I know that the last few weeks have been really hard for a lot of people here. Certainly, most of us had high hopes for the health care bill. Many of us assumed that a hard push for the public option would succeed, but we were left disappointed.
But my purpose here is not to fan the flames. I've unfortunately been guilty of a lot of that in the last while with my support of the President and his policies. I'm sorry if I have been hurtful.
I have a very simple message: Our time is now. We must act between now and November. It is our chance to make a lasting mark on America in the name of economic, social and environmental justice that will probably not manifest itself in 2011.
Think tanks will start looking towards the future. Partisanship will grow. Jockeying for 2012 will commence.
The President should have done a better job in telling us change isn't easy.
But that doesn't matter any more. Now we know. And now is our time to make change a reality.
Yesterday, the writing that has been on the wall for awhile was made plain: 60 votes will be gone soon. Our window for governance, real governance, will close in 10 months.
I have a theory.
I believe that Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd are good men. I believe that they are staunch liberals.
As such, I think they know what's in front of us. I think that they know we have a short time to pass the President's agenda. They know that this is a historic opportunity and I believe that he also knows that he couldn't take advantage of that historic opportunity while putting themselves through another grueling bid for re-election, bids that require more fundraising and attacks than appeals to better judgment.
I suspect he knows it's more important to do the people's business instead of being beholden to the teabaggers. He knows we need to pass financial reform. He's been skeptical on an energy bill, but he's also shown his openness to a bill that does not leave too much to financial markets.
These are men we should respect. These are men whose back we need to get.
And most importantly, we should join them.
Kossacks, I know a lot of you are not happy with the congressional Dems. I'm sure as heck not.
But instead of thumbing our nose out of spite, let's follow Dodd and Dorgan's example.
Like some skinny black guy from Chicago once said, we can still do great things.
This is our moment.
We need to marshal our forces on behalf of a new jobs bill, a new energy bill that stops carbon pollution and a new financial reform bill that truly keeps speculators in check. We need to call, to protest, to scream at the tops of our lungs.
We have to get up, dust ourselves off, and pass President Obama's agenda. I love my country too much to do anything else.
We will have to make compromises, I'll warn you. We won't get everything we want. But if we stand up for what we believe and pass these bills, come November, whatever happens, we know that we were Progressives, proud and effective.
We can tell our grandchildren what we helped our President do for America: we started towards health care, we stopped the melting ice, and we kept Wall Street from robbing us blind once again.
But if we don't? We will only fret and wonder why.
Don't let this opportunity pass us by.
We can still do great things.
This is our chance.