and you don't want this to turn into another "Lucy pulls the football away just before Charlie Brown kicks it" moment.
But here's the thing. We elected people to represent us. I'm fortunate that Al Franken is one of my Senators. Amy Klobuchar too. And thank the stars, God, Buddha, or the "Is", Barack Obama is our President. Perhaps your Senators are more centrist or even on the right. Don't know what to say about that but get more involved locally to elect someone who is more progressive. I fully respect how much of an uphill battle that can be so I don't make that statement lightly.
In any case, we elected them to represent us because we saw or knew the core of their beliefs, their philosophy, how they've walked the talk. And now they're in the freakin' hornets nest (,yes) playing by the rules yet still moving forward.
I own a small business and I have people that go out everyday and represent my company. And when I say my company I mean me. My clients have trusted me to do what I do with the greatest of care and devotion to their well-being. You can bet your last dollar that I really really care that my employees represent me well.
Won't bother explaining the corollary with Senators and Representatives since it's too obvious.
Yes, you have to be aware of their performance and monitor it, correct it when it's off-course. But at some level you have to trust them. Let me repeat: You absolutely. Must. Trust them.
If Al Franken is saying pass this HCR bill then I'm 100% behind it too. At the surface it sucks big water but I'm working off of three pieces of information:
- Al Franken is pro single-payer big time.
- Al Franken is privy to information I (and the media) am not.
- Al Franken is on our side. Proven. Fact.
Like many of us, I've gone this way and that on the sausage grinder of HCR. Ups, Downs, completely spinning around. Al can't be bought.
So if both Wendell Potter and Al Franken (and others who I've seen play the game for years) say pass this bill, I'm going to trust that. I'll closely watch what happens, but Al is my star player in the game and if he isn't playing to win I don't know who would be.
Keep the faith.