When Barack Obama won the American presidency last fall, he promised change. At the time I was utterly convinced that he was the only person who could bring change not only to America, but to the world. More convincing was the electoral Democratic majorities won in both the House and the Senate. In Electoral College terms and popular opinion, Obama and the Democrats were given an overwhelming mandate to govern.

More than a year later, however, little progress has been made on several important promises of “change”, including health care.

An article in last week’s Economist asked the question if the American system is fundamentally flawed or just not being played well enough by the Democrats. The paper sided with the latter opinion and I’m inclined to agree.

Apparently a number of senior Democratic politicians and aides were angered by President Obama’s most recent attempt to appease the Republicans by altering the health care bill yet again to include some of their requests such as tort reform.

I’m assuming they’re wondering what I’m wondering: you were elected to bring change; you have the votes in your party to bring it; so bring it.

That sounded like a challenge, didn’t it? Good, I meant it.

I see no reason why an Executive and Congress that was elected and has the ability to bring change would rather try and make everyone happy by debating it. Well, time is running out because after the Massachusetts Senate loss to Scott Brown and the other losses that will undoubtedly occur in November’s mid-term elections, the chance for real change may be lost for good.

Just in case you missed it, check this out below. Very proud of Barack tonight and outlook is hopeful.

Dick Cheney just appeared on Fox News Sunday and criticized the Obama administration for investigating CIA officials involved in “enhanced” interrogations. What a surprise. My thoughts on the subject can be found here.

Perhaps Cheney is afraid of what I was calling for: the big guys like him—the real culprits—to be brought down. But I won’t hold my breath.

Then, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, said that he’s concerned CIA officials will be “too timid” whilst interrogating suspects moving forward out of fear that they will be prosecuted for their actions. As if the line between torture and not torture is just so gray that interrogators probably wouldn’t be able to tell their ass from their face.

I encourage you to watch the video above—Ted Kennedy’s last major speech. Right in the middle he proudly declares that the main cause of his life was to deliver universal health care to the American people because it is their right, not a privilege. How sad it is that he could not live to see it through.

The last two weeks have been quite the display down south. Never before have I seen such knee-jerk reactions about something from seemingly (or not so) ordinary people than during the health care debate.

But death panels, “pulling the plug on granny,” wealth redistribution, final solutions, nazism, communism, fascism (two things at complete opposite ends of the spectrum, mind you) aside….

I’m sorry, I lost my train of thought there for a moment. Yikes.

The question is: why?

I’m extremely fascinated by the United States. In fact, if you look at its meteoric rise over the last 150 years, it’s really quite remarkable. Its people should be as patriotic as they are. That being said, how can a people be so proud to belong to a particular nation, yet espouse hatred at their own who would suggest for a moment that the nation should look after its own.

On one hand it makes perfect sense given the foundation which the country was founded upon: individual prosperity and individual freedom. However, the country is not now what it once was despite all the talk of the constitution being violated and the founders turning in their graves. Since the 1930s and the New Deal, through the Civil Rights movement, the Great Society, Medicare, Medicaid, and a plethora of other legislation, the United States has been on a steady path towards becoming a welfare state.

Like it or not.

But the most interesting thing of all is that Americans opposing health care reform don’t even understand how much better it could be than what they’ve got. Nevermind for a moment that the best health care systems in the world are socialized, but the best health care in the United States—that for the military and for seniors—is socialized!

“Our troops deserve the best,” agreed Bill Kristol—prominent conservative columnist. Ironically that was the one thing that him and Jon Stewart agreed upon in a recent interview. Meanwhile, O’Reilly, Hannity, and Beck (who got owned by Jon Stewart in another recent episode of the Daily Show) are devoting almost every waking moment towards jettisoning the idea of socialized health care.

It seems quite clear to me at this point. The Democrats should jam it and all its glory through Congress and make the rest of the country just get used to it. In my opinion, health care is a human right and such is especially the case in a country as rich as the United States. Worried about the deficit? Cut military spending in half. You’d still be spending more money on defense than any other country in the world. But then again, c’mon…

Amidst the barrage of Congressional bickering, pundit “expertise”, and special interest ads all about American health care reform, no one seems to be explicitly pointing out that there are actually two issues at hand.

No politician could be opposed to the practical first—making health care more efficient, and thus less costly for everyone as it currently stands. This includes making it more affordable for businesses to provide insurance for their employees and for individuals to purchase coverage. The second issue (which logically follows the first) is the moral question—how to help the 47 million Americans who can’t afford health care and those who are losing their coverage due to the recession and lost jobs.

To no surprise, the discourse amongst politicians and pundits is being clouded by the lumping together of these two issues that need addressing. Most definitely this is the case for many Republicans and conservatives who are so afraid of mandated federal health care that they would almost prefer to keep the system as inefficient and costly as it is now. There are also those who are trying to tarnish Obama’s presidency by making it more difficult, exhibited by recent comments by Republican Senator Jim DeMint who said: “If we can stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

If you didn’t already know, many politicans don’t seem to want to help their constituents; they want to help them their way.

And there she goes again, gosh darn it. But then again, there we go again caring.

Stop reporting, media. Stop watching, people.