See the front page postabout how the President is sending weak signals, via Marc Ambinder, that he might draw a squiggly line in the sand about the public option as his preferred cost-control measure in healthcare reform? Does it have you nervous? Are you ready for another week like the one you had after the opening of Kathleen Sebelius's Homestyle Chicken and Waffles?
The carping hasn't even started about how Obama (and I'm used to calling the President "the President") has failed us, again, but I'm tired of it already. I'd like to skip that step and get straight to the "Stop whining," diary, because I think it's actually uncharacteristic of progressives to whine. It's a common misconception that liberals are whiners. But I was under the impression that we weren't primarily interested in reacting to cartoons of ourselves and were motivated, instead, by the possibility that an organized, informed citizenry can get sh*t done in a democracy.
Actually, we're really good at doing sh*t around here. Look at what happened with Udall.Way to go, us. I see no reason that this Ambinder trial balloon needs to be a reason to kick ourselves, and no reason it can't be a reason to light some (proverbial!) fires and crank up the get-sh*t done machine.
So instead of waiting for the appropriate period to elapse before the inspirational meta-diary makes it to the top of the rec list, this diary is just going to make constructive suggestions. Hopefully, as it slides off the recent diary list, it will be replaced by others. If each of us does just one of the things suggested herein, we'll make a measurable impact without ever having to give Ambinder the satisfaction of knowing he floated The Trial Balloon That Made Liberals Mad.
So, do we flood the White House with faxes,
202-456-2461
emails,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
letters,
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
(Please include your e-mail address)
uh, balloons (for trial balloons)...
or what?
Do we all record YouTube videos attesting to why we demand a strong public option andpost them as video responses on the White House YouTube channel?
Do we add some hash tagsto our Twitter posts and tweet once an hour to make sure the message is circulating? I don't know, I don't have Twitter.
What does it take?
If we want to make it unambiguous that the public option is a dealbreaker, we're not going to be able to rely on the President to get it. Sadly, he doesn't always do what we want. Some days, not even much of the time at all! But our role in a democracy is to make sure our concerns bubble up from the undergrowth and sprout some grassroots. So, go to DC on September 13th, keep calling your Reps and Senators, pay attention to slinkerwink and nyceve, and FDL, while you're at it. I'm not the model student in this regard, I'm kind of busy starting a new job, but I try to write at least 4 letters to Senators every week. Not much, but I'm a little more motivated today. I'll be emailing and writing a letter to the White House, and I'll fax when I'm back in proximity to a fax machine tomorrow. No trial balloon is going to stop me.
How about you?