Anyway.
I've had to take a little break, with all due respect, from some of my friends at MSNBC, particularly the lovely Keith Olbermann. I haven't watched his latest "Special Comment," but know that he teared into the Democrats and the President for not being stronger in supporting a single-payer system, or a public option, or at least the expansion of Medicare. First, can we please cut President Obama a fucking break? Has his own party forgotten the SHIT that this one man walked into, after eight years of George W. Bush? Bush was a guy so stupid, so simplistic, so much the "dry drunk" that the country actually got used to having low, or no, expectations of him. And he didn't disappoint.
But with President Obama, the expectations are off the chart. In one fell swoop, within the first twelve months of his presidency, he's expected to do it all -- end the war in Iraq and bring all the troops home; win the war in Afghanistan, catch and kill Osama bin Laden, destroy all our enemies, bring all those troops home; close Gitmo; keep the country solvent; turn the tides on mortgage foreclosures; fix the country's failing infrastructures; balance the budget and create millions of jobs; make the USA (and the automobile industry) more fuel-efficient; usher in a new era of racial and religious understanding; enlighten everyone about the dangers of global warming; and create and pass a bill for universal, single-payer, "Medicare-for-All" healthcare reform. I'm sure I've forgotten dozens of other things on our Obama "to do" list. Oh, right -- President Obama must put the needs of the African-American community first, lest he be thought of as a whitey-loving Uncle Tom. Because he's not supposed to be a President for all of the people -- he's just for "us. " Right?
Can you imagine the pressure he's under? With death threats up by 400%, and those state dinner interlopers exposing major security breaches. And a media mogul (Rupert Murdoch) with major newspapers and an entire network dedicated to destroying him. And the so-called "liberal bias" that's so scared to be though of in that way that even they bend over backwards to appease the conservative, corporate media. Man, this just isn't fair! President Obama is one man. He has ideas and goals, but with real legislation (once it gets in play) it takes time to get it right. It can't all happen at once. Bills get amended, tweaked, changed. That's how it is!
(And have you noticed how often poll numbers are taken on his popularity, efficiency, whatever? What's next -- that little needle the networks used during the debates to show how people were reacting, word by word? Jesus Christ.)
But now we Deomcrats are dumping on President Obama like nobody's business. As Diane Keaton said to Al Pacino in "Godfather 2:" "This...all...must...end." I'm talking about us Democrats talking smack about each other and about our President. I'm talking about progressives having an idealistic temper tantrum, and the Blue Dogs (who I blame Rahm Emmanuel for, because in his zeal to get our numbers up he talked Republicans into running as Democrats, and now the chickens have come home to roost. But that's another story) digging in their heels and refusing to bend. Democrats are NOT "wimps," Democrats should NOT be "more like the GOP," we do NOT need our own Karl Rove, and I could NEVER be in a party where everyone totes the party line. WE HAVE TO STOP BEING HATERS AGAINST OURSELVES, and remember where the blame really lies.
The compromises that have happened in the health care bill have happened largely because of the GOP. They want to bring President Obama down by rejecting every bit of legislation he supports, even at the expense of the GOP's own constituents. THEY, PLUS JOE LIEBERMAN, AND BEN NELSON, ARE THE REAL OBSTRUCTIONISTS. Because, honestly? The "tea parties" were a joke. They represented a smattering of frightened, poorly educated folks. They were reading scripts, and holding up hateful, hate-filled signs because of their fear of a black Prez, plain and simple. I mean, people said things like "keep the government's hands off my Medicare." Not a bright group, sorry.
Anyone reading this knows that the only people that haven't been screwed by the health insurance industry are the very rich and the very dead (because they can't be screwed with anymore).
I am a proud Democrat and a progressive thinker and an old-school liberal and a believer in affirmative action, same sex marriage, equal pay for equal work, and universal health care for all Americans. I'm disgusted that the United States of America, the richest country in the world, has the worst health care system in the industrialized world. I'm disgusted that so many health insurance and pharma dollars have seeped their way into the House and Senate members of BOTH parties. I'm disgusted at the do-nothing GOP that sat on their big-business, small-government asses and supported an idiot past president as he drove this country into the ground. And I'm damn disgusted that when the GOP had the majority in the House and Senate, when it came to health care, they did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. They SAT ON THEIR ASSES, and took their own health insurance, funded by us, the taxpayers. No way were they going to give that up.
So let's aim our fury at the GOP. Let's get some talking points going about their "record." Let's point the finger at the ones that get the biggest payout from health insurance and pharma companies. And, yes, let's throw Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson into that pile as well. Let's remind people at every opportunity that Lieberman's wife has her own big, big ties to the health insurance industry, which just might be influencing his narrow little mind. And let's remind people how much of a weasel Joe has been, how he supported the asinine Bush (and all that stands for), and how he supported John McCain in 2008. (And it is true, by the way -- if you hold your hand over the top half of Lieberman's face, and look at his icky mouth, you can see it. Lieberman IS "The Joker!" And he sounds like a donkey. And everything that comes out of his mouth proves he's a horses ass.) I'm still mad that the 2000 election was stolen from Al Gore, but man -- we dodged a bullet by not having Joe Lieberman anywhere near the top job.
And Senator Ben Nelson? Let's get real -- if Ben Nelson had a daughter who was raped, and the attacker was of another race, I think he'd think about abortion real fast. Frankly, I don't think any man has a right to say shit about abortion, since it's not happening to their bodies. And, by the way -- calling one side "pro-life" means that my side is "pro-death," and we're not. No woman wakes up in the morning thinking of her exciting option to abort a fetus. No woman goes dancing to a clinic, singing and swinging past lines of protesters, grabbing a bouquet of flowers on the way. It's a private, excruciating decision between a woman and her doctor that deserves to be respected.)
But I digress. Again.
I'm for single-payer. For a public option. For Medicare for all. For the public having an option of a government-run health care program, to give us somewhere to go instead of being forced into the stranglehold of private insurance companies. They are for-profit, not for-people. And while we strive to achieve those goals, my fellow Democrats, push as hard as you want. Call. Write. Donate. Run for office. Vote. Talk. Email. Blog. Disagree. But stop saying shit about ourselves!! DEMOCRATS ARE NOT WIMPS, and our party must STOP ATTACKING PRESIDENT OBAMA. I'd rather be a Democrat even if we're fighting among ourselves, because I truly respect discourse and will never just march in line to ideology. But health care reform is different. It's a basic human right that everyone in this country deserves. And let's NEVER forget that the GOP has no plan for health insurance reform. They only want to say "no" to anything Barack Obama is for. They are a disgrace to this country.
And Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson are complete morons.
And I love Al Franken telling Joe Lieberman that his ten minutes were up.
Did you see McCain's righteous indignation? What a hypocrite -- he stopped Robert Byrd in the exact same way during a Bush war funding bill debate.)
Thanks for listening. I'm pissed. What's on your mind?
