“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.”
– Joseph Campbell
In today’s political climate it seems we have two transformational candidates: Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Trump says, through his actions, that his meaning he’s bringing to party is one of division, derision, and segregation. Bernie is one of human solidarity and eliminating the vulgarity of austerity.
Let’s take health care for example. Trump looks at the half-measure that was RomneyCare/Obamacare, sees Obama associated with it, and is compelled to segregate himself from it. Add to that he has pharma banksters lining his pocket and he has every reason to tell you that your employer choosing your health insurance is actually you choosing your health insurance.
Now take papa-bear Bernie Sanders. He wants to save businesses upwards of $9,000 in average health care premium costs by adopting Medicare for All. The average working-class family paid roughly $5,300 in premiums per year, and under the Sanders plan those same families will pay roughly $850 per year. A saving of over $4,400.
Trump claims that Medicare for All would cost $32.6 trillion. And while that claim is arguably accurate, what he doesn’t tell you is that even a libertarian think group, trying to crap all over M4A, found that it would save $200 billion a year.
Truthout.org reports that a new study, not trying to crap on the program, illustrates that M4A would save $500 billion a year.
With this in mind, I want you to consider, anytime someone in mainstream media cries out: “How are you going to pay for it?,” what they are quite literally yelling, but not in so many words is: “How are you going to afford to spend less money on a better system?”
Slightly absurd, no? A better system you also ask?
Yes. Bernie would eliminate donut holes and outrageous dental costs and provide an overall comprehensive and superior plan.
What else will this eliminate by covering prescription drugs? Did you know that the Sackler family, one of those very responsible for the opioid epidemic and loss of thousands upon thousands of lives through murder by their drugs, are now set to make a profit on selling drugs to help with the epidemic? They are quite literally murdering people with their drugs and offering another drug if you don’t want to be murdered once addicted.
This type of cartel behavior is what Medicare for All would eliminate. Not just that, but the Sackler family was reported to hide their money overseas and in trusts in an effort to hide it from the government, knowing at some point their grift would be exposed.
This is why I am running for office in Utah’s 1st Congressional District in Northern/Eastern Utah, an R+26 district, as a Berniecrat/Kulinskicrat. While I have a monumental fight ahead of me, is it any more monumental than stemming the flood of 40,000 people dying per year, right now, due to being uninsured or underinsured?
I cannot speak for you. I cannot guide your hand when voting. I can, however, be a bulwark between you and the corporatists that want to make a profit off of adding misery to your life.
"What it means to be fully human is to strive to live by ideas and ideals, and not to measure our life in terms of obtained desires but those small moments of integrity, compassion, rationality, even self-sacrifice. Because in the end, the only way we can measure the significance of our own lives is by valuing the lives of others."
— Life of David Gale
If we do not value others, how can we say that we truly value ourselves? Doesn’t love, true love, love for humanity, demand to be expressed?
Ask yourself this Super Tuesday, March 3, and in November, who’s representing your humanity?
Joshua Cameron
Joshua Cameron is an information analyst and former Army medic running for the Democratic nomination in Utah’s 1st Congressional District.
