.
When Jim Bunning was a baseball player and a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers who I used to watch in awe as a kid... he was a leading advocate for the player's union and defender of the rights and livelihoods of auto workers in Detroit... now he is trying to deprive working people who are unemployed through no fault of their own of miserly unemployment benefits as he boasts of having become a "conservative" Tea Party supporter pitching against the working class. Bunning still tosses a wicked curve-ball, but for his Wall Street team versus the Working Class.
It's time to bring the heavy hitters on the Working Class team up to bat... the rank-and-file, because the leaders are striking out.
Someone in the dugout sure as hell better wake up and smell the coffee---
Wake up! Wake up! wake up!
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council