Politics Will Determine Our Future

This is a long post, but I hope you will stay with it.

Since it is a political season with the upcoming elections taking place in six months, it is important that voters understand how their vote will affect their own interests, but also how it will influence the history of our country, and our planet.

I often wonder what would have happened if Senator Goldwater had won the 1964 presidential election. Would the United States have bombed Vietnam into oblivion, like Goldwater’s political enemies wanted us to believe? Or would the war have ended sooner, with fewer American lives lost? Would anything have changed?

And then there was 1968, when Richard Nixon was elected president. What if Hubert Humphrey had won that election? Would our lives have turned out any different? Certainly, the Watergate scandal wouldn’t have taken place. Still, I have to wonder about the enormous secrets that our government kept from us during the sixties, and how some of the worst finally became public in the early seventies. Would the shame have been any different?

For so many years I felt disenfranchised from the election process. We moved a lot because of my husband’s military career, and sometimes we landed in the middle of a conservative community, while the next move might put us in a more liberal setting. And I didn’t have a voice. My voting opportunities were limited because of not being able to register to vote in many of the places we lived. Things are different now, but then, military spouses were discouraged from becoming part of the communities where they lived. Yet, those communities were where I went to school and worked.

While then, it was confusing to be pulled politically in two different directions, I learned a lot and have been truly blessed to have had so conflicting influences on my life and political views.

What I can’t really comprehend is how this election seems to be attracting voters who hold extremist views. I believe that a person can only hold extremist ideas if they haven’t been exposed to the thoughts, ideas, and lifestyles of a variety of people—conservatives and liberals, rich and poor, educated and not. Maybe knowing the concerns and feelings of both sides gives me a more middle-of-the-road attitude. Still, the far right wing of the Republican party, which seems to have seized control of that party, would probably believe that I’m a wild-eyed liberal because I respect the views of liberals. And the far-left liberals would likely think that I’m a rabid conservative because, basically, I respect conservative values.

I’ve decided to lay out my views for readers, because my feeling is that MOST AMERICANS are caught somewhere in the middle, just as I am. I was raised in a conservative family and still hold conservative values, but unlike many of today's conservatives, ours was a family that believed it was our moral duty to help those less fortunate than us, no matter what their color, religion, or political beliefs. Today, it's impossible for me to buy into the extremist ideals held by those now in control of the Republican Party.

In the first place, as I see it, the conservative view that everyone has personal responsibility for their own and their family’s lives is morally wrong. I realize that it is impossible for people living in poverty to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, because many, many Americans don’t even own a pair of boots. Yes, sometimes someone does overcome overwhelming odds to become successful. Yet, how can the average person who is underpaid, under housed, and undernourished be expected to lift themselves out of poverty without help—a little boost up, or just plain luck? You see, I’ve known these people in places like Hawaii, California, Arizona, Washington, Texas, and Arkansas, and some are my friends.

I believe that it is the moral responsibility for the wealthy to help those who are less well-off. But experience tells me that many won’t. I’ve known these people in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Washington, Texas, and Arkansas, and some are my friends. The only way some will help those less fortunate is by being taxed. And yeah, they don’t like that—but we no longer live in a socially responsible society where all individuals voluntarily help the less fortunate.

There was a time when rich and poor lived in the same communities—sometimes side by side—so helping a neighbor in need was hard to ignore. But now, the rich segregate themselves behind iron gates so they don’t have to ever come face-to-face with a family that is struggling to get by. And the wealthy certainly don’t make it a habit to drive through the communities where homeless people roam the streets. "See no pain, feel no pain" seems to be the current mantra of the wealthy and upwardly mobile.

And some politicians live the lives of the rich and powerful, so don't have a clue what the real world is like. Just today I heard Senator McCain say he wants a healthcare system that will give each person $2500, or a couple or family $5000 to buy insurance on the open market. It sounds commendable, but there are several problems with his plan.

1. First and foremost, $5000 will not begin to pay the cost of health insurance for the average family.

2. Many people who lack health insurance, don’t have it because they can’t get it at any cost. Anyone with a pre-existing condition is refused insurance coverage, period. McCain’s plan doesn’t address this situation.

3. Those who retire before sixty-five face having no healthcare coverage until they turn sixty-five and get Medicare. Of those who had coverage when they worked, most lose it when they retire. And this happens during a period when chronic health problems typically crop up. I can’t even begin to enumerate the number of people I know personally who discovered they had serious illnesses immediately after they retired—long before Medicare kicked in—and long before they thought they might be stricken with diseases like cancer, heart disease, Parkinson’s, diabetes.

4. McCain's plan will only help insurance companies make more money with less state regulation, since he wants health insurance companies to be able to sell cross state lines! Gee, a politician doing something to help his rich business friends? Surely not!

Letting the profit-oriented marketplace become the dumping ground for everyone who needs healthcare will never work because it is profit-oriented. Private companies will never grant healthcare coverage to those who have pre-existing conditions, or are at risk for serious illnesses. So a government-based healthcare plan seems to be the only solution. And for those who claim that government-based healthcare will not work, let me tell you what it’s like.

For all the years we were in the military, and even following retirement, government healthcare was the only type of medical care we ever had. And for the most part, it was extremely good. In fact, since we are now getting healthcare on the open market, we’re finding that private physicians are much less caring, and in many cases, not as skilled. But we do have coverage now—the same as all people over sixty-five. And if we could find healthcare professionals as good as those military doctors we once had, we would have no complaints whatsoever.

Because of the reasons stated above about my having been exposed to, and friends with, people of every race, economic class, and educational level, and a few other reasons, I now hold a broader view of subjects like politics and healthcare than when I was younger. I do believe that society owes all its members basic healthcare, help in securing a good education, and social programs that aid those in need. And now I realize that who I vote for in the presidential race will have a lasting impact on society, including whether we all can live a humane existence, or whether some of us will suffer further deprivation because our tax dollars are used to wage war and wreak destruction in far-off countries instead of providing much-needed services to our young, poor and elderly.

For too many years since I reached adulthood, war profiteers have grown wealthier as our government awarded them billion-dollar contracts, while the young, poor, and less educated of our citizens have lost their lives fighting senseless battles. History was being made then, and it’s being made even now, as you read this. And it’s not always just or good. It’s up to each of us to vote our conscience, and not just for our own selfish concerns. We must remember that elections impact not only you and me, but millions of Americans, and indeed, the billions who inhabit our planet.

And yet, in spite of my beliefs about voting for a person that I think can best rule the country, I have faith that whoever gets elected, it is God’s will, and the world will evolve as God intends.