When the healthcare fight was raging and the public option was negotiated away, I just emotionally unplugged and said President was to blame. Like a lot of people I couldn't just give him a pass for not fighting for it.
If you are anything like me (in between fits of rage) you probably thought the following during the healthcare debate:
"Why bring all these scum bag insurance companies to the table Mr. President, they are the problem? Just create a universal government program and let the big insurance companies whither on the vine as their business model is finally bankrupted by the competition."
"And by the way Mr. President, why not just raise the Medicare tax by .25% on everybody, eliminate the cap, and lower the eligibility age by 15 years every 5 years? It just seemed so simple. Do it by Executive order. I obsessed about how the president didn't fight hard enough for what we believe in."
"Mr. President, how can you cut deals with Joe Lieberman and Max Baucus?"
How many prognosticators, and bloggers, and political thinkers that I respect deeply said this Healthcare Law was garbage and it was no better than what we already had? Some very, very smart people on the left voiced nothing but disdain for the legislation and not only said it should not be passed, but that they hoped it would be overturned. How many of you were so disgusted with Obama that you (like me) disengaged and stayed away from the polls in 2010?
Even now liberals are wondering if they will support Obama in 2012. Now don't misunderstand me, this is no campaign pitch. I'm not saying support the president, or donate, or knock on doors. That is not my intent. I am saying that we should all take a collective look at the last 3 years, specifically the health care debate and reevaluate our condemnation of the process as well as the outcome. What if the president hadn't gotten this law passed through both houses and had just done it by executive order? How do you think that would have played with this insane republican party and lazy media? If this wasn't a significant accomplishment, why did the people on the right fight so hard against it? Just like the 2000 election the Supreme Court has once again twisted itself in knots trying to get their hands on it. That should tell you something.
Obama is up against a media and political establishment that has absolutely no foundation in the real world. When they casually talk about cutting medicaid it is because they don't associate with people who live at the poverty line with no health insurance. They don't understand living a life where a copay of $50 or a deductible of $5000 is life altering because they can write a check for it. When they casually say "go to the emergency room if you don't have insurance", they have never sat in an ER waiting room for 12 hours with their 6 year old writhing in pain. When they talk about cutting social security it is becuase they literally cannot imagine living off of $1200 a month so they have nothing but disbelief that their are people who do.
Their is not one member of the US Supreme Court, one member of Congress, or one member of the Mainstream Media that has gone without health insurance, or lived at the poverty line and needed food stamps, or been denied a medical procedure. Not one. This is the world we live in. Reality does not matter, facts don't matter, what is best for the majority in this country doesn't matter to most of these people. We have to always remember that. More importantly so does the President.