Why Americans vote against their own interests

[Flashermac]

No problem ... just live outside the USA and you CANNOT use Medicare. The AMA lobby has seen to it that you can only use it with US doctors. Now does that make you feel better?

 

 

 

 

[cavanami]

Medicare is bullshit!!!

Both my parents are on Medicare and they HAVE to BUY extra health insurance as Medicare doesn't cover everything and many doctors do NOT accept Medicare...there you go...a total billshit US gov health policy!!!

...and you will pay $350 ~ $450/month for the extra insurance coverage...so WTF good is Medicare??? of course the politician are covered under a much better plan where they are fully covered and don't pay shit!!! Welcome to the US of Azzhole government!!!

[Flashermac]

I remember my father telling me about getting a new pair of eye glasses. He saw the doc's bill ...$600! The doctor told him, "Don't worry. You still only pay $100. That's the bill I send to Medicare." Now you wonder why Medicare sucks? It's being milked dry.

 

 

 

 

[Bangkoktraveler]

Medicare and Social Security are programs that run in the black.

 

 

The problem with the programs is that money is stripped from the programs to pay for 40% of the Federal budget. At the White House website, GWB gave a talk saying the government has no intentions of paying that debt back. That crappy attitude should have gotten him [GWB] a swift kick in the ass but it didn't.

 

 

 

[allistar]

I probably will be moving to Thailand (or some other reasonably price/cheap 3rd world destination) in about 10-13 years, so I won't be getting medicare, or, at least, not for very long (4-5 years). B.T., you mean you don't trust the federal government to repay, with interest, all the IOU's it has put in the medicare trust fund account? If you can tell me the difference between what the federal government does in raiding medicare and social security and what corporations used to (hopefully) do to its employee's 401K's (which was illegal), I'd appreciate it.

[itsmedave]

Well, at least GWB wasn't "elite".

 

Certainly Sarah Palin isn't elite either (she may even be slightly below average) Pwrfect for the Republicans. What does it say about a party who openly deride the elite. Wouldn't a sane person WANT to be governed by people who are elite?

 

Elite is defined as: "The best or most skilled members of a group"

 

So by intentionally not choosing the elite to run their party, isn't it only logical that they would be so unsuccessful in leading in government.

 

This seems very similar to the Khmer Rouge who killed all the educated people and let the farmers run everything. We all know how well that turned out.

 

What is amazing is how proud the GOP are of their averageness and lack of curiosity and intellectual capacity. Why any educated person would vote for them is beyond me. Which makes me fear the problem in our country is that percentage-wise there are so many uneducated which cause us so much trouble.

 

Now some may say that it's not the true elite they are against but the "elite" those who aren't but think they are. And perhaps it may have started that way. But now, really look at the leaders of the parties. Obama and his group are genuinely smart and accomplished, whereas Bush/Palin and the like barely made it through school. So, as time has gone on, the argument against the "elite" has morphed, I believe, into an argument against the elite. (Cheney = Pol Pot???)

[Old Hippie]

I agree HH and I'm going to boycott using medicare when I reach 65, as I'm sure you do, since it is run by corrupt politicians and waste billions of dollars. Health care reform? Those 30 million people uninsured and countless others that can't get health insurance because of the astronomical insurance rates and/or pre-conditions? As Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake!"

 

 

Don't forget to turn down your Social security check as well!

 

As for voting against our best interests...I don't understand it either. You'd think the American people would want the same health care and pension protections their elected government gets.

 

I really don't buy the "rugged individual who is fed up with corruption" bit. I think the average American has no clue about what is going in their lives or what is going up their ass socially or politically. In general, we are a nation of sheep lead by the popular media people. That goes for both sides...though I do think "1 side" does a better job of distorting facts and getting personal.

[Steve]

With all the liberal elitism, etc., I have to ask. Is the essence of the article correct?

 

 

[Steve]

kamui why do you obsess about usa politics????

 

Because it had and has major influence on the (Western) world. Just envision how relaxed the last decade would have been without GWB and 9/11 and the US actions as a result of it.

The *whole* Western world and almost each and any country and any citizen would would be better of by now.

 

Also because the US has sold us - especially us Germans - a dream of a much better life under the economical' date=' political, military, cultural and moral leadership of the US. We Germans and I guess many other countries were happy to follow the leadership - and to experience that it took just two airplanes and 8 years of a failed government that everything crumbled into dust.

 

economical = see US bank collapse, GM, e.g.

political = see GWB lying to his closest allies and alienating almost government in the world, e.g.

military = see Iraq and now Afghanistan

moral = Guantanamo, black prisons, torture, e.g.

cultural = implosion of the American Way of Life (Colombine, e.g.).

 

The only recent positive development I see was the election of the first black president, which might have a very long lasting impact on the whole world in regard to the question how to deal with diversity (class, skin color, e.g.).

 

[/quote']

 

I have to ask then, was American leadership okay before the decade?

 

I would also like to hear theories on what europe would be like without American leadership and influence over the decades. Interesting thought. Would europe be better off or worse off?

[kamui]

kamui why do you obsess about usa politics????

 

Because it had and has major influence on the (Western) world. Just envision how relaxed the last decade would have been without GWB and 9/11 and the US actions as a result of it.

The *whole* Western world and almost each and any country and any citizen would would be better of by now.

 

Also because the US has sold us - especially us Germans - a dream of a much better life under the economical' date=' political, military, cultural and moral leadership of the US. We Germans and I guess many other countries were happy to follow the leadership - and to experience that it took just two airplanes and 8 years of a failed government that everything crumbled into dust.

 

economical = see US bank collapse, GM, e.g.

political = see GWB lying to his closest allies and alienating almost government in the world, e.g.

military = see Iraq and now Afghanistan

moral = Guantanamo, black prisons, torture, e.g.

cultural = implosion of the American Way of Life (Colombine, e.g.).

 

The only recent positive development I see was the election of the first black president, which might have a very long lasting impact on the whole world in regard to the question how to deal with diversity (class, skin color, e.g.).

 

[/quote']

 

I have to ask then, was American leadership okay before the decade?

 

I would also like to hear theories on what europe would be like without American leadership and influence over the decades. Interesting thought. Would europe be better off or worse off?

 

I don't know about Europe, but neither the German governments nor the German people were against the US leadship (Vietnam and some weapon [Pershing] aside). They all looked up to the US and their seemlingly limitless success, symbolized for example by the moon landing.

 

And especailly Germany would probably have the same level of development as today's Rumania without the Marshall plan which set the base for the its industrial success.

 

With the invasion of Iraq began the erosion of trust into the abilities and intentions of the USA.