Anti-Capitalist Meetup: Because the Political is Personal by UnaSpenser
I’m angry. As many of us know, what’s often behind anger is hurt. So, I’ll admit that my anger is stemming feeling hurt. Why? Because the political is personal.
I live with a chronic disability. For over 10 years now, I have struggled to get the care I need. First, because of the for-profit medical industry, it took years to get proper testing for the very thing I walked into the first doctor’s appointment asking to be tested for. Then, it was getting for-profit insurance companies to cover my treatment. To this day, I still battle with them suddenly cutting off my meds in the name of having to defend my need of them. So, my treatment is frequently disrupted. For the first time in 10 years, I had more than 6 months of uninterrupted treatment, and then, without warning, the pharmacy said the claim had been denied and my medicine would not be shipped. When will this end?
Of the two most competitive candidates for the Democratic nomination, which one is more dedicated to the push for universal health care and the reining in of corporate greed? Hint: not Clinton. She was actually talking about how it couldn’t happen until the Sanders campaign was having so much success that she had to change her tune. Do I trust that she’ll actually fight against pharmaceutical companies to get the profit-motive out of our medical care? (My medicine costs an unimaginable $7k to $17k per week depending on “the market.” Clearly, it doesn’t need to cost more than $7k for the company to make a profit, but if “the market” will pay them, they’ll charge that much.) Do I believe that she’ll fight the insurance industry to get access to medical care out of their for-profit hands and ensure that everyone is covered via a public plan? No, I don’t. She talks about expanding medicare, but only because the Sanders movement forced that onto her agenda.
There is a candidate who is passionate about these things. He has a long history of integrity when it comes to having a social justice agenda. He has not pursued vast personal wealth along the way. I absolutely trust that were he in office, he would have no qualms about using that bully pulpit and the backing of the 99% to face off against the monied interests. The majority of those in the Democratic party are apparently opting for the other candidate.
I am hurt that there was a clearly better leftist option, someone pushing a more humanitarian agenda, one that directly impacts people you know - me, for one - and Democrats opted for a neoliberal bourgeois faux feminist war hawk who supported the gutting of welfare, the end of bank regulations, unjust trade agreements and so many other things that are not progressive/democratic/leftist. In doing so, I personally receive the message that you don't care about those of us who are directly suffering under her cruel form of capitalism.
As my health declines of late, I could not afford to go see my neurologist. Clinton isn't going to fight for the medical system overhaul that would have given me any hope that my situation might get better. So, thanks for showing your true colors.
Secondly, I'm mad as hell that immediately upon feeling that Clinton has secured the nomination, Clinton supporters, who knew that Sanders was always a safer bet against Trump, start turning on Sanders supporters with name-calling and the coercive claim that if they don't get behind Clinton, it's their fault if we end up with Trump.
No. It's the fault of those who chose Clinton. You created this dilemma. You fix it. Start by being apologetic for what you've done (because if you're feeling so panicked, you know you screwed up) and being kind to those you screwed over. Don't start by answering the painful cries of those you left behind with "but Trump!" Don't start by telling me I'm an idiot if I don't vote for Hillary. Don't start by claiming I'm ruining this country with my purity. (Funny how integrity is derided as purity.) And don't start by claiming I live in Fantasyland, while you're the realist. Realists knew Sanders is the stronger candidate with a far better chance of drawing independent votes.
You don't deserve to know whether or who I will vote for. You said "fuck you" to my life when you opted for the brutal status quo vs the slightly less brutal status quo. (Bernie is part of the system. Has been for decades. He knows how to get shit done because he's been doing it as The Amendment King. He's not all that radical. Just a bit less mean and with a lot more integrity.) So, either engage my concerns or keep your mouth shut. My vote is my business. Not that it matters. You made sure I don't matter. So don't think you can bully me into supporting your candidate. If you voted for or supported Clinton in the primary, you lost standing in my life and nothing you say has any persuasive power. For every "but Trump!" or "we have to support her", I'm going to get louder about how awful she is. One form of particularly damaging abuse is when someone hurts someone else and then says, “I’ll give you some time to heal and then we have to work together.” I’ve seen this patronizing sentiment from Clinton supporters. Just stop.
So, you decide. How will you talk to those you screwed over? Will you blame them for the dilemma you created? Will you use your winning power to bully them? Or will you actually help push for their concerns to be addressed? And what will you do when she veers right in the general election? Because she will. She's already indicated that she feels she's got the left votes "because Trump!" and that she'll need to attract Republicans who can't stomach him. Besides, her agenda has always been Conservative, so a right turn will be quite suitable to her. How will you talk to those who wanted a candidate we knew would stay left?
If you voted for Clinton this is all on you. Don't you dare get snippy with me and then justify it because you're so afraid of Trump. I may be disabled but I'm nobody's scapegoat. By the way, today, I learned that the costs of epipens is skyrocketing. I have serious allergies and must have epipens on hand.
“Pharmaceutical companies have really changed the way they price medications. It used to be related to the impact of the medication. And now it has really changed essentially to how much they can get for a medication.”
Can we stop calling it a health care system? They don’t care about people’s health. It’s an ill-health exploitation system. Is Hillary going to stand up to the greed of the pharmaceutical industry? Hasn’t she taken quite a bit of money from them? Thanks for this, too.
** Please note that due to how horribly I’ve seen people treat each other over the primary choices here, I will likely not participate in the comments. My Anti-Capitalist meetup comrades will be be here. **
Comments
powerful writing
thank you.
thank you
I'm expecting that my criticism of Clinton will result in me getting banned.
Won't he look so precious banning a person with a disability?
aBANdonment.
Join the club.
I have permanently left TOP, due to a pile up of unwarranted red flags, and then a temporary banning -- which happened months ago.
The Sanders/Clinton food fight made many things all too clear. All too many so-called "progressives" are phonies, putting party first before the American people or the environment. If something hurts the party, in their eyes, even though it would be great for human beings, they won't allow it. Which makes them just like Republicans, perhaps without the bigotry.
It's time for a leftist people first party, one that puts humans and the planet well before its own needs and desires.
As for your OP. I have my own tales to tell, and may one day. I can easily empathize.
There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.
-- Albert Camus
I'll bite....what the heck is TOP?
or GOS, for that matter. You should have an acronym dictionary in your Meta threads.
Love the Camus quote, by the way.
GOS and TOP
Great Orange Satan alludes to an orange symbol used as a page break at The Other Place AKA the Daily Kos, hence the pejoratives.
I picked that up from here.
Didn't know what it meant until I asked the regulars.
The Other Place, as mentioned in the earlier reply before I made mine.
Yep, Camus is one of my heroes. I think few great thinkers could hang with him when it came to walking the walk.
There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.
-- Albert Camus
Ina, I don't think that you are going to be banned
It doesn't look like any Clinton supporters read your diary and turned you in to the teacher.
That is one of their favorite games.
And reading this site and reporting back on what we write..
Cry babies and sore winners.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Wait a minute--this is a crosspost, isn't it?
OK, I understand now.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Brilliant essay
written with great clarity. No one with half a brain and/or an ounce of compassion can seriously dispute any point in it.
Essay aside - Really am sorry that you have to go through this shit.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
thank you. yes, it sucks.
And it doesn't help to know that you live amongst a people who don't really care.
Thank you UnaSpenser!!
Brilliant piece Una! I hope that you know that many stand in solidarity with you! When I read this, I wanted to scream in anger and frustration. It is as if people do not realise that there are consequences to their actions and beliefs; votes impact on people in the real world every minute of every hour of every day. How, in this day and age, can a country with so much wealth not recognise that health care is a human right? How can people that claim to be believers in human and civil rights not recognise one of the basic rights we have, to be able to access health care to stay alive and be able to lead the fullest possible lives that we can?
The so-called democracy that exists in bourgeois democratic countries provides the illusion that people actually have a say in how the system is run. That is a lie, a cold, cruel and deliberate lie.
We are here to stand with you in solidarity! I am, at the moment, lucky, I have several chronic illnesses where my healthcare and medication is covered through taxpayer contributions. In the absence of the NHS in Britain, I would be facing the same. Even more so, we are facing an attack on our NHS and an attack on the assistance that disabled people have fought so hard for by a neoliberal Tory government … we have learned that all our struggles mean little if a group of right-wing sociopaths come to power. We need real democracy, we need real change and I am sick of fighting the same battles over and over again.
"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."
Brilliantly written!
You hit on every point about why Bernie would have been the better candidate for us instead of Hillary.
I remember that during the Bush years that site was against everything both Hillary and Obama are doing.
Obama didn't even try to pass a decent health care bill. All along while we wer signing petitions, emailing and making phone calls to our senators, he had already made deals with the insurance and pharmaceutical companies making sure that their profits wouldn't suffer.
The democrats willingly let the republicans water down the bill and telling us that they need to do that because they needed their votes. Bullshit. They had told them that they weren't going to vote on it period, yet the democrats let the watered down bill stand instead of putting good policy back in.
And then they gave it to Baucus and we ended up with health insurance that many people can't use because of the high deductibles.
" It is a start toward single payer" we were told. In 7 years since it was passed, has anyone been working on making it better?
Or reining in the increasing premiums? In Texas they might go up 55%. Who the hell will be able to afford that?
Nicely done.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
so often, I have felt betrayed by Obama and the Dems
I supported him in 2008 because he campaigned on the premise of reversing the abuses of the security state. He did nothing of the sort. He had economic advisors during his campaign who developed a policy agenda which were populist. As soon as he started building his cabinet he ditched them and kept the status quo.
And then the ACA. Before sitting down at the table, he said single payer wouldn't be considered.
The party has lost any semblance of being leftist. I've had too many betrayals to ever trust them.
Many people feel betrayed by Obama
And with good reason. He did betray us.
From not filibustering the FISA vote, but expanding illegal spying. I don't care what a secret court said was legal. The 4th amendment says that what he is doing is unconstitutional. Period.
Then his cabinet picks where he put the crooks back in charge after the crashed the global economy and set it up to crash in the first place when they worked for Clinton.
Continuing PNAC's goals in the Middle East, his coups in Honduras and Ukraine that saw more innocent civilians killed, and his illegal drone use in countries that haven't threatened us and killed thousands more innocent civilians.
And then being the Deportation Chief and rupturing families apart.
His cruelty is smoothed away by his charming smile and that's what his supporters see. Not his actions. They have to be brain dead to say that he has been the best president since FDR.
We had the chance to turn this country around, but people went for the war hawk, and the person who is beholden to every industry imaginable.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Fuck Baucus
N/t
It was all political theater
Yes fuck Baucus, but it was not an accident that his committee was allowed to essentially write the bill. If Obama and the Dem leadership had wanted a stronger bill, they could have put it in the hands of another committee. They could have held hearings revealing the horrors of the existing system and stoking the publics demands for a change. A public option could have been done through budget reconciliation. Parts of the ACA had to be done through budget reconciliation in any case. While bits of the ACA are helpful and it was probably an improvement on the status quo, it was basically a health insurance industry, health provision industry and big pharma bailout bill. Their business models were failing (i.e they were no longer able to extract double digit profit increases which is required by Wall St.) and the ACA pumped more money into them, boosting their profits for a few more years. Political theater, rotating villains, corporate sellouts--that is what the Democratic party has become at the federal level.
it wasn't real ...
anything that would have actually provided health care rather than insurance was eliminated before the theatre began ... the elimination of a single payer form of system (even the easiest of extension of medicare which would only require a simple majority in the Senate) didn't even make it to the table. So, yeah fuck Baucus, but honestly to hell with all of them, they sold people out before the fake discussions began ... a wonderfully cynical exercise that was painful in that people actually believed the theatre ...
"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."
55%?
Mine went up 2000%. From around $25 to over $400. Mainly governor Abbott to blame, but clowns like that should not be in the position to make that decision.
That's why we need
a national plan that doesn't allow every asshole Vichy Dem. or RW lunatic run state fiefdom to override any reform that the ACA said they were accomplishing. Ask yourselves people why do these RW lunatics have so much power in the US? Why do the Tories get to set the tune? The important question is why does the so called left wing party's here and globally refuse to fight for us? Why here in the US is a minority party, the Republicans, allowed to set the national and states agenda and have such extraordinary power?
My answer is they are complicit in this good cop bad cop duopoly kabuki show.The longer this farce goes on the more power the real fascists on both sides get. The ACA is only one of many examples of how we are being played. Meanwhile are your papers in order? Can you pass the test? If not your a criminal enemy of the state and can just petition the powers that be or hope you die quick. Being poor is a crime in America. If you don't like this brave new cruel world your an enemy of the state or the problem. So shut up and pony up both your vote and your non existent money.
Thanks Una and all you anti-capitalists her there and everywhere. I used to try to read you guys on dkos but grew weary of finding you buried in the basement while the band played on. Hope we get to read more of Una and the rest of your great group here. I love you people and Una's essay is spot on. Thank you Una for highlighting this important personal and yet universal issue that gets buried in the loud farce of our political electoral system. Such misplaced fear when people are dying and suffering for the profit of the 1%.
Beautiful, angry, righteous writing
I went over there to tip and rec the post, but I'm trying to maintain silence.
As part of that health care system, I concur with pretty much all of your essay. Many of us try to help people stay or become healthy, but it's a constant fight against the primacy of the profit motive. It reminds me of my motto during the ACA fight:
The Obama apologists then, who bear a striking resemblance to the Clinton apologists now, attacked with their self-exculpatory excuses and their illogical justifications for defending the indefensible. They are not, and have never been, true progressives. They are mostly partisan Democrats who choose to remain tethered to a treacherous political gang because of one cynical identity-politics pander or another. They are as stupid and as willingly fleeced as Republican voters who believe their party will end abortion or allow them to discriminate against African-Americans at lunch counters again. You are quite right to call them out on their culpability in opening the door to a Trump presidency by supporting such a shitty and vulnerable candidate. We will not be scapegoated for their stupidity this time!
Please help support caucus99percent!
It must be so hard to be someone who cares
working inside that system.
I have an awesome doctor. In order for him to continue to practice the way he sees fit, he shunned insurance companies. He doesn't deal with them. When he bills me, I submit the bill to the insurance company myself.
Of all the doctors I've seen, he is the most compassionate and the most committed to his patients. I'm so admirable of doctors who can maintain that approach to the work given the environment they are enveloped by.
Exactly why I'm not Dr. Greyhound.
Worked in the field for a few weeks in the summer before med school, and switched schools and major. The Doc I was with spent so much time jumping through hoops to get paid, he may as well have been an accountant. Computers are easier than people, anyway.
By making it a business, Doctors have the same problem every other SBO has, they spend all their time on the business and have none left for the work. Oh, and while you're at it, start off your career a quarter million in the hole.
No, it's a wonderful job
I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Yes, there are aggravations and roadblocks that place limits on what we can do for people, but there's so much that can be done to help. Sometimes just sitting down to listen and hold a hand. They haven't figured out how to profitize that yet, at least.
Please help support caucus99percent!
What is your specialty, doc?
And is your husband a doctor too, or am I confusing you with someone else?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I'm a general internal medicine doc
See mostly older, more complicated patients. I'm also a half-time administrator, trying to steer my moderate-sized multispecialty group into better quality care that is more patient-centered. The new payment models Medicare is pushing allow that to happen, and we're trying to take advantage of it.
Please help support caucus99percent!
Good luck with getting that accomplished
I bet you love the paperwork part of your job.
My doc is retiring soon because she's tired of not being able to just be a damned doctor. The amount of time she has to spend on paperwork because of the insurance companies.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
For profit health insurance has to go
I thought it was such a no-brainer when I got involved in the Single Payer movement. Eventually, based on the actions of 6 corrupt Dem stat Senators in CA in 2012, I realized that the underlying issue with this movement and others like climate change was money in politics so I got involved in that movement. Bernie united all these and many other progressive movement like never before.
Sorry about your story Una.
The political revolution continues
The damnedest thing is about the other place
Is during the health care debates most of the people on that site was for single payer and fought so hard to get it passed.
Now we had a candidate that was pushing for it and many people there said that he could never get it passed with this congress. And then they voted for the candidate that told us that it will never, ever happen.
What the hell happened to those peoples brains?
Bernie was offering us everything that people on that site wanted during the Bush years, but somehow those things aren't important to them anymore? Wtf happened to them? That's what I don't understand.
Bunch of damned idiots!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Hillary is riding the Obamacare coattails
She wants to improve it incrementally.
They have been brainwashed.
The political revolution continues
Brainwashed
or "wiped clean with a cloth"?
Unfortunately, it seems that the vast majority of people in this country are just plain lazy, spoon fed, and/or ignorant. Sigh!
Our village and town are so small that we don't have a village idiot or a town drunk. Nope, we all take turns.
Remember nth dimensional chess
Those people just want to believe!! Kind of touching in a necrotic way. I believe in Obama so whatever he is doing must be the best thing. I believe in Hillary so whatever she is doing must be the best thing.
I must disagree about
most of the people on that site being for single payer. The people who saw through Obama's ACA like NYC eve and Slinkerwink where considered the enemy of the good according to Obama and his legion of bots. Most people there at that point were convinced that the ACA was the cat's meow and that 'victory for compromise' was the only way to achieve any reform. It's the freaking Heritage Foundations plan.
It sucked and reeked from the minute Obama trotted it out as change you can believe in. Whenever these Vichy Dems start talking reform I just know another heart breaking screw is coming down the line. Double speak ensues along with back room deals and absurd kabuki and we all are told this is all your going to get. So eat it suckers, embarce the suck or it will be worse as otherwise we will unleash the RW lunatics were complicit with. They all D and R's alike work for the heathcare 'industry's' financial health. Not yours not any humans but 'the markets' are all that counts.
Here's an article from the NYT I bookmarked that revealed the tiop of the iceberg of the dirty deals that got us the 'Healthcare Reform Bill.' Why would anyone think this would lead anywhere but to mandating and sanctioning the extortion of healthcare for obscene profit. So I think this issue was the first one that made me know both the Democrat's and Dkos were absolutely useless in taking back the country or providing a counterpoint to the the Bushies. Sad that but hey at least we know what were dealing with. The ACA was not an accomplishment for people but it was a great one for the healthcare industry.
shaz, where's that NYT link? I don't see it here
thanks.
Oh yeah I forgot my linky
I got so caught up in my ranting. Here you go from 2010. Way before the RW nutter's hit the floor with there town halls of mass idiocracy. Which of course the Dems used to pass this farce of healthcare you can believe in. Health care for profit is an oxymoron. Like war is peace, it's double speak of the worst order.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/policy/13health.html?_r=0
Obama Is Taking an Active Role in Talks on Health Care Plan
Great post
Hang on to that passion.
Perfectly said.
Twain Disciple
YOU NAILED IT!!!
Thanks.
YOU NAILED IT!!!
Thanks.
See Unaspenser that kind of fate you describe in your essay
gets me so angry and at the same time helpless.
I would have zillions of questions. The cost of your medication is, well, would the same medication cost the same in Germany? Can you travel to Europe? Get tested and treated over there, buy your medication there?
I guess I am hopelessly out of the loop. I share your anger and just wished I could figure out if there were other solutions to your treatment overseas. And
your descriptions in your essay are so much to the point. It's just no way around it to change the system. It must be done.
Thanks for this!
Thanks UnaSpenser and you too, ny brit expat, for this essay. I tried to go over to somewhere else to sign in and rec it but the place is bogged down and keeps giving me flash errors. Oh well, must be a sign to stay away. I guess the two weeks since I logged in has been the most peaceful two weeks in a long time. Fuck the hate over at other places.
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams
Thank you Una and NYexpat
Having worked for a subsidiary of a large US drug manufacturer, the ACA failed to reign in the industry. Instead, President Obama's deal has emboldened the pharmaceutical industry to continue charging multiple times the price for a drug sold in the US compared to the cost in Mexico, Canada, England, Cuba and so many other places.
There are reports that Cuba has developed a lung cancer vaccine not available here. It appears conservatives are not really interested in reducing the cost for treatment. The article below is dated May of 2015. Has the FDA approved it yet?
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cuban-developed-lung-cancer-vaccine-arrive-...
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking
This is all UnaSpenser
I just did the cross-posting to help out in solidarity; my rants never manage to bring me to tears like this piece did. You know those angry, frustrated ones where all you can do to not cry is to try and help in anyway you can. :/
"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."
"ill-health exploitation system"
That is the most astute label for it I've ever heard. That is exactly what it is. It does not promote health, does not particularly try to maintain health or prevent illness. What it does do is try to gouge people who have the misfortune of becoming sick.
People have treated each other horribly over primary choices
here? I guess I've seen a few exchanges that are harsh, one or two that got out of hand.
I'm always comparing this place to TOP, so perhaps my perspective is off--when you come from a centrifuge of screaming liars, places like C99 look pretty damned awesome.
As for Democrats choosing her, while obviously some did, the fraud is blatant. Ham-handed, even. I wouldn't count on the idea that a majority of Democrats voted for her. That's probably not true.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
that comments was only meant to be in the GOS posting.
It does not apply to here. I haven't seen anything problematic here.
Una, epipen prices are going up?
Now that they are on most schools' nurse's pharmacy? At least in NY that is true. When my kids went through, I supplied my own just in case (never deployed). Watch the price of naloxone (the rescue from opiate OD). Now being practically OTC, it's price will skyrocket, because they can.
I am sorry about your health complications, Lyme I think. Best wishes. Good that you have a caring and involved doctor.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.