How Fares the Republic? An Activist Government for Turbulent Times

You Can Swear and Kick in Vegas That You're Not A Gambling Man: 44 & The Health care Reform Agenda-- Risks and Opportunities

George Bush entered office with a right-wing, neoconservative, activist agenda. Some of the policies led to the current economic crisis and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although our democratic Republic provides for elections as a structural corrective -- when the pendulum slips too far right, it will certainly require a leftward momentum in a subsequent election -- the right, as an essentially non-democratic faction, will do everything in its fear and its power to attempt to fight the legitimacy of a liberal-left government, duly elected in a virtual landslide, elected without the need for any judicial chicanery. The Obama administration is wisely taking risks and exercising its political capital to stimulate the economy and institute health care reform, which would be an enormous step forward for the U.S.

The extreme rightist conservative forces will no doubt battle this every step of the way. Town hall meetings with elected officials highjacked by abusive and violent right wing rhetoric, "tea parties," personal attacks on the President. We see it in the political rhetoric about socialism and the futile efforts to undercut the President's legitimacy by arguing that he is not a U.S. citizen. What is clear is that American political activism in support of the Obama administration and agenda is more important than ever. The election, in a sense, is not over. It is never over, once it becomes necessary to fight back against the conservative/right political culture that eschews discussion, seeks to nullify elections, is fearful of progress and change that is not dictated by corporate masters and oligarchs, and which in the end is just a sad, ignant, sore loser.
--BB


NY Times: Obama Injects Himself Into Health Talks, Despite Risks:

"In pursuing his proposed overhaul of the health care system, President Obama has consistently presented himself as aloof from the legislative fray, merely offering broad principles. Prominent among them is the creation of a strong, government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers and press for lower costs.
Behind the scenes, however, Mr. Obama and his advisers have been quite active, sometimes negotiating deals with a degree of cold-eyed political realism potentially at odds with the president’s rhetoric.

Last month, for example, hospital officials were poised to appear at the White House to announce a deal limiting their industry’s share of the costs of the overhaul proposal when a wave of jitters swept through the group. Senator Max Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman and a party to the deal, had abruptly pulled out of the event. Was he backing away from his end of the deal?....

Details -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/policy/13health.html?_r=1&hp

So Much for Democracy: The Growth of Right Wing Militias in the American Midwest:

AP reports: Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.

The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.

Details:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9A140QG0&show_article=1