I have no where else to go
Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 06:59:26 PM PDT
My father worked as a union worker at Caterpillar. He made a living wage and was able to provide for our family. His job sucked. In the summertime the factory was hot as hell. Most of the jobs were tedious. Right before he retired, he actually had a job he enjoyed. He tested and troubleshot finished tractors. Most days, the tractors functioned properly. But when one had a problem, and my dad had to hunt down the short in the thousands of wires, he actually felt like he was working. When he found the bad connector, replaced it, and the electical system worked right, he was happy. He would come home in a such a happy mood.
Then Reagan came.
No one hired since the '80s had near the healthcare and pay my dad had. All of the support structure that relied on these jobs atrophied. Grocery stores closed. The political class cared more about the few corporate leaders, and their profits, than the entire mid to lower level income strata that would be wiped out.
My parents are lucky. They still have decent health care and a retirement check. This was the result of decades of fights before them. But it died. No one hired from the '80s had what my father had.
My cousins are all in serious problems. They would find a job, a job enough to pay the bills, but not enough to pay for health care. Then one of my nieces or nephews would get sick. It's not like my cousins weren't working, it is that in many areas there are no jobs that pay enough to pay bills and health care.
Welcome to small town America.
The American government has nothing for them. No idea how to make them part of the corporate farming system. Nothing on how to make them keep from starving. Nothing on how to keep them from losing their homes in Katrina. It did have this neat system where it would sell overpriced houses to people that couldn't afford them, and the people that bought them hoped the prices would go up enough so they could resell them, but that busted.
So Obama comes along. Says he is different. He 'stands' for things. He will not be belligerent against Iran. Then political forces put him in a position where if he goes against their war with Iran, he will look weak. He now supports the bill against Iran. He looks weak.
The corporate media and Bush do a massive campaign on FISA. He caves. He looks weak.
Does he not realize that it is not him. This election is not about getting him elected. It is about getting people in power that actually care about the average American. Not Exxon. Not AT&T.
By buying into the 'centrist' mantra, he is not being a centrist. He will lose most Americans. Does he actually care about changing America? Will he attack the pundits that frame the debate? Will he attack the AEI?
I will vote for Obama. He is far better than McCain.
But that doesn't mean I won't be critical of him. Very few people on this blog would vote for McCain. And this blog should not be a mindless cheerleading for a candidate.
But I have no one to turn to. Most of my family live paycheck to paycheck. Gas prices are killing them. Health care is scary. People say all sorts of things. They have for decades. Jobs still suck. Health care sucks. 35 years after we said we would wean ourselves from foreign oil, we are still reliant on foreign oil.
The AEI still sets foreign policy. William Kristol and John Bolton still get national attention. War with Iran still gets airwaves. Everyday. In op-eds in almost every paper in America. Far more people are calling for war on the airwaves and in op-eds that are saying how stupid it is.
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