I know of cynicism.

This healthcare bill is just another example of betrayed principles.

In 2006 I became an active Democratic because there seemed to be more folks like me in the Democratic Party than elsewhere. The motivation came when Robert Kennedy Jr. explained the inexplicable 2004 election results. The Republicans were planning to wrest the reigns of government and wage a 100 years of war. We share something with our electeds that the Republicans don’t have. We are compassionate and forgive our electeds for their transgressions. Even when the Republicans are in the minority, if one of theirs votes for a new tax or supports civil rights for gays, etc. he or she will likely not be re-elected. Democrats on the other hand, even when given large majorities, will allow their electeds to betray our interests, our principles, and on the very issues on which we gave them power.

The Democrats and Republicans share one thing. Whether they are elected by a grassroots movement or strictly corporate sponsorship once elected they turn from their base. They immediately become the privileged elected elite. Their decisions are based on information of which we plebeians are not party. A politician like Jared Huffman can garner support by speaking eloquently regarding water policy and its link to unsustainable development. He can then craft and vote for legislation that provides for just that type of development. The 80-member Congressional Progressive Caucus can in July draw a line ‘not to be crossed’ regarding healthcare and then in unison leap that line in November and declare victory. The California Democratic State Caucus can vote for $2,500,000,000 in tax breaks for corporations and cut healthcare to Medical patients of similar amounts. The California Democrats will cut education spending by $9,000,000,000 and say that we plebs need to give up our daily lives and elect a few more like them before they will do anything we need.

It is true that Jared tried to get some environmental policy in that water bill. Policy is short lived. I am not sure that it even survived to be voted on. The peripheral canal will be here for a 100 years. And the Congressional healthcare bill will provide some needed changes to our healthcare cost, delivery, and insurance system. But it is not universal and it allows for death by a thousand cuts over time. It is not the fundamental change the Progressives were promised. And our State’s Democrats believe that providing services to some is better than not passing any budget.

After 40 years of such decision making our state has become a failed state. One in 8 Americans lives in California. America is approaching that condition. If it stood alone it would be the 38th most populous nation. Forty years ago California had the worlds best education system and a college education was nearly free. California had laws that protected workers rights to a job. Now we are an ‘at will’ state. We can be fired at will if we are lucky enough to even have a job. A great many jobs now are independent contracts with no rights whatsoever. Nearly 1 in 5 Californians do not even have legal civil status. We are transients, mostly changing our place with our stage of life. Our collective sense of community and place has been eroded to the benefit of the profit motive and to the detriment of our environment.

If you talk to an elected California Democrat they don’t get that this 40-year nightmare is not a positive vision for our future. Others of our party will jump to the elected’s defense as if you are personally attacking him. I haven’t changed much from the young man who gave up his college deferment on the principle that my privileged condition was unfair. I want electeds that will stand on principle. I want Democrats that will insist on it. I might have to wait a few years until the really big economic crash occurs. But do we really need to wait for the conditions of 1933 to change how we are governed? We need our electeds to use the outside strategy promoted by the Progressive Democrats of America, that the Republicans are using so well.