I am proud to be a democrat today.
Watching our grassroots groups, our senators and representatives on the front lines, we have witnessed bravery and courage in action in the past few days and weeks folks. I feel a whole lot better after watching our team holding town halls around the country yesterday. Our senators and representatives did a great job at their respective “meetings”.
My feeling is we need to support them. We need to let them know we appreciate what they are doing, even if they don’t agree with every last one of our reform points. Our democratic representatives need to have our support, they all need to know that we have their backs, liberal or moderate, as they stand on the front lines and deal with the insanity being thrown at them.
Can you imagine standing up there with the birthers and flat earthers screaming while you try to calmly answer their questions and educate them about why we need healthcare and health insurance reform? (I don’t care what we call it, we need it and we need to sell it). These people are bitter and rigid, spewing out their lies and paranoid fears about socialism and nazism and “Give me back my America!”. What encourages me is that our democratic representatives have been adjusting to the tactics, and have been responding forcefully but respectfully to this. They should be applauded for their efforts.
Watching the president yesterday as he explained and answered questions and debunked the right wing rhetoric I felt, yes, that’s why I voted for this guy and trust him. He is basically decent and honorable. He wants healthcare passed yesterday. If he could do it with all of the components we believe in, he would. But he is doing the best he can. I am glad his town hall today was milder, more controlled. Thank god it was; he has to be protected.
Now here the clincher -- even Arlen Spector was great yesterday! Claire McCaskill handled her town hall masterfully, and she has been a worry to me since the election in November given her bending to her conservative constituents. Our president had an easier go at his town hall, but he is still a hero to me. I was terrified seeing the guy outside Obama's town hall with the gun in his holster and his call for blood to spill. I met Obama once and told him he was a hero to me -- for running for president, for putting himself in the line of fire. I still feel that way six months into his presidency. I just read that Mark Begich in Alaska held his own against the right wing crowds there, and so did Representatives John Dingell, Susan Davis, and Adam Schiff among others.
So let the nut-cases scream bloody murder at them. We need to get firmly behind our elected representatives who are going out to do battle for us as best they can. When they go astray lets push them back. But we must be clear who the enemy is. It is not our guys!
Over the past couple of months I have been out working at various events for Obama for America, gathering signatures supporting healthcare reform, talking to people who are unpleasant or downright nasty, encouraging people who need to be pushed to simply sign a petition that might push reform another step further so that they or their future children or their parents get better care. I’ve sent out letters and emails to senators and congressmen, often in fear and despair that they won’t do the right thing. Watching yesterday I felt proud of our side.
BTW, while I love me my John Stewart, yesterday’s Daily Show gave our representatives s**t for not being clear enough. John, the plans are not yet clear, the process of crafting a bill is very difficult, and they are doing they best they can. Don’t dis our guys on this particular issue, at least not with regard to how they are handling these meetings.
This is the message we need make OUR drumbeat, raison d’etre for healthcare reform:
We must reduce costs
We must guarantee choice
We must have affordable healthcare for all
We need to keep the message simple because the opposition is bringing in its most concrete and uneducated constituents to push their agenda. They do not appear to understand complexity, so we must keep it simple and clear. This is what we need to make sure this people hear over and over again.
I can support this, I believe in this. The process of crafting a bill is messy, disorganized, wheeling and dealing, and a lot of fighting. But its the only way any bill has EVER been passed. I have had moments of despair that real reform is not the goal, that it will never happen, and then I have moments of feeling some hope that it will happen and that the karma is there for it.
Take action -- it’s simple, easy, quick: Go to Congress.gov and send emails to these brave people and encourage them to keep going. At least for now this is going our way.