But look at all the venom now that we're reaping the results of our big loss last fall. Everyone wants to focus on the President, but what did we do last year? Take out two sitting Democratic Senators? Yup. Leader gets kicked off his TV platform for some childishness? Yup. How about 2009, the year the PCCC raised over a million dollars and spent none of it on candidates. While the Koch brothers and Chamber were organizing and supporting their people, we were spending money to pressure our own for a bill that was clearly never going to pass. The public option was always a No for Bayh, Begich, Nelson, Nelson, Lincoln, Landrieu, Tester, Webb, Dorgan, Baucus, Carper, Conrad, Pryor or Warner. Rahm Emanuel had an offensive term for our actions, except for the terminology he was spot on.
Now the master strategists around here; who have told us that Obama failed to twist arms and fight for the public option, now tell us that he shouldn't have taken singlepayer off the table. Oh my!
Yes, the President that half the political nation thinks is a socialist should have offered up a singlepayer national healthcare plan. By some kind of logic that was a big bargaining chip. Lofl, yes how the Republicans would have cowered when Obama announced his plans for a transition from a capitalist healthcare system to a state run one. That sure would have gone well with the millions that are employed there currently. There's no way the GOP spin machine could have used that as ammunition for the rest of Obama's political days. If you really love singlepayer you should be kissing Obama's feet. Vermont's going to have it because of the new healthcare law, and the heavy blue dominos will fall after Vermont. We could have 20 million plus covered by singlepayer within 10 years, all thanks to the 111th Congress and President Obama. That 111th sure got some grief around here, even Bernie Sanders wasn't safe from a primary threat. They're looking pretty good now huh? Half loafs are a lot better than what we're eating now.
Bottom line: Obama has done more for singlepayer than almost any person in this country. Goddamn the truth hurts... and the same is true for the public option. My dad didn't hear about the plan from slinkerwink, he heard about it from Barack Obama. Same with millions of others.
Cenk says Obama is the world's worst negotiator. But what did Cenk ever do to change the political equation? I've watched a lot of YoungTurks, and the election focus was and is as slim as could be. Did he rally any of his listeners to donate or organize for Democrats? If he did it was rare. The only rally I remember was a little march around some building in LA for the public option, that was a masterful play. So many people were talking about that one... wait nevermind. Cenk and friends love to quote polls, that say a majority support the public option. But I guarantee if you go down to the busiest part of your city, no more than 2/10 will even know what a public option is. And both of them likely heard about it because Barack Obama supported it.
I can predict the responses already. But the bottom line is; judge not before you judge yourself. I want nothing more than for this to be a powerful organizing tool for progress... like I felt it was in 2008. But it's going to be a long slow road, the 2010 election was a chance to hold on to power, and we blew it, we barely even tried. The 2012 Senate map is a nightmare, we're going to need all the help we can get. And we should start organizing right now.
Crossposted to the Progressive Electorate
Update Rec list thank you! I'm sorry that the commenters want to ignore my main point; which is a critique of how this site did with our election efforts in 2010.
UPDATE 2! Not on the rec list.. here's a question for anyone left. What grade do you give the Daily Kos for our electoral efforts in 2010?