Really now, for the good of us all, we need to start again.

MadHound

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Wed Mar-03-10 09:47 PM
Original message

Really now, for the good of us all, we need to start again.

Health care reform has become a joke, worse than a joke. We now have a bill, the Senate version, which is going to hand a mandated monopoly over to the insurance industry, with price control loopholes big enough to drive a truck through. It will continue to drive insurance premiums higher, it will hit union members doubly hard, since the health care plans fairly negotiated by the unions will be taxed, while the rich, not so much. It will also put further constraints on a woman's right to choose.

The charade of passing this "progressive legislation" has become obscene to behold. Time and again they have capitulated to the minority, running for the hills when the 'Pugs said boo. The Dems, including the President, have inserted provision after Republican provision chasing mythical bipartisanship, trying to avoid a filibuster, trying to avoid a fight.

Fuck that.

I'm not one of those who have advocated for single payer over all, I am old and wise enough to realize that we're not going to achieve that in one fell swoop. However I do think that a strong public option, especially in the face of any sort of mandate, is a necessity. That should the compromise position. We should also put a stop to this constant drip we've seen in legislation after piece of legislation that has continued to limit choice. It's that simple, just take a stand. Oh, and as far as pissing all over your liberal base and union base. Not a good idea. Make the rich pay their fair share for once instead of balancing our country's economy on the back of the working person.

Take a bill like that and put it through Congress. After all, the public option was what the Dems supposedly wanted for everybody, that should pass through a Democratically controlled Congress and get signed by a Democratic president. And choice, and unions, well supporting both of those constituents has always been bedrock Democratic political philosophy, isn't it time that they started acting like it?

But I hear the wailing now, "We don't have enough to break the filibuster, we must put through the worst possible world of all "reform" bills by reconciliation so we can claim a win." No, you put through what you were elected to do, what your constituents want you to do, force the 'Pugs to filibuster, a real live, broadcast on Cspan filibuster and beat them about the head and shoulders with their obstructionism until they stop.

Everybody likes a winner, but better yet, everybody likes a fighter, win or lose. The Democratic party is no longer a fighter, at least not on any level above a few select states. What they have become is a tool of appeasement, afraid to fight for what is right, right for our country, what is right for the people of this country. We, as a people and a government, need to show conservatives in this country just what a minority they are, and a filibuster will do just that. It would mean that the party would have to find its spine, it would mean that we would have some tough sledding, it would mean that you and I would have to actually support the party both in word and deed, thus showing that there are more liberals, progressives, Democrats, left of center of all flavors than there are conservatives. But if we made that show, if we fought that fight, the Democrats would continue to win elections and this country as a whole would be better for it.

But were not going to do that, we're going to force through a POS "reform" that is going to do more harm than good for our country, and it's going to be done in such a manner that will be perceived by many as hypocritical at best. It will mean a loss for the Democrats this fall and 2012, and it will be a loss for all of us in general.

We need to start again, and this time actually fight for the right thing. Not the pie-in-the-sky thing, just the right thing.