Cast your memory back to a not-so-distant time. Across the blogosphere, across the diaries, even splashed across the front page of this very site, the Progressive movement was united - single payer had been abandoned, but the public option was our line in the sand. This far, and no farther.
I was proud, and yet at the same time humbled, to be a part of that. At last, it seemed, we had our act together. Coupled with genuine representation, it felt like this time, finally, our nation could take its rightful place once again as one of the "good guys." And I worked and fought to push it along, as did so many of you. And we scored our victories, and we inched the ball leftward, day by day and phone call by phone call. This was going to be it.
As it turns out, a line in the sand only lasts until the tide comes in.
I am not a single-issue voter. I am against the Afghan war, but I am willing to trust Obama's plan. I am pro-life, but I recognize that outlawing abortion is not the same as ending abortion. I am opposed to DOMA and DADT, but I'm willing to wait if I'm told that's what needs to happen. I am against the death penalty, and drug prohibition, and any number of other issues that aren't even on the table yet. I am willing to bend, and bend, and bend again.
I am not willing to break.
The reason we made the progress we did in the House was that the Progressives finally stood up and said "this is it - you betray us on this, and you lose us all." And it worked. The House passed a decent, solid health care bill with a public, government-run option for the uninsured.
Then the Senate happened.
Our "leaders" gave up ground for votes again and again - except never once did they actually get votes out of it. Now we have yet another "compromise" in a long string of compromises where our side is betrayed in exchange for vague promises that everybody knows won't come true. Again. And we're told that now, we'll be forced to purchase health insurance from a private corporation as a condition of being an American citizen. Is it constitutional? Maybe - maybe not (I have my doubts, currently, but I suspect they could find a way). But is it Progressive?
Not a chance in hell.
I am not willing to break - but neither am I willing to give up. There are multiple options still ahead of us for true progressive movement, and it is up to us to make it happen. So long as our Senators know we can be rolled, that we'll give up and say "well, a D- is still a passing grade," then that's all we'll get; barely passing grades for barely passed legislation. So what do we want?
A) Re-attach a public option to the current HCR bill; or
B) Remove mandates from the current HCR bill, and deal with both issues in a seperate bill; or
C) Shove a public option through reconciliation; or
D) Fuck it, let's move to Canada.
(Don't actually move to Canada; you'll miss football and Farenheit more than you think)
We need to let our Senators know that it's crunch time. If they bail out on us again, that's it. They've used up their free passes. We gave them our money, our time, and our vote - they can use it, or lose it.
But if they won't back down - if they're willing to ram this through reconciliation; or pass this otherwise decent HCR bill by moving the mandates to another, public-option activated bill; or put our real, compassionate, progressive public option back in the bill we've sweated and bled for - then we'll move hell and high water to give them what they need to get the job done. This, right now, is it.
This far - and no farther.
UPDATE Please review this diary by Slinkerwink for more on what you can do right now to help keep our leaders honest and working for US.