It would seem from all of the trends we see that 1)health care reform may fail completely, or 2)if a bill passes it will be watered down so much as to be ineffective, or 3) and worse be merely a handout to the insurance industry, with a mandate for all citizens to support these greedy and immoral bastards. In this eventuality, I feel the blame should fall squarely on the infamous "BLUE DOGS", those who claim the mantle of Democrat, while voting as a Republican. Many of them seem to be reveling in their power to prevent the Democratic majority in Congress from achieving universal coverage with affordable insurance, and have declared their opposition to a public option. Heaven forbid that a sane, single payer system be devised. The problem this year is not our enemies, it is our so called "friends." I think it is time to prune our "friends" list.
I live in Tennessee, certainly no bastion of progressive political opinion, yet we were a state which nearly elected Harold Ford to the Senate. (In truth, if it were not for his goofy and convicted relatives, he might have actually won.) My point here is that even in a "Red" state there are large numbers of voters who tend progressive. However every two years in Congressional elections we face the dismal choice of voting for either a Republican, or a Blue Dog, in my case Bart Gordon. Money and entrenched power prevent progressives from mounting an effective challenge. These "dogs" know the progressives will not vote Republican so they count on progressive support while voting to attract the center and right.
However, there are always third party candidates ranging from Libertarian to Socialist on the ballot. I am resolved, and I encourage others to vote for any third party candidate whose name appears. Deny the blue dogs the comfort of counting on our support. The chances of electing a candidate from any of these parties are slim at best(or worst). The chance that a Republican gets elected is a possibility, but at least we would know them as a Republican, and not as a Republican in Democrats clothing. Or the dog might escape, but with polling and analysis being what it is today, I believe he would get the message loud and clear.
I would hate to see the Republicans take back the House of Representatives, but a House hamstrung by Blue Dogs will never achieve meaningful reform. It is way past time to have Democratic representatives vote like Democrats. It is time to clean out the doghouse!