As the late Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat slips unfortunately, and unnecessarily into the grips of the Republican party, it’s impossible not to recognize the Shakespearean-esque magnitude of some of the symbolism. Kennedy, who had led the health care reform movement for most of his career, dies shortly before it seems inevitable his cause is coming to fruition. Then, in a dramatic fumble, the Democratic party, which is supposed to safely hold his seat, fails to secure victory, and the Republican elected has all but promised to derail the cause of Kennedy’s life. The cause of a generation, health care reform, losses it’s patriarch and most eloquent advocate to poor health, and then those who once supported him are convinced to derail his legacy.
The stark reality of this apparent calamity can not be understated.
But, the great, surviving, lasting cause remains the same.
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We find ourselves at a significant moment. One in which "careful, critical reflection" turns quickly into self-interested, shallow blame making. Quite frankly, we don’t have time for that. And quite frankly, we should already be aware of this fact. We should know better.
It is time to take this as a blow to the gut ... in the middle of an early round of this fight.
And this is the moment to remember from where this blow came: It came from the Republican Party. And our first punch back should be squarely and firmly at the GOP.
This is a moment to seize as a great opportunity for progressives within the Democratic party.
This is time to, in the words of Tennyson, as Teddy famously quoted "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
We know what we are dealing with, and we’ve known for some time. The modern day Republican Party is, in open practice, anti-democratic, and in some arguable ways, anti-American. They were willing to, without public reservation or self-reflection: decimate a tax-payers surplus, ignore significant evidence and allow the greatest terrorist attack on our nation to occur on their watch, fail to kill or capture those who attacked us, continue to botch that effort by aggressively pursuing an unnecessary war in Iraq based on purposeful falsehoods, allow this unnecessary war to continue indefinitely while thousands of American serviceman lost their lives and caused untold human suffering, and then helped cause the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression.
We fought in 2008 because of all of this. And we meant it. And we won.
And then we went home. And then the bell rang again, and the next round began. And we were surprised to get punched.
Here’s what needs to happen next:
- All this current: "It was his/her/its fault" middle-school-recess-BS being aired publicly: Give me a break, and stop it! Rational people should understand that the failure to hold Kennedy’s seat is due to a myriad of causes. Everyone is to blame, us – yes, you, reading this – included. Get over it. IMMEADIATELY.
- Fight back.
- Fight HARD. Very, very, very hard. Put everything suddenly on the table. Open up the battle on multiple fronts. Reconciliation, public option, quick merger of bills, not seating Brown, add your own creative idea, etc, ALL NEED TO BE ON THE TABLE OFFICIALLY AND UNEQUIVICALLY.
- The Senate and the House must fall into ranks. In the words of our dear former leader: "You are either with us, or you are against us." It is time to lead on a national level, on the national stage. No one is getting exactly what they want. Some people are getting more of what they want than they deserve. Some are getting less than what they ought. BUT SUCK IT THE FUCK UP. All of you. For the greater good of the country.
- Obama needs to reclaim the populist rhetoric, on health care and on the economy. This is why he got elected. Scott Brown just ran and won as an "Obama" Republican, because Obama has lost the capital he once built on his rhetoric. He could of let the Senate twiddle it’s thumbs and write it’s own balogna bill, if he had appeared to constantly be advocating for what he wanted to be in the bill. Even if he didn’t get it, he’d have always have been seen as a LEADER FIGHTING FOR WHAT HE WANTS. Now is the time to embrace populist progressivism, and fight to make the country a better place. He'll undoubtably have to take this fight to the Republicans, in a personal way, and most likely to many congressional Democtrats.
When you take a punch to the gut, you have very few options:
- You can let it knock the wind out of you.
or
- You can tighten your gut and take the punch, with the intention of fighting back.
We lost. Guttural blow delivered.
But this has not knocked the wind out of us! How can it. The fight we fight, the cause we work so hard for with true emotion, is the fight of generations. This is the moment to honor the legacy of Teddy Kennedy, by not conceding ground, by choosing unity against the forces we face rather than pettiness and divisiveness, and by, most importantly, surprising what we fight with a new singularity of purpose.