After watching nyceve's outstanding interviews with Chris Van Hollen and Frank Pallone, I was struck by their clear frustration with their colleagues in the Senate. I was also disappointed to hear they think we need to "get the details out" on what is in the health care bills.
I could rail about it, but I'd rather do something productive. What about you?
I think the "message of Massachussetts" is up for grabs. Currently, it is being misread as "run to the center" or some other weak tea. Instead, I think the message of Massachussetts and Virginia is "don't abandon your base." Writing that here is preaching to the choir. But if we truly believe that, then the question we have to answer is "How do we convince the people like Van Hollen and Pallone they need to convince their colleagues of that?"
One of the things King Hussein of Jordan said in his eulogy of Yitzhak Rabin was this:
He was a man of courage, a man of vision and he was endowed with one of the greatest virtues that any man can have. He was endowed with humility. He felt with those around him and in a position of responsibility, he placed himself, as I do and have done, often, in the place of the other partner to achieve a worthy goal.
Meditate on that for a moment and then ask yourself, "If I placed myself in the place of our partners in congress, what would I need to achive a worthy goal of health care reform?" They know you can create programs in reconciliation. I've spoken to their senior staffers. We all know you can't bust the budget in reconciliation. But I don't think the CBO numbers are getting as much attention as they deserve. For example, has anyone seen the numbers for the proposed expansion of Medicare to cover people 55 and older?
It seems to me we are doomed if the position of our advocates in Congress is "we need to communicate the details better." Outside of places like this and C-SPAN junkies, you aren't going to find a lot of people interested in hearing details on anything. One or two points of focus with strong numbers behind them are all people are going to focus on.
How do we help focus our allies so they can effectively fight on our behalf? It's not enough to yell. We need something concrete. We do that, I am confident it will get in front of the right people. Here is a chance to deliver an "elevator speech" to people working on this. What would you say in 15 seconds?