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Any good plan has to be substantive, not just emotional. And any plan has to present not only what specifically should be changed, but why–specifically–private sector management could do it any better than government management. We just don’t hear that from you, and we need to. If the people who believe that privatization is primarily about money and profit are wrong, then you must make that case as well. This will be  mandatory for all your future anti-government campaigns.

We can’t even get the slightest  reassurance from you that our money will be used for reasonably nutritious meals in our schools.  Do you expect us to hand over the whole operation to Chef Boyardee? We understand that every time someone disagrees with you, it doesn’t justify “big government.” We also understand… increasingly, that your infusion of money into politics, even at the local district school board level, is wrong. Wrong, creepy, and an obvious threat to our democracy.

We’ve had it with corporations making enormous fortunes through our healthcare needs, student loans, gasoline prices and “engineered financial instruments.” And when those corporations screw that up as well, you give them our tax revenues too. Trillions of dollars meant to fund our government’s responsibilities to us and you cover careless bets and systemic failures of the private sector with it instead. We understand exactly why our economic inequalities are growing, and every time you show your complete contempt for our understanding of it by calling these entities people, and “job creators,” your failure to serve the American electorate honorably becomes clearer.

Are you still–in 2011–trying to wordsmith privatizing Social Security and Medicare? Even those of us who forgive you for TARP–or even thought it was necessary policy–are stunned by the idea that you are still trying to feed us  that Wall Street and big banks can be better trusted with the life savings of 99% of this country, than our government’s Social Security Administration. You presented Paul Ryan’s budget to make a big, right-wing splash. But even white-haired Republicans who used to get excited about the fevered pitch of Tea Party rhetoric called you out, in a big way, for your “personalizing” of their Medicare. We watched you scramble, and after about a week start lying in response, saying “well, low-income seniors will get additional assistance.” However, there was nothing in your original legislation to square this. These are the most critical issues of American’s lives you’re bullshitting us about…again.

We don’t want “government out of our lives,” we know that’s not viable. And we have no tolerance for the idea of taking our country back socially  to the 1950′s while the rest of the world progresses. We want money and lies, out of our government. To be clear, this is a political issue, not simply a party initiative. Democrats who share your weaknesses or aspirations are on notice as well, you bet. But the GOP has moved so severely to the right that even the positions of many regular middle class American conservatives have been fooled into aligning with billionaires.  Yet many wealthy Democratic and Independent politicians who take corporate money are fighting against you for the ideals of a vast majority of this country.   These Democrats and Independents can help us develop an intelligent, productive, honorable ‘center’ for this century. A truly representative Democracy. There is almost no light from the right in this direction.

We’ll reform, cut, and examine everything if we have to, but not to empower your policies of privatization and plutocracy. We’ll do it to improve obvious problems, with genuine solutions. We will not tolerate austerity in America while corporate criminals and industrial polluters are free to make record profits and pay no taxes. Socialism, just like capitalism, has become perverted. We’re concerned about the huge cost to us while we watch billions of our tax dollars going to “subsidize” the richest corporations in the world.  This is not about NPR or the National Endowment for the Arts. In fact, our desires for taxpayer-funded programs in America are quite clear,they are about people, not profit, and they are much less expensive than yours. There are enormous markets to make enormous profits from, there always will be, but capitalism cannot be merely political. These markets may be yours to enjoy and exploit, but the government is ours.

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