I'd like to invite folks to grab the netroots telescope and look through the other end for one second.
For three long decades we were rolled by the right-wing. The sting of 1980 and 1994, and more recently, of 2000...and 2002...and 2004...burn fresh in our memories.
We are making progress, but progress has not happened overnight. Winning majorities in Congress and the Presidency has required steady hard work. Winning comprehensive healthcare reform in the fall of 2009 will require no less effort.
Unity of purpose is the cause of the hour.
Now is not the time for nostalgia, now is the time to seize the opportunity before us. Looking back on the last three decades...we need to understand the stakes of this battle and comprehend the reality of the opportunity before us. We have, today, the chance to pass comprehensive healthcare reform including a robust public option.
In that spirit, here's three actions all of us can take today...
Action Number One:
Stand with the President in CALLING FOR A PUBLIC OPTION.
I know there's been a lot of talk about where the President really stands regarding the public option. My take is pretty simple. If Barack Obama is offering me a chance to sign a petition calling for comprehensive healthcare reform including the public option, I am going to sign that petition.
Here's the text from Obama's own website, MyBO:
President Obama has called for health care reform in 2009 that upholds three core principles.
It must:
Reduce costs — Rising health care costs are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals, and families, and they must be brought under control
Guarantee choice — Every American must have the freedom to choose their plan and doctor – including the choice of a public insurance option
Ensure quality care for all — All Americans must have quality and affordable health care
I particularly like the phrasing that every American must have the freedom to choose their plan...including the choice of a public insurance option. Don't you agree?
You can SIGN THE PETITION right now. Hundreds of thousands already have. Nothing will send a more clear and powerful message to the president.
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Action Number Two:
Stand with other Obama volunteers by joining the folks at Boldprogressives.org and SIGN THIS PETITION directly linking your Obama activism with your support for compreshensive healthcare reform .
Here's the entire text of the BoldProgressives.org petition:
PETITION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA:
"We worked so hard for real change.
President Obama, please demand a strong public health insurance option in your speech to Congress. Letting the insurance companies win would not be change we can believe in."
What's cool is that they not only let you deliver your personal message to the President, but they have a slot for you to show your involvement with President Obama's campaign. I signed and let the President know that when I was out knocking my knuckles raw in the primaries, I was doing it because the folks on the other side of those doors deserved comprehensive healthcare reform including a real choice to enroll in a public insurance program.
SIGN THE PETITION and send a bold, progressive message to our president today.
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Action Number Three:
Action number three is a complement to the crowd-sourcing collaboration that Slinkerwink and Fire Dog Lake have undertaken here on dailykos, with a slight kid oakland twist.
In my view, the most powerful way to bring progressive pressure on any legislator is to identify an elected official overlapping their district who shares our progressive views. Even if your Congressperson is a staunch progressive, we should always be on the watch to identify and share young, promising leaders emerging in our districts.
This process is a win-win. We identify more and better progressive legislators and, when it comes to health care reform, this has the potential to be very powerful.
If you are, say, a congressperson who is on the fence about real healthcare reform, whether a Blue Dog or a Progressive, it's a true threat to have a municipal or state legislator whose district overlaps with yours who is willing to take a clear stand on comprehensive health care reform including a firm stand in support of a robust public option.
Nothing offers a clearer wake up call to an elected official than to realize that there's a popular, progressive elected official who shares voters with you. If that progressive official can raise funds, deliver results and organize support in your district then they can easily replace you someday if the voters so choose. And, yes, if that progressive, local elected is an outspoken advocate of true health care reform, then it is all the more powerful. This reality is a natural part of politics in the USA and it doesn't take a primary for that pressure to be felt. In fact, the impact can be quite immediate.
No one owns political power in the United States.
What electeds fear, more than anything else, is a legitimate, principled challenger in their own district. New leaders emerge, in particular, over fundamental struggles like the one we are engaged in over healthcare reform.
So, to cut to the quick, if there's a local progressive leader who represents you, I would like you to share their name and location and any website associated with them with the rest of us here on dailykos.
Post join me and post a comment below with your progressive leaders name, position and congressional district in the subject line following this formula.
John Smith, State Senator, CA-02
And then, in the body of the comment please provide an explanation of why you support this local progressive leader and link to their website and any website or articles that you can find that are associated with them. If they have a defined position on health care reform...all the better.
Don't worry if you have questions about how this works, I'll provide an example in the first comment below.
I will be aggregating this crowd-sourced list of local progressive elected officials in my next diary and integrating it, as the vote count develops, into the push for true healthcare reform. I look forward to your help in this long-term progressive infrastructure-building project that will, at the same time, help us keep pressure on for true healthcare reform.
So, please, take action by sharing the name of a local progressive elected leader you would like the rest of the community to know about and support below.
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Conclusion
We know through long experience that making change is, in the words of a friend and colleague of mine, all about the art of achieving the achievable.
To that end, in 2006 and 2008, we learned the value of fighting for every last vote. As Mindoca demostrates powerfully tonight, we are engaged in exactly the same kind of battle today. We should never forget the lesson of 06 and 08, that it was only when we came together that we won.
Now is our chance. Now is a moment we've been waiting for.
All of us read the powerful diary from chicagoa yesterday expressing with that powerful personal story the urgent need for comprehensive healthcare reform. Now is the time for all of us to stand together and to take action.
I hope that you join me in signing the above petitions and taking action to expand our network of local prorgressive candidates below.
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Progressive Majority and People for the American Way are a great way to discover young progressive electeds near you.