By Tom Crofton
The Commoner Call (1/24/19)
The Commoner Call (1/24/19)
The large and growing field of Democratic candidates for President offer a wide range of personal histories, beliefs, and issues to run on. This is good for the country.
There seems to me to be a very simple way to narrow the field quickly. My two simple, straightforward questions to each and every one:
Do you support single payer health care for all instead of any plan based on insurance, and do you see that the enormity of the climate crisis requires a massive federal response?
All other issues are really quite dependent on these two. Empire building and endless war are a response to the assumed need to control fossil fuels. They bankrupt the economy and prevent us from doing the right thing on health care. Market forces cannot be relied on to solve health care or defense spending. Reliance on the market and its lobbying of government is the root cause of the problem.
The “moonshot” concept of putting a massive priority into dealing with these two issues would create a new society based on health, peace, and prosperity. Tax reform, redistricting, campaign finance reform, and a thousand other fronts in our battles are all methods to achieve change, but they need to be connected to the greater peril. Without a clear and expressed goal this election will be more of the corporate propaganda of cancerous growth, and fictional homeland security fighting endless wars for maintaining the status quo. Capitalist propaganda says government should not pick winners and losers, except in the case of big business, especially when it comes to the health and defense industries. We need a candidate who will confront both head on.