Article: SUCCESS IS NOT AN OPTION:

Consider that in 1984, Reagan won with 30% of the popular vote. Of those polled, 4% said they voted for Reagan because "he's a real conservative". This equates to 1% of voters stating they were endorsing conservatism with their vote. America's media proclaimed the election "a powerful mandate for conservatism". Polls showed that in 1984 over 80% of Americans supported increases in social spending and a majority favored cuts in military spending over decreased spending on healthcare. Obviously the Reagan and his administration chose to curry the favor of 20% of the population when they implemented policy.

The United States is the only industrialized nation with no universal health care system. 46 million Americans are uninsured and the WHO recently rated the US healthcare system as number 37 in the world. Chomsky cited numerous opinion polls, including those conducted by NBC-Wall Street Journal and the Pew Research Center. Each poll reflected that over 60% of Americans wanted a universal health care system. Yet the privatized system is too great a benefit to the "substantial people". It is politically "untouchable". A nation as wealthy as the United States that does not provide basic healthcare to all of its people is a failed state.

Deceitful manipulation of public opinion for political gain is a specialty of US government elites. As Congress was cutting $20 billion from the Medicaid program, Tom Delay led the charge (made possible by corporate media) to give Terri Schiavo the "chance we all deserve". Where is the duplicity, you ask? Terri Schiavo was a Medicaid patient.

How Can We the People Reclaim the United States?

What measures would restore the American government to its Constitutional mandates to "provide for the general welfare" and to "provide for the common defense", return the US to being a law-abiding member of the world community, and eradicate the "democratic deficit"?

In Failed State, Chomsky suggested:

1. accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and the World Court.

2. Sign and carry forward the Kyoto protocols

3. let the UN take the lead in international crises

4. rely on diplomatic and economic measures rather than military ones in confronting terror

5. keep to the traditional interpretation for the UN Charter

6. give up the Security Council veto and have a "decent respect for the opinion of mankind", as the Declaration of Independence advises, even if power centers disagree

7. cut back sharply on military spending and sharply increase social spending

Beyond Chomsky's suggestions, here are some avenues the poor, working and middle class can pursue to put their state back on a path toward success for them:

1. massive, sustained boycotts of major corporations which engage in egregiously criminal behavior, in the US or abroad.

2. massive and sustained boycotts of the mainstream media

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