This story in today's NYT is an indication that the rift in the Democratic is more than just a minor spat in the blogosphere. It represents a profoundly different set of approaches to the style of governance and to the substance of policy.
Now, one year into Mr. Obama’s presidency, a sharp dispute between the president and Mr. Dean over the health care bill the Senate approved Thursday — Mr. Dean denounced it as a sellout, while Mr. Obama heralded it as a historic breakthrough — is illustrating the roots of the ideological breach within the Democratic party.
It is not just that the left wing of the party thinks that its centrists hold too much sway and are too quick to cave when faced with pressure from the right. It is also that this White House, stocked as it is with insiders, people whose view of politics is shaped by the compromises inherent in legislating, is confronting a liberal base made up largely of outsiders to the lawmaking process who are asking why they should accept politics as usual.
In addition to Howard Dean, Progressive talk radio/tv was overwhelmingly opposed to the travesty that is the Senate version of this bill.
<iframe height="339" width="425" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/34516068#34516068" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
What "Barak Obama & Company"don't get is that if what comes out of conference and gets signed looks anything like the shitfaced Senate bill that was "passed" last week, it will be a political and a policy disaster.
No matter HOW much Obama/Reid/Pelosin kow tow to the Republicans they will STILL be called socialists/communists etc etc etc.
Passing a weak bill, most of which doesn't even take effect until after the next presidential election gives Republicans open hunting season on Democrats for the next three years.....they will make gains in 2010 and take back the house and the presidency in 2012 and then thry will use their "mandate" to kill whatever good there is in the bill......and they will NOT HESITATE for one second to change/bend the rules to get their desired effect.
The whole impetus for "reform" was fatally flawed the moment Obama Single Payer failed to INSIST that a thorough discussion of would at least, be allowed "on the table".
Instead of demanding a whole loaf of single payer and then compromising, he was content to ask for a single slice of public option and has now been reduced to begging for crumbs of taxpayer subsidized gifts to the insurance industry.
Earlier this year single payer was pulling 59% approvals and a strong public option was at 76%!!!
And those excellent numbers were there DESPITE the many hundreds of millions of dollars the bad guys have been pumping into lobbying, PR, astroturfing, propaganda and whatever other black ops unlimited amounts of money can buy at levels way beneath the radar and below the belt. Cash flow at that level becomes its own imperative.
Had Obama played an aggressively progressive leadership role we progressives (MILLIONS OF US!!!) would have been truly "fired up and ready to go". We would have been able to effectively counter the lies and propagandistic bullshit that came out of the insurance industry and the "teabagger" movement would have been stillborn in the summer.
The problem for the insurance industry is that they can't win any kind of free open and fair debate with a competent single payer expert. It's not possible. Not so much because single payer proponents are so much smarter; but because the facts, the logic, the history and the arguments for single payer kick ass. The insurance industry only wins if it is allowed to succeed in keeping the vast majority of Americans from ever hearing a proper debate/airing of the single payer concept in the context of the current system and of how we got where we are now. The only things they have going for them is massive amounts of cash and a willingness to scare the shit out of people. All it takes is Barak Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to show a courageous profile and to light some defiant candles...and this monster will back off or be destroyed all together.
For the health insurance industry, any outcome THAT CONTINUES TO ALLOW THEM TO EVEN EXIST is a "victory". They were tactically brilliant to allow/enable/embrace ersatz reforms that "addressed" some of the main problems while still leaving them in the drivers seat and holding all the cash........then to simultaneously turn around and jinn up all out terror about anything that had the concept of "public" in it.
Obama & Company were either mistaken, conned or themselves conning us (I hate to think about that possibility) with this half hearted half assed approach to reform that is doomed to fail as it is loaded with poison pills that make it impracticable, unsustainable and easily subject to being perverted by the insurance industry and the Republicans.
In any event we are where we are. So what should be done now? I suggest that it's all out "gut check" time for congressional democrats AND for Barak Obama. How they handle this next few days/weeks will determine whether they keep their jobs, and more importantly, whether we the people get even halfway decent health care reform that approaches universality.
Rahm Emmanuel needs to be ORDERED to "go to the mats" and fight these insurance company bastardstooth and nail. If he's unwilling and/or unable to see that progressives are the heart and soul of the democratic party he should resign or be fired.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus must stand up on it's collective hind legs, grow a spine, and refuse to accept anything less than the strongest version of the House bill and a return to the Hyde amendment levels of restrictions on women's rights to choose......and even that is what I would call half a slice.
But if Obama signs a weak flawed impotent bill that gives us the promise of crumbs....in four years; then, as I said above, he will be signing away any hopes for real reform as the Republicans will demagogue the weak law and take power and repeal whatever bits the insurance companies don't like in 2013 before it takes effect.
So far, it seems the only people Obama and Rahm have been tough on are the progressives who helped to put them into power. We are not the enemy Mr President.