Public Option Or Pack Your Bags

-By Noah

"I am not interested in passing health care reform in name only. Without a public option, I don’t see how we will bring real change to a system that has made good health care a privilege for those who can afford it.”
                                 -Senator Russ Feingold (one of the few good ones)


I used to write my congresspersons. Lately, I’ve been signing a lot of those email petitions that we get every day. I always take advantage of the “add a personal comment” section that so many of them provide: nothing obnoxious or threatening, just a quick, to-the-point statement. I have no illusions about my senator or whatever actually reading my comment, but I take some solace in knowing that maybe some blind believer in the office will and every little bit of reality injection aimed at them helps.
 
Back while I was in college in Washington, I had a friend who worked for New York Congressman Richard Ottinger. She told me that, all the letters and phone messages went into one of five sub-categories under a general subject header, like the war, the environment, or health care. The sub-categories were basically: Pro, Against, Must See, Threats, and, yes, Nutcase. The threats were forwarded to the proper authorities and the rest were totaled up with a few particularly well-written ones from each of the other categories (including Nutcase) put in a clip pack for the Congressman.
 
More recently, I have been emailing my congresspersons and I usually get a form email in reply that deals with that congressperson’s relevant legislative activity in relation to the subject that I wrote about. But, a couple of months ago I started replying to “begging for money” emails with a small diatribe about why I would only support BlueAmerica or progressive politicians, and, what I think of sellout Dems who don’t support single payer or, at the very least, a public option. I even posted my reply to Senator Harry Reid as part of a post on DownWithTyranny. I got no response. No surprise there. We know what kind of Democrat he is. I did, however, get a great pro-single-payer and, I share your frustration, personal response from Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY). My diatribe had been singled out as being clearly written, and worth his eyes. In our ensuing email conversation, he also added that he had met that very day with our current President and believed him to be sincere. I, like most of you, have my doubts. My doubts are based on the recent less than enthusiastic public option statements of President Obama and his staff. We, as a people, voted for Barack Obama. He campaigned on change and things like the public option. Where the hell is that guy? We’ve gone from definitive statements in favor of a public option to Washington weasel speak. It’s multiple personality time. One day, Secretary of Health and Human Services Katherine Sibelius claims the public option isn’t essential. The next day, she claims she misspoke. She even blames the media for making it a story. Sorry, Sybil, you’re not in Kansas anymore. Anything you say is news. Anymore of this and it will be time for you to click your heels and go home. Maybe you can go back to being governor of a nut state that doesn’t believe in evolution again. Yeah, how “elitist” of me to say such a thing.
 
Here’s White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, speaking to reporters while returning to the safe, clueless, know-nada confines of Washington, DC from Phoenix, AZ:  

"The goals are choice and competition. His preference [my emphasis] is a   public option. If there are other ideas, he’s happy to look at them.”

Gibbs even had the gall to suggest that the President’s support had never been absolute. BULLSHIT!  Obama has not only expressed his unequivocal support of a public option until very recently but has stated, on camera, that he PREFERS single payer. Gibbs is engaging in Weasel Speak that would make Scotty McClellan proud. It’s getting awfully close to “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” in D.C., but, is it ever any different? So much for CHANGE. Bait and switch is more like it, or should I name it “Moving The Goalposts”?

 For those who think that what is going on is that the town hall crazies are winning, I submit that you are naïve. If you take the town hall loonies away from the ugly picture of the last couple of weeks, the bottom line is still the same. The status quo prevails. In fact, the crazies will be among the losers who will suffer when illness strikes them or their families. For them, it will be a case of “be careful what you wish for.” But, for people like Harry Reid, Max Baucus and Kent “How ‘bout a coop?” Conartist, the crazies provide an all too convenient excuse and cover for their, and K Street’s, dirtbag agenda. I can only believe that, just like Jim DeMint and Chuck Grasshole, Reid knew that not staying in Washington and doing the work that needs to be done would result in the endless freak shows we have been seeing. If they didn’t, they should be in different jobs, pronto. You can be sure that Rahm Emanuel is a puppet master in all of this. He was the first White House figure to offer equivocating statements on the public option. These assclowns knew that a delay would sabotage reform. The polls show that the people want a public option and Washington is ignoring them because, as we already know, they get bribed to ignore us. We voted for change but Rahm’s being brought into the White House was the beginning of us being sold out. Rahm has always been a Blue Dog. He has always recruited Repugs to run as Dems, or at least Dems who think and act like Repugs so that the Dems could build an utterly meaningless majority like the one we have now. To an animal like Rahm, it’s all about majority power and the luxurious corrupting money that it brings from corporations like those in the Medical Industrial Complex and on Wall Street. People dying or families going bankrupt? Who cares?
 
I’ve said it before. Think of this episode in our history as one big ugly fundraiser. The “campaign contributions” are pouring in to the Blue Dogs and your health care reform is headed to the shredder. With friends like this, who needs crazies, or Sean, Rush, Glenn, or Bill-o, for that matter. Along the way, Rahm has sabotaged many Progressive candidates. Fortunately, Rahm’s mob doesn’t always win. Donna Edwards', in Maryland, is a case in point. Sabotaging progressive candidates and progressive causes has always been Rahm’s M.O. That was very in evidence when he quarterbacked the DCCC’s efforts in the House, while my Senator, Chuck Schumer, did the same in the Senate.

The Dems are raking in the cash for the next three election cycles. It’s “you pay us. We’ll stop health care. The economy be damned.” Did they ever intend anything else? Will it be enough to counter the anger on the left? It’s time for primary challenges so we can be rid of some of these money grubbing cretins. Like I said, it’s not the crazies who win. The winners are those who line the pockets of the slime in Dirtbag Central. What’s the point of having Dems who vote like Repugs? There’s a lesson in all of this: Find and support progressives/BlueAmerica candidates in primaries in your area if you want to beat lowlife people like Rahm and Reid, people who don’t give a damn about you. If you want change you can believe in, what to do has never been clearer. Or, do you just want Washington to continue treating you like a nasty old farmer treats a bag of unwanted kittens?
 
Today, I started calling senators’ and reps’ offices. I’m gonna call the White House too. I’m polite but firm. I tell them that I realize they are busy fielding a lot of calls. I tell them that I have a very simple message for their boss: PUBLIC OPTION OR PACK YOUR BAGS. It makes for a nice bumper sticker, too!


UPDATE: You Dance With The One Who Brung Ya