On Sunday March 21, 2010 at somewhere around 2:00 pm EST, for better or worse, history will be made. This is when the US House will bring up the vote upon the healthcare reform. History is an interesting force it can move beyond the present spin and perceptions to expose the true heroes and villains of the time. To those wavering Democrats let me tell you the eyes of history are upon you.
The Ojibwe Indians have what is called the "Seven Generation Rule." Basically, the Seven Generation Rule is that you consider the effect and consequences of your actions seven generations out. Seven generations from now your great-great-great grandchildren may be looking at their family tree. Doubtless that they will be excited to find out that they had an ancestor who was in congress. They will study you. What do you want them to find out? Should they be ashamed that when push came to shove you did not do the right thing? Or do you want them to look at you in pride and say that you helped to make history and did the right thing? Your place in their eyes awaits your decision and action.
In the 1950’s John F. Kennedy wrote a book called Profiles in Courage. The subject of this book was all about people in political office who rose above the pressure to do what was wrong did stood up and did the right thing. They did this even if it meant ridicule and the end of their careers. Today these people go down in annuals of history as heroes. Those who gave in just went along and got along are long forgotten.
Many of you decided to run as Democrats in predominately Republican districts. If it had been about ego, you would have taken the easy way out and run as a Republican. You did not, obviously there was something that you saw wrong with the system or else you would taken the path of least resistance.
At one time you had the courageous profile. Most people who get that wild hair and decide to go through this process did so because they had that spark that they help change things for the better. I ask you to remember back to that time when you made that decision to run for office the first time. Did you really want to get in there just so that you could get re-elected? Or was there some sort of idealistic fire that propelled you? What motivated you to get into all this in the first place?
Now is the time, this is the place and healthcare is the issue to stand up and be counted on. We all know that millions are suffering, the system is screwed up and everyone truly knows this. This pure speculation but, I truly believe that there is absolutely no one in the US who has not been, has had a family member, or knows someone who has been viciously crapped upon by the present system. This issue is truly universal. You know this is right, so stand up.
Now I know that many will consider this to be "unpractical" and that I don’t understand "real Politics." Yes, I have heard that for a long time. Here is the basic pitch "We have to move to the middle, keep Democrats in so that at some time in the future we will be able to accomplish utopia. All will be well and we will get it together then but, not now. Right now we have to be slave to the perceived zeitgeist". Well as Credence Clearwater Revival used to sing "Someday Never Comes." The Democrats have been accommodating and moderating for at least two and half generations now. When is that great mystic day going to dawn when we can get all that stuff done? As a close friend of mine who works in sales likes to say "How is that working for you?"
Let me also make this point on real politics. The pro’s, pundits and pundits are frequently wrong. Seriously, at the end of the McLaughlin group these alleged, great, sages after pontificating they prophesize. How many of these sagely prophecies come to pass? In fact, it rarer that they ever get anything even close to right. People are much more complex than can be explained by a poll and board categorizations.
I will give an example. (I know that when, I cite the name that many in MN will freak out so just bare with me. I am talking about an incident that happened earlier in his career not later. So please just focus on the point and principle not the personality that developed.)
In MN there was a Democratic Congressman named Tim Penny. Penny was the prototypical Moderate Democrat in a district that tended very strongly for Republicans, not only just Republican but, strongly conservative as well.
In 1991, there was a huge pressure to vote for the resolution for the first Persian Gulf War. It is fair to say that at the time there was much more pressure to vote for the war then there is for healthcare now. If ever there was an act of political suicide voting against the Persian Gulf War would be perceived as that in this district.
Penny was on a junket and came back through an Air Force base. He saw several crates being loaded into planes. He asked what they were. He was told that they were coffins for the up coming war. This made Penny’s mind up and he voted against the Persian Gulf War.
Now, if the static’s and real politics held up Penny should have been soundly beaten. What happened was the opposite. Penny was re-elected in 1992 by a huge margin.
The voters are much more savvy and smarter than anyone thinks. Voting for healthcare might not be an act of falling on your sword; it could be the thing that insures your re-election and opposing it could be your downfall.
You have a chance to put your stroke on the canvass of posterity. Will you do what is right and shine or fall into the great sea of anonymous mediocrity? What will your spot on the canvass look like? The eyes of history and your decedents await your choice.
If you are not going to make a stand here then why are you there?