A word on American politics

The Republicans and Democrats have held their national conventions. The U.S. general election is less than two months away.

Like many others, I am disgusted with President Obama. He campaigned like a progressive, but since his election has done the bidding of his friends on Wall Street. Instead of the single-payer universal health care system that should be the simple and obvious choice for America, we have an Affordable Care Act that will mostly benefit the big insurance companies and will do nothing to contain health care costs, and has mostly not yet gone into effect. Instead of backing the unions that helped elect him, he stood on the sidelines in this summer's recall election in Wisconsin, which was a critical defeat for unions everywhere. Instead of prosecuting the criminal Wall Street bankers who have ruined our country, he bailed them out with taxpayer money. Instead of using anti-trust legislation to break up the “too big to fail” banks, he has allowed them to become larger than they were in 2008. Instead of repealing the so-called “Patriot” Act, he has continued the infringements of liberty begun by his predecessor, President Bush. The rich are richer, the poor are poorer, and we are all deeper in debt.

President Obama can make a good speech. But it seems to me that he is a hypocrite. He has no intention of fulfilling anything that he promises, no intention of doing anything that would offend his owners. At no point in these four years has he stood up to the Republicans and simply done what was right. If re-elected, there is no reason to expect this to change.

At least Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are not hypocrites. We know where they stand: if elected, they will destroy Social Security and Medicare, grind the faces of the poor and middle class in the dust with increased taxes and more offshoring of jobs to China, and hand even more tax breaks to the one percent. To know where Romney stands, one need only watch the film “When Mitt Romney comes to town.” He is all about money, mostly for himself. [Romney chuckles... “Make a profit. That's the name of the game.”]

What is a voter to do?

Bill Moyers addresses these issues this week on his show. He interviews Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, a thoroughly good man, someone who (as he says) in Scandinavia would be a Democratic Socialist. Moyers then interviews Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, the Green Party candidates for President and Vice-President. It would be worth your while to watch these interviews, especially the one with Senator Sanders. I find myself in agreement with pretty much everything he says in this interview.

There is no way that I would vote for the Republican ticket. And there is no way that I will vote for Obama. Nor am I going to vote for Dr. Stein and Ms. Honkala, or any other third party candidates.

I am going to vote for Joe Biden.

I will ignore that other person on the ticket with him. Mr. Biden takes a lot of heat because he speaks his mind, but I think he has done well in the limited role that he has in the government. Almost alone of the people in big-time politics, he is not a millionaire.

And then there is this:
Elizabeth Warren addresses the Democratic Convention: “The system is rigged.”

I believe that she is one of the finest politicians around, someone who would indeed stand up to the one percent. Like it or not, I must take her endorsement of Obama seriously, along with that of Bill Clinton.

But we are headed in the wrong direction, and whoever wins in November, that is not likely to change in the next four years; if anything, it is likely to accelerate. Perhaps I could dare to pray for a ticket next time of Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, and that there is still an America to hold an election in 2012. And I will join the Psalmist and the prophets in praying for justice and righteousness.