Ralph Nader

"Obamacare is a fraud on the American people."

As if he didn't hurt the country enough in 2000? I like Ralph Nader a lot, but he needs to get his arrogant ass off his derailing soapbox and realize he is not living in a vacuum. No matter how much we don't like it, we have to go through a political process in order to accomplish anything. Doing something as big as single payer so fast goes against the best interest of our country. Part of the political process is making sure we do not act too quickly without careful consideration of possible consequences. Remember when we rammed our way into Iraq, Afghanistan and the USA PATRIOT Act without following the political process? Anything that goes wrong (real or fabricated) will be blamed on the person in charge of putting us there. If we go more slowly, the blame is shared by all of us because we as Americans decided to do something together.

Do we really want to give the Republicans ammunition to capitalize on early failings of a single payer plan and enable them to throw the baby out with the bath water? You don't just jump into a hot bathtub. Responsible politics would have single payer in mind as the end result, but taking small steps to ensure we get there. Because we do not agree with the political right does not make them impotent (yes, that was an old, white men need Viagra joke).

The present plan (why do people keep calling it Obamacare when Congress is writing it? As an aside, that seems like horrible long-term planning by Republicans considering, if successful, people will associate the greatest political achievement in modern history with Obama) is not likely the end result. Our country is creeping toward becoming a banana republic, and it is naive to think we can forcibly go up against the established system and oust the leviathan moneyed interests with a 26 page bill. It will take incremental steps; and if it means we have to concede some things in order to move the political process along, so be it. One initial step could be a government option to show people shouldn't fear the idea of the government running something as important as health care. Considering how much Republicans have tarnished the government since Reagan, that will be tremendously difficult. Remember, "Government is not the solution to our problem; it is the problem"? Regardless of the validity of that statement, a huge number of people base their worldview off of it. Believing you do not have to deal with these such people is hiding your head in the sand.

I like Nader and applaud his ideals. But throwing his hat in the ring with the political opposition is doing nothing but hurting his own cause. He is too arrogant to see that.