I just received the following e-mail from MoveOn.org.
It’s no longer clear whether Congress will pass a comprehensive health care reform bill this year.
The White House and Congress will decide within days whether or not to go forward with reform-and before they do, it’s critical they know the impact that decision will have in terms of participation in the next election.
So we’re polling MoveOn members: If Democrats do not pass comprehensive health care reform this year, will you donate to Democratic candidates in the 2010 elections? Just click the appropriate link below to let us know:
- Definitely won’t donate
- Probably won’t donate
- Probably will donate
- Definitely will donate
After reading this, I’m not sure if I understand the question. If you are liberal, and support the Democratic Party, what choice do you have? Seriously? If you believe an effective government, diplomacy first and using military might second, a better public educational system, healthcare reform, civil rights, equal rights for everyone, where you going to turn? In our current political system, if the Democratic Party is let you down and you believe in progressive ideas, you can’t sit at home. If you do that, Republicans and conservatives get elected. (Ask the good folks of Massachusetts.) Staying at home and pouting is not an option.
We might need to change the Democratic Party. We might need to get more involved instead of less. This is what you do when you don’t like the choices you have. Currently, in the game of politics, there are two sides. This is the way the game has been set up. There are liberals. There are conservatives. There are Democrats. There are Republicans. Independents are nice for Vermont, but don’t seem to work below New York. There are some folks who say we need to change the game. My question is how? Both Republicans and Democrats have enormous influence in every state house and in Washington. How are you going to create a new system right under the noses of Republicans and Democrats when they stand to lose from this new system? Therefore, pick a side. Then, work to change that side so it is more to your liking.
I do not like the direction healthcare reform is going. To be honest, I haven’t liked the direction since May or June. I think that starting over is foolish. Starting over is a victory for health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. Starting over is a victory for conservatives who have tried to gum up the works and slow this process down since the beginning. So, in this political environment, I would look at what key items do have broad agreement amongst all Democrats and Independents. Whatever that is, pass that! Do it now! After the midterm elections, we can come back and tackle one or two items, but comprehensive reform is going to have to be done in a piecemeal fashion. Currently, there is no other way. That’s how I see it. How do you see it?
I will not donate and I will stay home.
Same here. I have given time and money till it hurt and I refuse to support a party that refuses to support me
You will live in a Republican state. Don’t complain about not having healthcare, civil liberties or invading random countries. If you aren’t involved then don’t complain that the country isn’t on the course that you would like.
Dude, you need to work harder. We all do. We need to be heard. Crawling into a hole and pouting isn’t going to turn the Democratic party around. it is only our continued involvement that will create the needed pressure to get our agenda on the table.
Do you think that big business just throws up its hands when things don’t go their way? No. They pour more time and money into the system. WE have to do the same if we are going to drown out other interests.
This is more of the same failed Democratic strategy.
As an Independent, I don’t just follow whoever is ‘drowning out’ the other side by cranking up the volume and ratcheting up the shrillness of the attack.
That’s what Democrats have relied upon and it doesn’t work.
I listen to the ideas of both sides and make up my mind based on what I consider to be the right course.
Democrat appeals to covetousness are falling to the floor. Americans are tired of folks thinking they own what someone else has worked for.
Let’s make health insurance more affordable for everybody without spending a gazillion dollars. People want to be in charge of what they buy and when they buy it and how much they pay for it.
Lets get government regulations that prevent this out of the way and let people choose freely for themselves.
Why shouldn’t me and my neighbors (and a million neighbors if we choose) be able to band together to buy group health insurance and negotiate good rates like big corporations do?
Because the government says a ‘group’ must be people who work together?
Time for that stupid rule to go bye bye.
The recent hollywood pledge drive for Haiti aired over all major networks showed us something and begs a question, which not a single left wing friend of mine has asked. What it showed us was how effective a concerted effort on the ground level can be… that who affair was done start to finish in a couple days.
And the question is…. how long would it take THE GOVERNMENT to do it? To this very day, they would still be in negotiations with the cameramen’s union officials. And you would have to hear One of Harry Reid’s kids sing. Everyone in America HAS free health CARE. Not everyone has free INSURANCE. If you break your arm, you WILL be treated. Period. That’s CARE. INSURANCE is different, and a reform here, a tweak there and it will work even better than it does now. And yes, some people will have to grow up and get a job and take care of themselves like a GROWN UP. I am a poor musician and I pay for my own healthcare. $2800 a year. That is 6 hrs. a WEEK at Mac Donald’s to pay for health insurance. How do you say L A Z Y?
By the way, $100 million dollars + $100 million dollars + $300 million dollars = $500 million dollars in bribes that PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS paid in bribes for votes and those are just the bribes within the last month.
That money could go to… oh, I don’t know… helping the uninsured?
hmm….
The more I read, the less I like what the Democrats tried to do.
Here’s a story about a provision that would make parts of the bill, once passed, untouchable by future congresses.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Reid-Bill-Says-Future-Congresses-Cannot-Repeal-Parts-of-Reid-Bill-79917802.html
It’s like the law of the Medes and Persians which once passed cannot be changed.
That’s not the way the American system works. But that’s what Democrats ‘hope’ to ‘change’.
Not if the fresh start is the OBama-PROMISED single-payer. That’s the way it STILL COULD BE with a 51 DEM “reconciliation” with We, the People
Vic,
I don’t think that Obama ‘promised’ single payer. Although he has stated that is his goal.
In fact, Obama didn’t provide much leadership at all in the health care debacle, which is why so many Democrats are furious with him.
He got their ‘hopes’ up and then backed quietly away, letting others try to get it done and leaving himself above the fray. It was a classic Clintonesque attempt at triangulation but Obama couldn’t pull it off with as much finesse.
Worse now, after the process blew up he is blaming Congress for not delivering on the transparency that he had promised to provide.
A hint of what’s to come was in Nancy Pelosi’s rejoinder a few weeks ago ‘yeah well he said a lot of things while he was campaigning’
This year Obama looks poised to drop health care and tackle immigration issues.
After he gets his lunch eaten on that one, Democrats are going to leave him to twist in the wind as they look for a primary challenger for 2012.
Look for Congressional leaders like Steny Hoyer and Max Baucus to throw their hats into the Presidential ring after the Dems lose the Congress in November.
“Whatever that is, pass that!”
Seriously? What if it’s a steamy turd wrapped in tin foil? You would want that? Do you want effective health care reform to help benefit the people? Or do you want to pass something, ANYTHING, just to rub it in the faces of the GOP? It sounds like the latter to me. And Laughing Tiger is right, everyone has free health CARE, not everyone has free health INSURANCE. Big difference; the Dems dropped the ball on this one.
Look, I’m not a Republican, but I’m not a Democrat either. Both parties have failed me. Why should I fight a losing battle and try to change something that’s just getting worse and worse? If enough people like you and me got together to form a third party it would crush the establishment. Massachusetts had a majority of independent voters. Not Dem, not GOP.
I think the term “think outside the box” applied here. When you go to the same old people over and over again, you can’t act surprised when you get the same results. Politics in this country has been reduced to a squabble of “he said this” and “she said that”. It’s no longer working in the best interests of the people.
And, for the record, not EVERYTHING can be blamed on Republicans (that “8 YEARS!!!” crap is really getting old). Sure they suck, but the Dems have blood on their hands too.
Passing something that will help a few people is better than not passing anything that will help no one.
I love independents. They are the best. They bitch and whine about both parties and do nothing to fix either one of them. If you truly care about changing the world that you live in then roll up your sleeves and start changing. In America, the way you change things is by joining a party. Then you work to change that party. Begin on the precinct/county level. You will be surprised how easy it is to begin to participate and change things. You then become the new blood. You then are invested in change.
It is nice to stand outside and talk about thinking outside the box. Now, join a party, listen to the problems then think outside the box.
Good Luck.
Eric wrote:
“Do you want effective health care reform to help benefit the people? Or do you want to pass something, ANYTHING, just to rub it in the faces of the GOP? It sounds like the latter to me.”
Eric you are correct. The Democrats are invested in political victory, not change to help people.
Further proof: Obama has over half a trillion dollars left unspent from the ‘stimulus bill’ that was supposed to create jobs in 2009 and restart the economy.
Why is it unspent? Because 2009 wasnt an election year, so over 2/3 of the ‘stimulus money’ is being held as a slush fund to create goodwill for Democrats just before the 2010 elections.
It wasn’t all about jobs. It was all about politics.
Where are all the ‘shovel ready’ jobs that money was supposed to create in 2009? They were a fiction, a politically motivated lie.