At some point, you have to assume that people are saying what they really mean. That the words "the Public Option isn't the only path to reform" really means "we are considering OTHER paths."
You have to assume that people are doing what they actually appear to be doing. Which is turning away from the clearly articulated promise in the Democratic Party's platform of a public option.
At some point, you have to realize that the benefit of the 11-dimensional-chess doubt is turning into the Benefit For the Beltway Capitulathon certainty.
At some point, we are entitled to get mad because our party promised us reform and now is mocking us because they think "Reform" meant "Magic Pony" and we damn well know better than that.
Update [2009-8-21 18:12:58 by slippytoad]: I have retitled this diary in order to reflect more clearly what I mean. I am not assuming anything. I'm taking folks at their word. This means you, Steny Hoyer. Now back to your regularly scheduled diary.
Is that point now?
Are we seeing 11-dimensional chess? Or are we seeing the Opening Capitulathon into the 2010 elections that gives us a dispirited base and a resurgence of Republican power?
Don't fucking scold me for losing my confidence.
I'm waiting for results. I'm giving support and standing behind those who are standing with me. I do NOT endorse party before principle. And standing with your party even when they jam their goddamn fingers in your eye is not a principle. It's letting yourself be rolled.
I am not a registered Democrat. But I've voted Democratic for 17 years. Reliably and consistently. And I have contributed repeatedly to Democratic politicians, most notably to Barack Obama. I am quite easily described as a member of the Democratic Party's base because if people like me stay home, the Democrats will LOSE elections.
I am a member of the coalition that gets Democrats elected. If I only get more of the same when I vote, I am struggling like hell to understand why I continue.
If I don't behave as if I am serious about this, the Democratic Party slips to the right and continues to not support the causes and ideas important to me.
So at the end of the day, Democrats need to recognize that I don't come to this party out of the goodness of my heart. I am a citizen of the United States and I am entitled to vote in order to represent my interests in the governance of this nation. And if my interests are repeatedly ignored, it's hard for me to continue to support them.
Don't hold the specter of the Republican resurgence in my face. Because I'm going to turn right back around and ask how the Democrats expect to move this country away from that madness if they refuse to offend the powers that be and actually do what we've asked them to. This kabuki of pretending to govern as liberals while actually always defaulting to Republican demands to not actually fix our problems is bullshit and it is what buried Clinton in the '90's and what destroyed Carter in the '70's.