After despairing, whining, gnashing my teeth, it dawned on me that I have been deluding myself for several years now about the Democratic party and my place in it. I did project things onto President Obama and the Democrats--things they were never for or against. And now, with the HCR bill, it has dawned on me that I simply have irreconcilable differences with the direction the Democrats are going, and that's OK. No vitriol here. No hate. My political philosophy is just too disparate from the party's state and national caucuses. There just comes a time when I have to stop complaining to the driver, and get off the bus, and find a different means of transportation to my destination.
I came to this realization when Howard Dean pointed out, on Meet the Press, that the Democrats have decided to achieve universal health care through private insurance companies. There is nothing wrong with working toward that, and Howard Dean will stay in the party and fight for strong regulations on private insurers. I think universal health care through private, for-profit insurers, is a bad way to achieve universal health care, and for me, it's a deal breaker. I will withdraw from the coalition. I still share that goal of universal health care, but, philosophically, I cannot support pursuing it through private insurance companies. It's that simple. No vitriol. No hatred. Good luck and godspeed, and may the best plan win.
I do not think the "Swiss" plan is achievable in our country, or more to the point, worth the pursuit. It is a worthy goal, though. I won't knock anybody for that. I lived in Europe for 5 years, as a private citizen--that is, not in the military. I lived in Germany and Italy, and traveled extensively. I received my post-graduate degrees in Rome. I definitively see a very different approach to the common good in Europe than in American, and I don't see the European regulatory system translating itself into America. Europeans are much more passive when it comes to accepting regulation for a higher goal, not to mention they have a stronger sense of noblesse oblige. This isn't better or worse than the U.S., just very different.
It is like being on a bus trip. I am on the bus with the Democrats in Detroit and we are on I-75, at the junction of I-94. Sault Ste. Marie, the northern terminus for I-75, is Medicare for all. Billings, the western terminus for I-94, is the Swiss model. I am whining and complaining that we're turning onto I-94 and heading for Billings, when I want to go to Sault Ste. Marie. And I know that once we're on I-94 heading west, it's going to be really, really, hard, if not impossible, to get back on I-75. The Senate bill makes that turn, and the further we go down I-94, the less likely we will ever get back to I-75. I can either be really mad at the bus driver and trip planner, or I can stop whining and complaining, get off the bus, and find another way to get to Sault Ste. Marie. I've decided to look for another way to Sault Ste. Marie, without despising or disparaging those remaining on the bus.
But, it's more than HCR. I did project a lot of stuff onto Obama, and didn't want to believe what he was saying. It's like when candidates I like start talking about their relationships with Jesus--I want to believe they really aren't all that religious and are just saying those things to get elected. I'm reality based enough to allow politicians to say things they don't believe to get elected.
Obama and I disagree on marriage equality. He believes that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. I didn't want to believe that. (Can you really be anti-marriage equality and pro-gay?) I didn't want to believe that Obama would actually escalate the war in Afghanistan. He did. I didn't want to believe that when Democrats won back control of Congress, they would fund the war in Iraq, and they did. And, well, you know the well rehearsed list of promises kept that I didn't want to believe would be, and the promises not kept. Not to mention where it appears the Democrats are regressing, like with those abortion restrictions in BOTH the House and Senate bills.
Obama and the Democrats have potential. But, I'm too far marginalized in the party to matter now. If some moderate Republicans should switch sides on the issue of marriage equality, I would listen to what they have to say--and there are some rumblings here and there on that. I will not let the perfect be the enemy of the good here. In the near future, a pro-gay moderate Republican may be easier to get in a state house than an anti-gay conservative Democrat.
I am at too big a philisophical impasse with the Democrats to consider myself a Democrat, and am willing to work with other groups and parties that may come along. If this strengthens the Republicans, well, that's the way in goes in politics. Coalitions come and go, fortunes wax and wane, parties break apart and form new parties with new coalitions. Reform and change spring up form the most unlikely of places, sometimes even defeat. In my studies of history, I have learned that things can change on a dime. I will carry on the good fight--sometimes with the Democrats, and sometimes against them. But, I will not be carrying on these fights AS a Democrat.