Wes Clark, a leader many of us admire, and an Arkansas native, has sent an email fundraising letter on behalf of conservative Arkansas Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln. (If you didn’t receive it, you can see it at Clark’s PAC, http://securingamerica.com ...)
Lincoln has been among the leading Democratic voices seeking to protect insurance companies against a public option in healthcare reform; she is currently promoting Kent Conrad’s inadequate co-op alternative (see http://arkansasnews.com/...
At a time when we desperately need both revenue and tax fairness, she cosponsored a bill to reduce the estate tax for the very wealthiest Americans: 99% of its benefits would go to people with estates larger than $7 million. (See http://thinkprogress.org/... )
She may be better than her Republican alternative, but I don’t know about you – I have limited money to donate, and she’s just about the last Democrat I’d send a dime to. So here’s my note to General Clark:
General Clark, I deeply respect you, and have for many years. I also know that Democrats in different sections of the country have to represent differing constituencies, and I won't agree with them all the time. That's just life. But I won't send my hard earned money to a Democrat who is actively trying to prevent serious health care reform, and as far as I can tell, that's precisely what Blanche Lincoln and Senate Democrats like her are doing. I can sure as heck find better Democrats than THAT to invest in. Quite frankly, I'm livid about the way conservative Democrats are fighting to prevent a strong public plan. And Lincoln's moves to exempt even more of the nation's very wealthiest citizens from paying a fair estate tax are nothing short of disgraceful.
I wish you all the best, but I cannot be part of Blanche Lincoln's campaign. Enough is enough. If we can't make real progressive change with 59 Senate Democrats, why did we bother to elect them?