Despite all the excellent organizing by progressives on health care reform, we've pretty clearly lost Round One of the August Recess wars. Don't get me wrong. I don't think healthcare reform is fatally wounded by any stretch of the imagination. But the right has framed the issues and we've found ourselves playing defense.
So while truth-squading the Deathers is necessary and should continue, it's no substitute for an offensive strategy. So this diary is my modest attempt at suggesting one.
My inspiration, it must be said, is this comment from Pesto:
Some observations about the town halls:
The other side always has more money.
Because of their money, and because lots of moneyed interests are in favor of some kind of "reform" in DC, we will never be able to independently determine the sole message of the campaign/debate.
Our normal counter to money is people, but the wingnuts and their financial backers have gotten the jump on us WRT Town Halls and we can at best fight them to a draw on that battlefront.
The media has already decided what the narrative is WRT Town Halls. And the Town Halls have become merely venues for attacks on government, per se (at least when the wingnuts aren't in charge of it).
The Town Halls aren't our (i.e., the Movement's) events in the first place -- they're events run by and designed for electeds, who aren't really parts of this movement, anyway.
So, here's what that adds up to, IMHO:
Do not fight this out at the Town Halls -- find another venue and open up another front.
The issue is health care, and the enemy is the health insurance industry. We need to open that front up, and although we can tactically spend energy on the Town Halls (if only to keep the wingnuts spending all their energy there) we need to outflank them by attacking the Insurance Industry directly.
That means spending our time and energy on events at Big Insurance HQs: denial-of-claim events, sit-ins, attacks on their price-gouging and profiteering.
We need to change the terms of debate as much as possible and go on the offensive against the real enemy. That won't happen at the Town Halls.
This seems to me to be remarkably wise advice (well, not remarkable if you know Pesto, but I digress...).
The deathbaggers have identified some enemies--most notably Big Government--and are scaring folks with them. Their story has the disadvantage of being monumentally untrue. But fear is a great motivator. And ultimately we don't only need to get folks not to listen to the deathers. We need to get them agitating for real reform.
Luckily we have enemies of our own. And unlike the 'baggers' enemies, our enemies are real and they do real harm: the Insurance Industry. They are profiting off the deaths and hardships of millions of Americans. And it's time we take the fight to them.
So let's start with the biggest of the big. Here is the face of the enemy:
Do you know this man? Probably not. He's Scott Serota, President and CEO of BlueCross/Blue Shield. He is killing Americans for profit. He's the highest paid executive in his industry, making $2.6 million in 2007.
His address in Highland Park, IL is readily available from public sources due to his large campaign contributions to Mitt Romney, among others. So is the address of Blue Cross/Blue Shield Corporate HQ.
I say it's time we move beyond the Town Halls, beyond privately pleading with Congresspeople by phone or e-mail, and instead take the fight to the real enemy, the insurance industry and those Americans who are actually profiting off the deaths of their fellow countrymen. Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Scott Serota are only the biggest of many such targets. We need to show up at every major insurance company with Americans to whom that company has denied coverage. We need to dramatize the situation as much as the 'baggers have. And we have one major advantage: the truth is on our side.
It's time to stop playing defense and start playing offense!