Watching those Senators ignore---in spectacular fashion---what a solid majority of us want, I couldn't help but think of my friend in upstate New York.
A fiftysomething ex-hippie (and I'm not so sure about the "ex" part), she's a DIEHARD liberal Democrat, a woman who, for decades, has knocked on doors, licked envelopes, manned phone lines on numerous Election Days, you name it!
In a recent telephone chat, she hit me amidships by stating, "If there's no public option in the final legislation, it's over!"
Naturally, I queried her as to what that declaration meant.
My friend demurred, so I persisted. "What's over?" I asked. "The healthcare debate? Your support for Obama? Human civilization in 2012? What?"
She sighed, paused a second more, then replied, "My involvement in politics. If there's no public option, I'm done. No more voting, no more activism, no more anything. OVER!"
I was shocked, because this woman is no dabbler! She is, in fact, very passionate about her politics. But it got me wondering: If a rock-solid Soldier for the Cause like her could be deflated by the abandonment of this particular aspect of reform, how many other progressive Dems might do their own abandoning, namely, of their Party and/or President?
The Democrats in the House and the Senate would be well advised to pay heed to my friend and those like her, for it is my view that they nix the public option at their own---EXTREME---electoral peril, said peril coming less than fourteen months hence.
And, Mr. President, if you think that caving on an issue so important to your base will not come back to bite you in '12, well sir, I would respectfully suggest you've got another think coming!