Obama and the Dems are just "daring" us to "push" them on health care.

I've heard this over and over that Obama is just playing "chess", and that he needs us to push him/the Dems on health care so that he is forced to act. If we don't "force" him to act it's too... what? toxic? politically difficult? expends too much political capital?

Whatever.

There are a slew of DUers who honestly believe Obama's "strategy" is that we need to gather enough of a groundswell that change is inevitable.

But as the Diane Feinstein thread shows (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5951004), that's bullshit. The paid-off Congresspersons could care less what we think/want/believe in/need.

The major players who are making these decisions are all bought and sold by big Pharma, big insurance lobbyists, big corpo. I am thoroughly sick of being marginalized. I am thoroughly sick of being discounted and sidelined.

72% of the public want major reform: the majority want single payer. And somehow that's denigrated as "the far left".

Honestly, I have no idea what we do next. Marching/demonstrating/protesting in the streets against the Iraq War, millions of us, had absolutely no affect on the military industrial complex. Neither did phoning, emailing, petitions, personal visits to congresspersons etc. The almighty dollar is the only thing that's listened to, and I'm not sure what else "we" - the little people - can do to counter the insidious corporate corruption in Congress.

writing skills that you have.

I'm in my seventies and feel absolutely abandoned by everyone in politics (after 55 years of voting). I honestly feel that most of them are "for sale",and it saddens me.

Thanks for your post.

you CAN win this. Here in Canada they keep trying to privatize everything. Sneak in a bit here and a bit there but the line is drawn over health care here too.


"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."
-- Mahatma Gandhi

some Dems who don't seem to want to budge.

So long as bad behavior is rewarded with votes, the bad behavior continues.

Is this a nice way to say "We are for sale and the bidding is open!"

I suggest we all get behind him. DiFi just proved that calling Congress is futile.

I just wish I wasn't feeling so helpless about it all anyway.

:cry:

I'm really starting to feel that way, but after we rest for a little while, we have to keep going somehow. Giving up on this is like giving up on living at all, I'm not quite ready to give up on that.

Great for the corporate interests running the government!!! :bounce:

Our representatives, save for a precious few, really only represent lobbyists, it is becoming glaringly obvious of late. Obama wants reform but I am sure that he will sign whatever they send him because he is a post-partisan true-believer in "compromise" and considers Insurance and Pharma his allies for some reason.

None of us know what do do anymore - you are not alone. Only people that trust blindly or have hero worship needs believe in the "it's all a master plan" concept - you are not alone.

It is obvious to some that the "public option" which is really only a compromise of our needs for the profit margins of some, may not even make it into a final bill. If it does it will be hobbled so that insurers can compete with it in status quo terms. We know this because Schumer is working on it and that is his unashamed goal, one that he is proud of in fact.

To get real reform, we will have to take to the streets in numbers like you see in France, I do not expect that here but one can still dream.

My more cynical side even believes we will end up with mandatory insurance like RomneyCare and no public option at all. It will be subsidized much in the same way as medicaid qualification is decided, (their idea in Washington of what is poor enough for assistance is far from realistic).

This will mean that only those poor enough to get medicaid will qualify for help paying for this mandatory insurance. The working poor will have to buy plans with very large deductibles ($2,000 - $5,000) that we can't really afford (but must buy or be fined), and the Insurance companies will end up with a great many unwilling new customers and will receive the benefit of any money put forth for the "reform".

I suppose we can still dream, but without massive protests and work stoppages, those that have poured millions into the pockets of our representatives will be the only ones being represented.

Not what you wanted to hear, but lying to you isn't doing you any favors IMO.

:dem:

-Laelth

I will say this again. We - the American People - learned a great lesson in the election of '08. We learned that we have the power to change the course of events. We used that power to throw out BushCo and we gave it to Obama and the Dems. We gave them the majority in both the House and the Senate. We bought into the 'Yes We Can' and lo and behold 'Yes We Did'.

Now we are learning that the Dems and Obama are not taking that mandate we given them and coming through for us. Whether they are caving to the Repugs or the Corporations - I don't know - but what I do know is that they seem to be willing to betray those of us that got them there.

The difference is that this time we know that if we don't get what we were promised - we have the power to upend the apple cart again. We know that we can change things - but - I really don't think we will use that power.

We need to tell our elected officials that it isn't the corporate money that will get them elected - it is our vote. And if they want to continue to remain under our employ - they better start listening to us.

I'm going to a Town Hall Meeting tomorrow and that is the message I will be delivering to my Congressman - if he doesn't vote for a 'public option' in health reform.

We need to begin now to field "Progressive" candidates as replacements for all of those Blue Dog Dems and turncoats like DiFi, Baucus, et al.

This is the only language that these people know. Let's let them know that we will put them in the unemployed bracket - the next time they come up for re-election - if they don't want to listen to us. We will field candidates that will listen to us instead - cause - we learned from the election of '08 that we have the power to change things.

Right now we should be putting together a list of "Progressives". We have DU as a forum to help spearhead this task. Now - lets start putting together a plan to make this happen. Let's dangle this in front of them - before any vote on health reform - and not wait until they cast their votes for corporate interests and its too late.

only you don't accept them -- first time I've run into that here.

The message is, I've been working hard, calling and sending letters and e-mails, demonstrating and organizing a demonstration, volunteering, and giving money to purportedly progressive Dems for 8 years, and now it looks like it's going to be 4 more years of the same sh*t. Most of the Dem pols don't care enough to do anything about election reform, media reform, or even to preserve real net neutrality, without which real progressives will never stand a chance.

...and now that he's elected, the meme is that we have to "push" him to do everything?

What the fuck kind of leadership is that?

Change You Can Make Believe In

:dem:

-Laelth

That means that he already understands the process. He agrees with us that want to shove him forward. FDR literally called for the shove. The disgusting rethugs are trying to bleed off any political capital they can. The pace of smearing Obama on forums is staggerring. He cannot break out his secret weapon too soon and disipate the moneyshot. When we do come out in favor of public option or single payer, we also expose the rethug haters to go after the poor, the ill and disabled. I intend to smash that back in their mouths. To show them as mean mistreaters. Sociopaths. It all ties in together. They want a culture of sociopathy. Then come the gated communities. Time to get mean. And wait for the signal from Obama, one if by land and etc. I can just hear the heads exploding when they call us all robots when we swarm their comfort zones. Let's Roll!

are also berating anyone trying to push him as you said.

bailout too.

The crooks in Washington care more about the health of Wall Street than the health of the American people. That is criminal.

I think we need to continue to call, write and organize AND finally get them the hell out of office if they are going to vote down a strong public option.

It's almost as if it ventures too far into murky, conspiratorial waters, thus fucking up their preferred worldview, so the numerous, blatant examples of institutional collusion within the ONE big money party is of course fervently denied with a near religious zeal.