Yep, I said it. I'm disappointed and I'm tired. I don't know all that is going on behind the scenes with Healthcare and I won't pretend to know how it is going to shape up. All I know is I've been fighting for then candidate Obama when he announced his run for presidency and I've been fighting for his agenda every since. Sometimes I feel like I'm fighting for healthcare more than he is.
I'm not as even tempered as the president seems to be but I can only say from my perspective that for an agenda item that he campaigned on I'd like to see atleast the same spirit of debate as he tries to sell his ideas to the American public as he had during the campaign. I haven't seen it. I'm a single payer believer and if you are a single payer believer a strong public option is already a HUGE compromise. For the last few days I've been rationalizing about strategy thinking well...maybe...if he is doing this maybe it's because it is from some brilliant strategy. Or, I can't forget my personal favorite...."he's playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers". Then, I wake up and it seems like the President is trying to prepare us for "Co-Ops"President Co-Ops then Dick Durbin on CNN is co-signing Co-Op's. Yep, it's a set-up.
After hearing people like Chuck Schumer Schumer Co-ops,
Senator Rockerfeller
and others I respect (i.e. Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown) of course I don't trust a co-op. Then MY president is making backroom deals with Pharma Pharma Deal and not powerfully standing up for a public option and his chief of staff wants us to shut the f*ck up just makes me...what's the word...TIRED. I feel like I'm fighting against the people I believed would make all the difference. I don't expect a perfect bill but I do expect them to really fight hard for what I thought we all believed in. I am one of those who would rather lose the battle to win the war. If passing healthcare reform is just window dressing and won't help regular folks what's the point? This FEELs like more "Politics as usual". Again, I was one of the ones who believed in the "Hope" and "Change" my President sold to me during the campaign. It was the grassroots progressives many from this site that worked so hard to get President Obama in office. I made the phone calls, I donated my money at great sacrifice (when I am unemployed and working as a temp), I had the house parties as a matter of fact just had one about 1 week ago. The leaders in congress are taking us for granted as a matter of fact Nancy Pelosi laughed at us Pelosi's remarks. I don't even know if I'm really a progressive but it pissed me off.
The bottom line is I don't see centrists putting in all the "work" that you or I did during the campaign season. It was my first time but if we must capitulate on EVERY thing...maybe I'm thinking I should have voted for Hillary Clinton. I am so angry that at this moment I feel like please don't e-mail me for more money, make phone calls, door-knock, or to give house parties. WE ARE THE WORKER BEE's!!!! Each and every day a part of me is finding myself back where I started before the election and that's feeling like "real reform cannot happen because there is too much money in Washington to keep it from happening".
The End