I am not surprised by the latest round of Obama has "sold us out" diaries appearing this morning. Yet, I have to admit to being disappointed. For several months now, I have been posting comments on KOS about the experiences that I have had over the past 5 months organizing for health reform in Illinois.
When Kathleen Sebelius spoke on CNN this morning and suggested that the public option was not "essential" to health care reform, I knew that this would set off another round of the "White House is selling out liberals and progressives."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...
It was predictable. And yet I am here to say that we, progressives, are the ones who should be blamed for this. The New York Times wrote an article yesterday titled: "Health Debate Fails to Ignite Obama's Grassroots."
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Ms. Adkins, who for the past two years devoted hundreds of hours helping Mr. Obama get to the White House, hosted a potluck supper that was advertised to Democrats in this eastern Iowa town along the Mississippi River. People were invited to bring a favorite salad or dessert — and their cellphones — to make calls drumming up support for the president’s agenda.
She wondered whether her house would hold everyone, but there was no reason for worry.
"We had 10 people. Not a huge number, but good," said Ms. Adkins, 55, who has been an Obama volunteer since the first day she saw him during a stop here on March 11, 2007. "The enthusiasm is not there like it was a year ago. Most people, when they get to Nov. 5, put their political hat away and it doesn’t come out for three years."
So I have been organizing for health reform here in Chicago since February. We have knocked on hundreds of doors and easily hosted 14 local health reform events. Yet, the response to our doorknocking was abysmal and our events were not well-attended even with big recruitment pushes. I have been posting comments since March on this site about the lack of interest many seemed to have about this issue. As such, it is not at all surprising to me that the White House will compromise on the public option and many other issues. The public will is not there for real healthcare reform.
Matt Yglesias offers his own take on why this might be the case:
Unquestionably one challenge for the White House is that they haven’t succeeded in mobilizing their supporters to the degree they were able to during the campaign. But I see this as largely a sub-element of the problems they’ve been having with the congressional schedule and in particular the Senate Finance Committee. If Finance had done its work on time, we’d be having a "summer health care fight" that was about a more-or-less fixed object, with proponents of the plan arguing with its opponents. You would also have members of congress committed to the plan, members opposed, and a defined group of undecided members. Then you could mobilize grassroots supporters to contact undecided members and urge them to push reform.
What we have instead is a mush. It’s hard to be sure what "reform" is. And it’s hard to be sure who to pressure. Is Chuck Grassley an ally or an enemy? Is Max Baucus? Is Olympia Snowe? Opponents know that they’re against Obama and for the status quo. Proponents of change are having problems identifying exactly what’s happening.
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/...
The other issue that has been clear to me in the past few months is that we are not putting enough pressure on our Congressional representatives. We did not put the fear of God in them and draw a line in the sand about the non-negotiability of the public option. Once again, I turn to Matt Yglesias who makes what I think is the critical point that is being missed among Progressive -- there is truly limited powers in the Presidency (if we really want to focus on the appropriate constitutional powers of executive branch).
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/...
I know a lot of people on the left who seem to have voted for Barack Obama because they liked his progressive agenda, then gotten excited when Obama won the election because they liked his progressive agenda, then Obama proposed progressive measures to the congress and they were excited, then it turned out that key congressional players like Collin Peterson and Rick Boucher and Max Baucus were less left-wing than Obama so actually legislative outcomes would be considerably less left-wing than Obama’s campaign proposal. It’s all well and good to be disappointed with this situation but it doesn’t make a ton of sense to me to do what a lot of people seem to be doing and becoming disappointed with Obama.
I recall back during the primary campaign that there was a kind of misguided sentiment out there that the key factor influencing whether or not we could get comprehensive health reform or good energy legislation in 2009 was whether you believed Obama’s story about "bringing people together" or John Edwards’ story about "fighting" or Hillary Clinton’s story about gritty experience and determination. The fact of the matter, though, is that legislating is about who controls the veto points. The difference between a conservative president whose ideas are checked by the 40th most liberal senator (Mark Warner or Mark Begich, it seems) and a progressive president whose ideas are checked by the 60th most liberal senator (Ben Nelson or Olympia Snowe) is pretty enormous. But when comparing two different possible progressive presidents, the fact remains that the veto points are going to be where they’re going to be. On foreign policy and some other matters the president has tons of discretion and it’s a different story. But big-picture domestic legislation in the modern era is controlled by congress.
I think that it is well worth taking a step back and asking OURSELVES if we have done everything that we can as individuals and as a social movement (if we even have one) to push the CONGRESS on the issue of single payer and the public option. Be honest in your personal assessment before you write another blog or comment about the "spineless" Obama or the "traitor" Obama.
P.S. I am reading some of the comments on other blogs and I have to say that it says a lot about the state of progressive "organizing" when so many people are already throwing their hands up in the air. I personally thank GOD every day for my grandparents and others who marched and truly fought DAY AFTER DAY with no "wins" to win their freedom. Come on, people. For real???? People here are posting about "fighting tooth and nail" and "banging their heads against walls." With all due respect, we haven't even BEGUN to "fight." Writing a few e-mails and attending one town hall meeting is NOT "fighting tooth and nail." Let's stop COMPLAINING and join the organizing campaigns that are already out there. Firedog Lake and others are doing AMAZING work... for example.