If Obama does not say he's going to fight for the public option on Wednesday it will be tremendously disappointing. I'm not the first to say that (though I might be one that has said it the most often). But I do want to try to explain why so many people have that feeling.
First, we rightfully believe that the public option is the heart of health care reform. Without it, the system stays pretty much as it is with some tweaks around the edges. I have written about this many times, so I don't want to rehash that argument.
I have also said many times that this isn't just about the public option or even health care reform. This is about the central idea of Obama's campaign - are we going to have real change in this country or not? If Obama tweaks the system but leaves it largely intact, most people are under the impression that that is not the change we voted for.
Are the lobbyists still going to run DC? Are the politicians still going to work for corporate America or the highest bidder and not for their constituents? Yes, these questions are very much in play during this health care fight, but they will be present on every issue. And if Obama is planning to surrender to those interests in the name of accommodation, negotiation, compromise or just getting "something" done, then it's going to be a long four years. Then we dared to have hope in the wrong guy.
That is why everyone is so animated about the public option. It represents the larger question - is Obama really one of us or is he one of them? By us, I don't mean liberals or progressives. I mean the people interested in having their leaders represent them and not the lobbyists who gave them the biggest check. The great irony is that this could be a truly bipartisan issue.
If he is one of us, then he will not negotiate away the public option because the private health care companies hate it (i.e. they are worried it will be real competition; and if there's anything a large corporation hates, it's real competition). If he is one of them, he will give us nice words meant to appease us about how he tried to keep the public option but he just couldn't and he had to settle for a compromise like the "trigger."
If he does the latter, as he has clearly signaled so far, well then the game was over before it even started. We know that's what Rahm Emanuel wanted all along. We know the White House was busy striking deals with these companies instead of taking them on. But much more importantly, we'll know that Obama never meant to reform the system in the first place.
Look at his most important choice in the White House so far - his chief of staff. If you want to win political battles given the reality of Washington today, then you go with Rahm. If you want to change that reality instead of surrendering to it, then you definitely do not go with Rahm.
The selection of Rahm Emanuel might mean Obama never thought he could win the large battles and never intended to really try in the first place. He just wanted to win enough small political fights to be able to get re-elected. Is that the change we voted for, we fought for?
But I write all of this because it is not too late yet. Obama still has a couple of days to turn it around (if he doesn't signal a real willingness to fight for the public option in Wednesday's speech, it might just be getting too late). It will be a very hard pivot, but a strong leader could do it. If he doesn't, I don't think they understand the degree to which he will be taking the sails out of his movement. It's not to say people won't vote for him anymore. But they certainly won't fight for him. And taking the fight out of your supporters is a terrible idea in politics. And it's terrible idea if you actually want to accomplish what you said you were going to do.
This is why this issue and this question will be determinative. We'll find out what Obama is made of and what his real intentions are. We'll find out if he is one of us or one of them. I'm afraid to look.
Follow Cenk Uygur on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks
Allison Kilkenny: A Moment's Silence for the Public Option
A "trigger option" means the public option doesn't exist, and won't until an undefined series of events occur whereupon the public option will pop into existence. This isn't a compromise. It's an insult.
Time to empower third parties. Don't look back -- the Dems are a lost cause (for the most part). If you keep falling for their smoke and mirrors, it may soon be too late.
This should have (and still could be!) a grand slam for Obama. With a majority in Congress, 70% of the American people behind him, this could be his superhero moment. But if he simply eloquently meanders around about how he wants a public option but there are other ways to accomplish this, I fear that this will be the titanic for the democratic party. Not to mention a blatant reminder that we are operating in an economy that serves to benefit corporate interests rather than the people of this country.
That says it all right there. When I first heard that Obama picked him as Chief of Staff my initial raction was "uh-oh".
It was the first in what looks like will be a long line of disappointments in the Obama administration. Granted, I NEVER thought he was going to be a liberal knight in shining armour, but I did at least expect him to be an exceptional leader. There's still time for him to show us if he has the ambition to be that exceptional leader, but given his track record thus far I'm not hopeful.
Just like most Dems in congress, he just doesn't seem to have the stomach to upset any of the apple carts in D.C. that are in the most need of upsetting.
For the past year, the left has painted those on the right who question if Obama is "one of us" or suggest that he doesn't "share the same values" as "us" as everything from sore losers to conspiracy theorist to racists. Yet there is increasing chatter on the left about Obama being some kind of secret corporate shill/bait-and-switch master/weak liar/Manchurian candidate.
The bottom line is that some people who claim to have supported Obama now feel as if he is removing some kind of mask that he had on to fool America into voting for him, and at the end of the day, he will further destroy this country (as opposed to the majority of conservatives that make their voices heard, who feel as if Obama is removing some kind of mask that he had on to fool America into voting for him, and at the end of the day, he will destroy this country, *their* country.
How can so many say that they've already given up on Obama and health care reform, even though no bill has been voted on and the President has not addressed congress in his important health care speech yet? And these same people have the nerve to criticize conservatives who are rejecting Obama's speech to school children without even reading it first?
I didn't vote for him. I saw the mask start to peel when he broke his promise to oppose FISA revisions that would grant telecom corporations immunity . . . and so ultimately I voted for McKinney. Many others are only beginning to see what I saw then now. I haven't been criticizing conservatives trying to keep kids from hearing him speak, though I really do want kids to hear what he has to say--because kids will see through the new Emperor's new clothes quicker than anyone.
The worst i can think of calling him is that he's a centrist and not a reformist. That's not change i can believe in. That's not even change really. But i agree, i will wait for the speech tonight. But i'm not optimistic, nor am i willing to be spoon fed some rhetorical pabulum spewed out just to placate the “leftist” reformists.
I found this statement that we are going to find out what Obama is made of (and many of our congress people as they are all just as accountable to us as he is ) who they really are to be chillingly accurate to describe my mood .. and yes I have decided I am not going to watch. I will be ready to react but I cannot stand the idea of wasting any more time on pretty speeches!
It is only " We Did it!" NOT this passive bullshit slogan " yes we can!"
Unlike you though, I'm willing to give the trigger option a chance. I figure we'll let the capitalists and libertarians try it their way, and if that doesn't work then we'll try it our way. If neither works though, we're all screwed and it will be time to move to Canada.
You must be very young. We "Democrats" have been letting the capitalists "try it their way" for 40 years. It hasn't worked so far.
Obama's betrayal on the public option won't be the first straw. It'll be the last.
There are now only 59 Democratic Senators so he has to get Snowe on board as well as 14 more Senators to agree to vote for it (only 45 agreed so far). Do you think throwing away reforms that are also vital (no more preexisting conditions or denial of claims when you're ill, expanding Medicaid to 150% above poverty...) is worth it when we can always tweek the system after? If the Blue Dogs don't support a public option it's because we didn't mobilize enough to convince them we'd have their backs.
Remember, candidate Obama's message on BarackObama.com: "I am asking you to believe not in my ability to bring about real change in Washington, I am asking you to believe in yours."
If it doesn't pass we've not been active enough.
And yes, I believe that a bill without a public option is worth "throwing away," because the only winners if it passes, will be the insurance companies. Just look at how the major insurance companies' stock went through the roof when it became obvious that the WH was willing to negotiate away the public option.
Cenk is right, I want to know if Pres. Obama is one of us or one of them...unfortunately, I think I already know the answer.
No more triangulating BS.. Get it done and that means a real national public option. We have already compromised the best solution.(single payer) No more. The R's just want power back for the big interests. This could be the last hope for real democracy in this Counry.
People are suffering and dying while Insurance CEO 's live like kings. What kind of a people have we become.?
Passing drivel that does nothing is worse than failing to pass what is right. Like Moyer's says come back and do it right when America gets pissed and gets their head out of their butt.
Starting to think? Have you been paying attention at ALL?
From FISA to being still in Iraq to expanding Afghanistan to secret detention to playing cover for Dick Cheney to coddling the Blue Dogs at the expense of his base, ALL Obama has done is "piss off the progressives," and throw more and more kindness at the people who think he's a socialist Hitler native son of Kenya!
This isn't just insulting to us progressives, it's simply foolish. To spend all of your time and energy chasing after the people who wish you'd never been born, while spitting in the face of the people who worked tirelessly and opened their hearts and wallets to get you elected -- this isn't pragmatism, it's just stupid.