Strickland: SPAN No-Show
Yesterday at the SPAN-Ohio rally (Single-Payer Action Network), Tim Kettler, the Green Party’s candidate for Secretary of State, and I were there to show our solidarity. Tim spoke as a small business owner, and called upon other business owners to pay a slightly higher rate of tax in order to insure all people in Ohio.
The SPAN rally was on the Third Street side of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. On the other side of the Statehouse, bikers (as in motorcycle riders) were holding their own rally. As irony would have it, Ohio Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland was reportedly schmoozing the bikers, according to Columbus Indymedia. Meanwhile, some union forces and SPAN coalition members were just a bit hostile to Green Party candidates, who support their efforts – in contrast to their candidate, Strickland.
Of course, the surest way to get Strickland to come out for universal health care and single-payer is to actually support the Third Party candidates who agree with and will fight for your position. The irony is that the SPAN forces may very well let Strickland off the hook by not pressuring him to endorse the SPAN issue. He’ll run to the center, and then, with a right-wing Republican Statehouse, it will be four more years of politics as usual and the erosion of health care benefits.
I don’t get why the Dems won’t force their man to support SPAN. This “run to the middle” junk has proven wrong over and over. Someone once said that clinging to beliefs that have been proven false over and over is the very definition of insanity.
Wake up, people of Ohio (and America)! I hope you feel good stopping some people from having abortions and getting married, while the big corporations strip your pocketbook and leave you out on the streets.
Universal healthcare now!
…and that is exactlty why I will not support Strickland. He will work the center and will not stand up for what is right!
I am tired of the Democrats pretending they have an auto-right to progressive groups. They can, as a party, simply “endorse” the health care issue but then, with the exception of Kucinich, they completely fail to act on it once in office. They can criticize G W Bush 24/7 but when it comes to war, Patriot Acts, taxes, No Child Left Behind, the environment, and poverty, they agree with him beyond any slim margin.
I am sorry I was not at the rally yesterday. Originally I intended to attend, but I have perpetual problems with transportation from Akron, so I had to support from a distance. I am, beyond any doubt, one of the Green candidates for office who supports and works with SPAN.
http://www.voteKovacs.com
If anybody knows how to run to the right it is the Ohio Democrats, you can count on it.
Then maybe Ohio voters will see the light in adopting outside of the Democratic and Republican parties.