Linkmeister

On Health Care Reform

Obama's a cautious man, which serves him well in some things. Health Care reform is not one of those things. I'm afraid it's gonna get watered down to nothing, and when that happens the Dems will lose a lot of their current majorities in both houses. Then we'll look back and say "with those kinds of majorities, we should have been able to do what we know we should have done. Why didn't we?" And the answer will be, "because our illustrious representatives were terrified of the minority party and the insurance industry."

Mr. Obama, now the sausage-making is beginning in earnest in Congress. You have millions of people on your mailing list, and they need to be mobilized to inform their Senators and Representatives that a public single-payer health plan is what America needs.

This e-mail I just got from you asking for donations to help fight for health care reform doesn't cut it.

Update: Also see Digby:

If the Democratic Party cannot get this done with a large majority, an economic crisis that is making hundreds of thousands of average Americans lose their insurance, and a president who ran explicitly on the issue and has a large mandate for reform, then they are in danger of creating a huge hole in their coalition that will be very difficult to repair. Health care is the big one.

The disappointment at failure will be immense, and not just among grassroots activists, but among the public at large if Obama doesn't fulfill this promise. There is no good political reason not to do this right and every reason to avoid doing it wrong.

That's right. Disappointment is too polite a word. Disgust might be more apt. I could see progressive voters lapsing into cynicism and staying home from voting booths in 2010 and beyond if the Dems don't get this done.

Posted by Linkmeister at June 19, 2009 10:21 AM | TrackBack