I seriously doubt that America has a competent government

It is my opinion that the first function of every government in existence is to provide social and economic stability and general security to its population. It's job is not to provide protection to the wealthy oligarch or to large corporations nor is it the job of a competent government to fight wars of choice because some stupid leader thinks that they can change another society to something that leader prefers. That's the Iraq war, and earlier the one in Vietnam if you don't already get the reference.

Because of the increasing cost and complexity of health care, and because of the many health dangers that exist in our increasingly complex and globalized economy and society, any government that fails to assure health care to every citizen and legal resident is failing in a major test of what it takes to justify its existence and it should be replaced immediately with a government that will provide universal health care. It is inexcusable that any citizen should for any reason have their health insurance canceled with they file any claim or be forced into bankruptcy because of the costs of care for an illness or accident.

Harry Truman ran for President on a platform that included a demand for and the promise of national health care. That was over 60 years ago, and the wealthy American oligarchs together with a greedy and insensitive medical establishment has delayed and blocked every effort to provide that program in all those decades. The American government has failed its people for more than two generations now. Will it fail again this summer?

Apparently I am not the only person who feels this way. David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo published this email earlier this evening:

TPM Reader AB:

Just to mention something that is obvious, but hopefully not overlooked, i.e., if this country cannot pass a bill which insures that every citizen has access to medical care, which every developed country has managed to do (and got done many many years ago), there is something very fundamentally and structurally wrong with this country.

Such an event, in my mind, would confirm that we live with a completely corrupt and dysfunctional form of government. Forty nine states, each with bicameral legislative bodies, some of which have distinguished themselves recently with unabashed levels of incompetency and cluelessness. Then, graft a federal government over that, which is also bicameral, the non-representative portion of it being filled with officials who are certifiable morons and/or who are bought and sold like whores by wealthy contributors.

Talk about a Waterloo.

This is a defining moment in our history. Do we fulfill our supposed status as a "shining city on a hill" or continue our long slow decline into a second rate oligarchy?

I am not one prone to hyperbole.

I believe this to the depths of my soul.

I have no idea who TPM Reader AB is, but he has it right.

If the government fails to pass the health care bill this Summer, then it is time to change to government to a party that will pass it. That's clearly not the Republicans or Libertarians, and if the Democrats fail this summer, it is no longer the Democrats.