It's fighting time, and I generally am of the mind that now is not the time to critique and deconstriuct, but I can't help but take note of a sea change (a good one ) when I see it.
I think as we scan headlines and diaries here at DK and those of other media outlets on the Left, it appears that now we are all mostly focused on health care reform.
Unfortunately,I see many looking to assign blame for the way the fight has progressed upon the White House, Blue Dogs, and the media. But they alone are not responsible for where we find ourselves in the drive to reform health care.
It is time for the "grass roots" to accept our fair share of the blame as well. And we best do so or we will further endanger the rest of our agenda.
Progressives imply were not ready for this fight. We were comfortable with the polls. You see, the polls should that "most Americans were on our side of the issues". How many times have we all read, or written something to that effect?
And now comes mixed poll news, some evidence that that support in regards to health acre may...may...be slipping, and another that suggest the public still is demanding a government-run public option.
The reaction has been typical. "Obama should....". "If only the media would...". "Look at how they asked the question..."" I hope the Blue Dogs..."
Obama, the media, Blue Dogs, Centrists, Insurance companies, and other corporate interests knew what type of battle lay ahead months ago, but many of us clearly did not.
We spent months talking about almost anything and everything except health care reform. Sure it was mentioned, but only as something secondary. Usually it was something like, "we can investigate and prosecute BushCo and still do health care". There were other instances as well, bank nationalization, Cabinet appointments, pot legalization, DADT, etc...
We were encouraged by some very popular kossacks to "yell" at each other while our opponents were organizing to defeat health care reform and perhaps our entire legislative agenda no matter the polling data on issues.
All essential issues and worthy of some discussion, but now we see why perhaps the White House decided not to do some (not all ) of those things the way many Progressives thought they should be handled.
We were totally happy to sit back and critique Obama's every move, many even going so far as to withdraw support. We fought ourselves instead of preparing for war.
Now the opposition has come out in full force and made some impressions upon the public that hurt our fight. It should have been us who were preparing for this August with our signs and our bullhorns and rabid activists putting on a display for the cameras.
The good news is that it's not too late. It looks as if we are now starting to collectively focus on health care and showing up for, rather than yelling at, those that are on our side.
No we shouldn't forget those other issues that so captivated us these first 7 months or so, but I think we can see now that there was some merit to the argument that some things should be sequenced in a way so as not to not be a distraction for health care and other issues that have been deemed a priority.
I urge all to get behind the push for meaningful health care reform. Call, write, organize, show up. Show up at town halls, show up on tv, show up at Congressional offices. Show up where ever you can find the other side and hit them in the mouth with your presence.
There will be time for deconstructing and critiquing when the fight is over.Those are good things, they help us discover and grow. They are also contentious and frequently become distracting.
No one should be in this to fight for Obama, we fight because we told the American people that our values and our policies would make life better for them and the planet. Obama is a mere vessel in that regard, though I do continue to strongly support him. But we are at a point now where there isn't any middle ground. You are either a part of the solution, or you are not.
Health care is where we gain our governing sea legs folks. Energy, EFCA, DADT, and others will be just as difficult and will feature a different set of players. There will be special interests and recalcitrant Democrats and lots of political manoeuvrings by the White House to get deals done.
Let's accept responsibility for playing catch up on this issue while vowing to not let it happen again.
Update In reading some comments, it seems as if some re left with the impression that this diary is yet another in the blame-seeking genre. It is not. Accepting responsibility means accepting responsibility for mistakes done in the past, preparing adequately so those same mistakes/distractions aren't in the way of other reform, as well as a plea for all to come together as we are all stakeholders and not mere observers.
I would also like to restate that I think the President was right in choosing health care as the next issue after ARRA and had he taken on some of the other issues many wanted him to take on, things would be incredibly more muddled and likely defeat, rather than victory would be at hand.