Keith Olbermann made numbers of powerful and accurate critiques of DC politics, but he was a man making about $7.5 million a year and, consequently, well-removed from the concerns and problems of everyday life in the US. And, as a journalist, he was (mostly and ethically) not putting his money where his mouth was.

I look forward to seeing what he will do now, since he need not be constricted by any issues of partisanship. 

But, we don't don't need him to be there to make those observations. We can do that ourselves. Not to mention, he was (like the Fox people) mostly preaching to the choir. 

We, the 98%, that keep this country functioning, must do what the right did to get itself in a position to affect Republican Party politics: organize, apply pressure to the mainstream of the Dems who do the bidding of their corporate masters. Become Democratic Party precinct captains. Go to county and city Democratic Party meetings and vote for policies that support a green economy, that stop war funding, that keep the hired hands of the robber barons from stealing more of our common wealth: Take over the Democratic Party all over the country from the corporate pawns. There can be no compromise.

I firmly believe that, as long as we continue to vote for the (nominally) lesser of two evils, we will never create a politics that is for the 98%. If the Republicans win in the interim, things may get worse short-term  (though they are already horrific now), but, I get less than $1100 a month from Social Security and a small pension, and I'm willing to take the chance. Do you really think we will do better under the Ds. Put down that crack pipe, please! 

The majority of Americans want universal single payer health care. We want out of wars. We want the United States to spend its money at home to benefit the jobless and the underemployed; to build housing for the homeless and the poor; to repair and replace the crumbling American infrastructure: programs that could put us all to work, not merely enhance the wealth of the 2%. We want the rich taxed more. We want Medicare and Social Security to be inviolate. We want the return of the rule of law, the end of government spying and detention outside the Constitution and the US Code. 

This is what individuals say in greater numbers when they are polled about these issues. This is not a "center-right" country. That's mythology that is based on the completely inaccurate self-definitions that pollsters sometimes ask: "Do you think of yourself as Democrat, Republican or independent?" Or, "Do you think you are a liberal or a conservative or a moderate?" These are meaningless questions. It's when people are asked the particulars that we know--from their answers--that they--we--want community, not devastating, selfish individualism.

But, devastating, selfish individualism is the policy of the Ds and the Rs: divide and conquer. Obama and the Democratic leadership are as much tools of the corporations: the medico-industrial complex, the military-industrial complex, the oil/energy giants, and, of course, the financial industry, as the Republicans. 

That financial industry, particularly, has been doing exactly what it did in the run up to the Great Depression, with the complete cooperation of both parties. Officially, the recession is over, but that is only true for the corporations, who have posted record profits. We, the 98%, including the Tea Party believers who are working against their own self interest, are being robbed by the corporations with the daily assistance of our elected "representatives." 

We are left without jobs, homes, pensions or prospects. We have corporate health "care" that will continue to rise at unsustainable levels, while not giving us health care we can actually afford (even if there are no pre-existing conditions exclusions), because the Ds are as corrupt as the Rs. The so-called deficit hawks (including Obama and his appointees to the Deficit Commission) are happy with the deficits as long as it is not being spent on the 98%. 

It is clear that they--all of them, Ds and Rs--are lying about deficits and health care costs. The United States spends more than twice as much as the other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development for health care per individual. (see the Wikipedia article on OECD http://bit.ly/97OQ5p) These are the countries of Europe, along with Japan, Australia, New Zealand and a few others (country list http://bit.ly/g5d7ij) So, if our "leaders" were concerned about the deficit, they would have immediately instituted universal single payer health care, which would save around $1 trillion per YEAR, with better health outcomes. 

The much ballyhooed tax cuts for the rich will cost $690 billion over the next decade http://bit.ly/dGeoXK. That's $69 billion per year compared to an annual savings through single payer of $1 trillion dollars. But the tax cuts are for the rest of us, too. That (according to Paul Krugman http://nyti.ms/gCQmAQ) amounts to $4 trillion over the next decade. So that's $400 billion a year, once again compared to a $1 trillion savings every year.  

Even if the savings didn't work out to the full trillion (transition costs, other unforeseen issues), what if we saved "only" $750 billion per year? 

You get the picture. The health care costs are the heart of the budget problem. Social Security is completely uninvolved in the debt because SS has its own funding, hence, has no influence on the debt. As long as people and companies are getting charged the payroll tax, SS is collecting money. 

Meanwhile, Obama, who has been pushing for cuts to SS, has "cut a deal" with the Rs to reduce the payroll tax by 2% for the next two years. When the sensible, REAL deficit hawk approach would be to remove the cap on payroll taxes (currently topping out at $106,000 per year of income--that is, once you earn $106,000, you don't pay any more payroll taxes on earned income). Our "bipartisan" government is cutting the actual amount SS collects, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy: "SS is running out of money." 

I more strongly suggest we should stop voting for Ds who do not challenge--and vote against--Obama's policies. Remember, these are now, under Obama, bipartisan policies that, for all their bitching and moaning, the Rs are very happy with. The whining is all about making things worse, and the Ds will give into it over and over, as they have since the 1970s, and, especially since the Clinton regime. 

We are in terrible trouble in this country and sitting at home complaining, or watching TV personalities, as clever and entertaining as they may be, means we are deluding ourselves that the Dems and Obama are going to suddenly turn around and see the light. Obama and his party are doing exactly what they intend to. It is not bad advisors (as I have seen some say). Nor is it obstructionist Republicans, since the Dems have been going along with Republican policies since Clinton passed NAFTA and helped get the Glass-Steagall Act (http://bit.ly/cySuNn) overturned in 1999--with the help of then-Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers. 

 We should start taking over the Democratic Party. We should organize to be out in the street, standing in the way of the machine that is breaking us on the wheel of capitalism.

We have nothing to lose but our chains.