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We do not have time to mourn. We do not have the time to chastise false friends. We must conserve our rage. We are freed from any lingering illusion that we have reliable allies but retain the burden of knowing real change must come.
We cannot abandon servicemen to the whims of those who claim power and prestige by leaving them to die for no good reason. There is nowhere to hide from the effects of remaining dependent on any fossil fuels let alone foreign oil and living on a continually rising pile of garbage. There is no way to escape the staggering price of drugs and health care and the higher cost in human life where they are lacking.
On your feet. We still have work to do.
Progressives will accomplish many things but the belief that Democrats are basically decent human beings and once pushed and bribed can be counted on to finish the job on their own is no longer operative.
The facts that there will be no public health insurance before 2013 and Speaker Pelosi abandoned Medicaid pacing appeared to be mitigated by the inclusion of the high risk pool, the 85% medical loss requirement and the conference still to come. But the Speaker allowing the healthcare bill to be turned into a weapon against women’s rights and the 39 dogs still voting against the bill exposes the great weakness of the Party and hints of more betrayals in the dark ahead.
With an eye to public financing as a key target and vigilance on how votes will be counted in every district in every state, as long as American government by auction endures we will no longer pay for stirring speeches or clever remarks. We will however pay for votes: after the vote. The Democratic Party itself offers nothing worth having and so gets nothing. We do not need majorities or a machine. The conservatives have shown US the way. All we need is a few good men. And women.
The heads of the Party have also done US a favor. They have publicly congratulated themselves for what they did not do. They have told the country that the Left won, and there is a public option in the coming law. They have told the country that the coming law will control the rising price of health care and drugs. They have told the country that everything will be accomplished without cutting services and without adding a dime to the deficit.
They could have done those things with true public health insurance and strict rules on private insurers. It would have been cheap and completely effective. They chose instead to be cunning. They will have to explain the gulf between their talk and reality every day between now and November 2010. And in 2013 they will have to explain why there is a mandate and yet no public health insurance that anyone who wants it can have. If Democrats believe they can retain their majority or the White House carrying around the failures they inherited and the ones they made without US well, it should be fun to watch.
We are far from powerless and we have not yet begun to fight.
4 Comments
And so what is next? I have never posted or blogged or anything but I did read and then donated to those I was asked to donate to, called those I was asked to call and did everything that I could to get President Obama elected. I don’t feel very proud today. I don’t feel like I got much back for my investment. I was raised by a true 60′s liberal who still has the pony-tail and beard. He marched EVERYWHERE and went EVERYWHERE and taught me that that was the way to get things done. Maybe it is because he got to tell me stories of all that he did and saw and especially accomplished, I don’t feel like I have much to share with my 6 year old. I did alot but I don’t think I accomplished much at all. I bet Stupak feels good today.
“that Democrats are basically decent human beings and once pushed and bribed can be counted on to finish the job on their own is no longer operative.” ; yes , it IS still -and WAS- operative. You just got confused about who was really doing the pushing and bribing and that’s understandable given Obama’s oratorical skills. Patent medicine sellers were also gifted oratorically but people seem to forget that. And the success of the likes of Limbaugh,Beck,Jim Cramer,etc. should tell you that the American public is still susceptible to such skills.
So well said, po.
I know I am going to start calling for Sanders’ S703. Single Payer Medicare for All. They yanked HR676 from the House. Well, I am stepping up my phone calls to the Senate now, with some angry ones for the House, too.
http://www.healthcare-now.org/statement-on-the-withdrawal-of-rep-weiners-single-payer-amendment-to-house-bill/
I was told I was tilting at windmills for HR676. But it was a solid windmill, whereas the public option was a football that got tossed around and kept getting smaller and smaller.
I really hope that progressives will stop compromising with people who can’t compromise, they can only bait and switch. And the insurance and pharma companies deserve to be OUT of the equation, the same way the banks should be, instead of vacuuming up taxpayer money as taxpayers are drowning.
amen!