It seems to me that the Democratic leadership and the Obama administration are deeply flawed in their health-care reform strategy, and that strategy is based on a premise that they were bound to lose the public will sooner or later.
Below I offer some insight as to why I think this is happening, and an alternate strategy on health care that would actually rally the public, reverse the poll numbers, and make real reform possible again.
We didn't vote for watered-down change. We voted for CHANGE. HOPE. PROGRESS. The American public, tired after years and years of center-right and right-right rule, voted their hearts for a man who spoke boldly and promised something different in almost every way.
Since inauguration, however, he has been governing in a way that seems to have forgotten this historic campaign. It seems that advisors like Emmanuel have been telling him that his Presidency is almost certain to fall short of expectations... and therefore they've stopped reaching.
One thing I always loved about the campaign; it dared to be bold. But the battle for health-care reform has been anything but.
We have hacked and chipped away at the good ideas for healthcare reform in an effort to reach that magical 60 votes, and now the White House mantra is, "Any bill passed is better than the status quo." The American public isn't stupid. We voted for big change, and we saw glimmers of it in the public option, and as the public option has been chipped away, so has support for the overhaul. Polls consistently show strong support for a public option, but lobbyists are driving the debate... and the media coverage of the debate.
If you believe you will fall short of expectations, then you start thinking you need to pass a bill to appease people. But what we really want to see is conviction on display. The campaign was unafraid to stand up and paint a picture of a brighter future in the face of idiotic bigotry and resistance (on the part of the McCain campaign and its supporters). Where did that conviction go?
A new, better strategy for Reid to undertake would not be to negotiate endlessly with stick-in-the-mud Conservadems in an effort to get a bill together that we already know will pass. They believe they've already lost the public... they're reading the same polls we do, but they make the conclusion that the public will be pissed no matter what. But we're itching for conviction!
So bring the "imperfect" bill to the floor. Make Lieberman and Nelson filibuster, with the Republicans. Why are we trying to avoid a fillibuster? Real leadership, with conviction about the right thing to do, would make the enemies of health care reform (and by extension the vast majority of American citizens) SEE the obstructionists at work! You think Lieberman would be re-elected if Connecticut saw him fillibustering?
Make these people go on record with their obstruction. That's leadership. Call them out. Publicize the amount of insurance company dollars they've received.
The American people are itching for a fight. If the public option loses because of a filibuster by obstructionists, believe me, it will live to fight again, because those obstructionists will suddenly be facing electoral disaster. I predict bigger, stronger majorities. Go big or go home, Reid.
NOTE: Sorry for the ramshackle state of this diary and lack of links. I just had to dash it off. I'm just so very angry. I don't want a bill full of compromises. I want a fight for what's right. I want to win the war, not just this battle. MAKE LIEBERMAN, NELSON, and the REPUBLICANS be SEEN blocking health care reform. The only reason I can see that Reid/Emmanual would not pursue this strategy is if they actually believe that the tea-partiers are anything more than a corporate-funded astroturf minority. We've shown that tea party support is less than a third of the country. A third of the county is LESS THAN FORTY VOTES, HARRY. FIGHT!