Posted by
Bill Crawford on Friday, August 21, 2009 2:02:35 PM
Obama isn't happy to simply disagree. Dissent on his health care program is now a violation of one of the Ten Commandments. We are " bearing false witness" against his people now.
This is what happens when you approach political issues as a moral absolutist. The clash of ideas is no longer a collision of disagreeing premises, but one side owns the truth and the other is somehow evil.
The Democrats running this thing have all gone home for the summer and found their constituents coming at them with open torches and pitchforks. Instead of facing the possibility that there is real concern among them, some of them are coming back convinced that their voters have been pushed over the edge by Republicans, health insurers and pharmaceuticals.
Now they are up against it, and the intra party debate among the Dems is to not bother any more with the few Republicans on the Finance Committees (the extent of their "bipartisan" negotiations) and pushing the damned thing onto the floor anyway.
They don't have the votes for that. So they are also considering a "nuclear option"- a procedural change that will allow a simple majority vote in the Senate, bypassing the filibuster options. They are realizing that the 'Blue Dogs' are getting farther away from them with every town hall meeting.
It is an outright lie to pass out the notion that the Republicans don't want to cooperate at all on this. It is another one to say that they aren't bringing any ideas to the table. The biggest lie of them all is that opposition to the plans put forward is a satisfaction with the staus quo.
That is what Obama, Pelosi and Reid have all done this summer. I'm not going to bother with throwing that particular Commandment back at them- this debate is difficult enough.
Somebody has to keep it civil. This is important stuff, and we should be above that, whenever possible. Maybe if I was from Chicago, I'd roll the same way the White House does. You all want to talk? I'm right here. I may not be the brother of your Chief of Staff, but I can add something. You ain't listening. That's your problem, not mine.