Healthcare in the US is a privilege

[PeterPilot]

Yep. Private interests lobbying for laws that hamper their competition and give them an edge. That was the story of ACA. The story of so much "well-meaning" legislation that was really just a handout to business interests


Huh? What does that have to do with fascism?

Socialism isn't "government funding something that helps the common man". It's state control of the means of production.

It has to do with fascism in exactly what you said, private interest corporations lobbying for laws that hamper their competition (in this case even as 'the competition' was founded in the US Constitution) and given them an advantage.

I use the term fascism in the Mussolini version, corporatism. We have a system in which the federal government is controlled by special interests, and the vast majority of them are corporations. A system in which corporations write laws and policies on the federal level. A variant example is what Ike called the military industrial complex, or more recently the medical industrial complex which delivered the scamdemic upon us by way of the CARES Act and others.

 

[dblack]

It has to do with fascism in exactly what you said, private interest corporations lobbying for laws that hamper their competition (in this case even as 'the competition' was founded in the US Constitution) and given them an advantage.

I use the term fascism in the Mussolini version, corporatism. We have a system in which the federal government is controlled by special interests, and the vast majority of them are corporations. A system in which corporations write laws and policies on the federal level. A variant example is what Ike called the military industrial complex, or more recently the medical industrial complex which delivered the scamdemic upon us by way of the CARES Act and others.

Ahh...yes, actual corporatism. I agree.

But that's interesting. I've always seen corporatism as more a matter of government seeking to control special interests, by parsing out favor and penalty as necessary to balance their interests. But the collusion is the same, either way.

The key component of corporatism, in my view, is the replacement of individual rights, nominally equal for everyone, with group rights, which depend on which interest group (class, race, profession, etc ..) you belong to - aka "identity politics". And we're deeply into that transition. Democrats won't even mention individual rights, other than derisively. And Republicans mostly agree - in their actions if not their rhetoric. They're both committed to the primacy of the state as the ultimate representation of society.

 

[PeterPilot]

Is the difference between GOP and Dems theoretical or practical? I think only theoretical. In real life, judging by actions in government, there is no difference. Politics is the art of compromise isn't it?

 

[dblack]

Is the difference between GOP and Dems theoretical or practical? I think only theoretical. In real life, judging by actions in government, there is no difference.

Now that Republicans are all in on the culture war, I don't see much difference between them in terms of ideology. They're more worried about restroom etiquette than clearly defining the purpose of government.

Politics is the art of compromise isn't it?

I think consensus is more important than compromise. And there IS a difference.