Robert Sachs

How more apparent can it be that our political process is so wimpy, reactive, and utterly ineffective when we watch the hyper attention and posturing that comes with the Tuesday election in Massachusetts?

As you may or may not know, I never thought that the health care bill proposed by Democrats was really of any help to the American people in the first place. There is not enough mention of prevention or the efficacy of other forms of health care to really have an impact in bettering people's lives. Thus, I am not that bothered that one more seat has been taken by a Republican who will certainly vote against it.

But, for the Obama administration to adopt a tact to spend time watering down a bad bill to make it even more useless in an attempt to look like they are striving for bi-partisan approval - which, even if they get, will amount to nothing gained - shows no character or backbone.

In the end, when the bill fails, the political landscape for 2010 will be peppered with placards of blame in an attempt to attract voters to what looks like a dark side no matter which way you are looking at it.

In 2008, Barak Obama's rhetoric was compelling. And, we wanted to believe it. The reason is simple: It reflected the dreams and aspirations our forefathers had for this nation. They made the constitution as indestructible as they could to bend lawmakers in a truly democratic direction. But, they did not have much confidence that future generations would not try to make a mess of it.

So here we are. As corporate-run politics is monetarily, not morally based, it will only be that which hurts the bottom line that can change the political landscape.

It's tax season. Let's get creative.

Robert Sachs
The Buddha at War