Yeah, if you interpreted that headline as a threat you were and are correct. Obama, you had better sign in a comprehensive, dramatic health care bill like you promised. You might want to listen to me and I will tell you why.
I was one of your most ardent, vocal supporters. You were the first politician I have actively worked for since Robert Kennedy in 1968. I wore your shirt to a fall football game in the bright red area and took the abuse. I helped register voters, wrote dozens of supportive items on blog sites, I passed out fliers and talked with hundreds of people. The county, Latah, in Moscow, Idaho was one of only three Idaho counties out of 44 that were carried by you. I was proud of that. I was part of that.
I was patient when you were fighting it out with Hillary. I was inspired by several of your speeches. I am mostly a cynic and somewhat cantankerous individual so that fact you reached me was no small feat. I read your books. I have been there for you and demand that you live up to your words. "The time for change has come!" Do you remember the cheers when you used to say that and how the crowd always exploded? Have those echoes become a distant memory for you? Or worse were you just saying what you knew we would like? You should be worried that I even wrote that last sentence. I have never doubted your motives before. But then I read this article from
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/03/AR2009070302309.html
To that I say: "Forget it!"
In recent weeks, liberal bloggers and grass-roots groups such as MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, Service Employees International Union and Progressive Change Campaign Committee have targeted Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Arlen Specter (Pa.), Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.).
You get those people in a room along with that traitor dog Lieberman and demand that if they won't vote for healthcare reform they must agree to voting to override a veto at the very least. If they do not agree then I and I suspect millions more will do everything necessary to ruin their careers and yours with it. Those are the potential sellouts. They seem to think there is an option to not change the healthcare system.
I can't get healthcare coverage. I had some when I first started my business but after I was diagnosed with Hepitatis C I became one of the nearly 50 million who has to pay cash to see a doctor. I lost my vision in my left eye. I am totally blind in it. My business is barely making it after Idaho Medicaid cut all my clients' hours by more than half. I haven't had a good checkup in years now. I am 59 and wonder regularly if I am going to just drop over dead. This current system is greedy, unfair and kills people every year who don't need to die.
I have nearly two dozen severely handicapped clients who have mental illness, MS, three who are in wheelchairs and one special man who is in constant pain. They all have had their services cut and now I work many hours, by choice, for free. Anyone in my position would do the same. The system is totally broken.
You seem more interested in appeasing your enemies that taking care of your supporters. Really how many votes did you change by embracing that awful Rick Warren? The 25% of End of Timers, Racists, Haters, War Mongers and Limbaugh and O'Reilly worshipers who make up what is left of the Republican Party aren't going to help you do anything. They think only in terms of winning and losing and allowing you victories in anything will mean they lose. They don't care about changing the country. Are you eating big bowls of Dreamos each morning? Thinking they will give you credit for anything is supreme folly.
People are giving you a break on your limp dick approach to the torture issue, gays in the military, continuing wars that are nearly hopeless and seemingly never ending and lame regulations on Wall Street where the crooks still regulate the other crooks. We are all being patient. But if some meaningful, radically different healthcare is not passed at least by this fall, you had better understand that they will be marches, your support will drop to Dick Cheney levels and your former friends will use the exact tactics, and networking that raised you millions and got you elected to take you down. We voted for change not some half-baked semi-solutions to important issues. We cheered, we believed in the hope you keep telling us about and the possibilities of making a greater society.
Caution is not prudent, clever or wise and the scorn that I and millions like me will show for you in words and deeds if you don't come through on this critical issue will make the streets of Iran after their crooked election look like a church knitting group. I voted for change. I worked for change. If you were just conning us well good luck, pal. You could be in for a tough ride. Of course, you can always count on Rick Warren to come to you in your time of need.
I thought I voted and worked for a good man. I hope I was correct. I am drumming my fingers trying to be patient. The drumming will end if you and your party don't come through on health care. The fingers now drumming will turn into a fist.
Can you imagine D.C. crowds as large as ones that watched Martin Luther King, Jr. in the late sixties or larger all gathered and calling for your head? No healthcare reform and my hand will be up and shaking with anger. Pretty basic principle here. Keep care of your friends and defeat your enemies. What is so tough about that concept?
I saw you hug some poor, scared woman at one of your townhall meetings last week. We want more than hugs and little pats on the back. No flipping excuses . I am speaking as a friend. You better be tuned in. If you lose guys like me there will not be a second term or even a very fun first term.
The Other Three Possible Sellouts
Wyden, Specter, Feinstein
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