I've been talking to people I don't know about politics for years now.
And, yeah, if there's one thing that comes up in almost every conversation about our country it's how broken our healthcare system is.
I remember calling into Akron Ohio for Kerry/Edwards in '04 and talking to a dad who, when I asked him what his single biggest issues were, said, "healthcare, healthcare and healthcare."
We lost Ohio in 2004. But that didn't last for long. In 2006 Sherrod Brown won a Senate seat, Ted Stickland won the Governor's office, Jennifer Brunner was elected Secretary of State.
In 2008, Barack Obama won Ohio by some 200,000 votes.
If you ask me, these folks weren't voting about ideology. They were voting about jobs and healthcare and education. They were voting for their families, their children and their communities.
And, yeah, like millions of Americans who handed Democrats a bond of trust in 2006 and 2008...we owe those voters results.
The Democratic Party owes it to America to fix healthcare in 2008. That's our job, our task and our duty.
What we do with that task is up to us...
I want to say that every last American has the right to lobby for the legislative outcome of their choice.
That's how the system works. We band together and amplify our voices. We push, we lobby, we use carrots and sticks. We cajole, we threaten, we sing and, sometimes, we beg.
That's democracy.
But there's something more I've got to point out.
Millions of Americans who voted for Bush in 2004 switched up and voted for us in 2006 and 2008.
These folks are deeply cynical about Congress and the Presidency. And, yeah, we can all agree that they have every right to be.
They were angry and disappointed with Bush and the GOP and, on election day 2006 and 2008, they voted for a change.
They stepped out of their comfort zone. They went out of their way to make a change in America.
We know them, all of us who volunteered.
We called them in Florida and Oregon and Iowa. We walked their blocks in Nevada and Colorado. We asked them what they thought in Northeast Philadelphia and New Hampshire. We registered them to vote in Nebraska and Texas and Missouri. We walked them to the polls in Ohio and Virginia and Tennessee. We listened to them on front steps in North Carolina and New Mexico.
And, yeah, all over this country are people like the man a volunteer and I engaged in Tracy, California in 2006 who asked..."I know Richard Pombo, and to be frank, I'm tired of him, but I've got to ask you, what's this guy Jerry McNerney going to do for me?"
We could easily expand that to a simple question to the Democratic party from every American voter regarding healthcare: what are Democrats going to do for me?
I don't need to tell our elected leaders this, I hope.
A nation of anxious voters is watching the outcome of this upcoming healthcare vote.
Healthcare is fundamental.
It's a question for every Democrat in this nation, from President Obama to the lowliest grassroots volunteer.
What are we going to do for America now that it's our turn to govern?
How will we live up to the bond entrusted to us by millions of Americans in 2006 and 2008?