I sent this by email in response to the repeated requests from different factions of my party to add my number to those "participating" in The President's nationwide town hall meeting tomorrow..
I know this is not well written.. but i am posting it anyway because the sentiments expressed are sincere..
and because I hope it will lend some perspective to republicans who seem to think we are headed lockstep into some kind of kool-aid fueled Obamamania socialism. That couldn't be further from the truth.
I just wish that at least one Republican had stood up to say the same kind of things to their party that i find it necessary to say to mine... and had shared it.
I keep believing that somewhere out there we can still find citizens who are more concerned with the effectiveness of legislation than partisan politics...
"
“I am going to tell you the same thing I told the president via his website...
what it boils down to is this.. expecting me to stand up and support a position that is already so far compromised from what we need and accept even further compromise is pretty much futile.
I am disabled and expending energy is incredibly expensive for me. Showing up..even by phone.. is expensive.. and i only do that for something i can justify. I can't justify this.
I am expending tons of energy on more internet conversations than i care to have to remind people that single payer is the ideal.. and that is the ideal that most of the attacks are based on.. not the already soiled compromise of public option.
All negotiating tools were given away once the assumption that everyone would be insured was written into any reform without the accompanying assumption that everyone would have access to affordable insurance.
This is NOT a bipartisan effort and every attempt to portray any compromise as an effort at bipartisanship is nothing more than a smoke screen. No matter how far the public interest in health reform is negotiated away.. the republican block will stand up as a block at the end and vote against it... it costs them absolutely nothing to make the public gesture.
If you are going to fail, why don't you fail at attempting to give the American Public an actual solution instead of creating law that will further enrich insurance companies and leave citizens more at risk than they were to begin with.
what's sad is that i have been able to redirect the conversation by doing nothing more than listening to concerns, debunking the worst of the lies and speaking common sense. If the elected members of my party had made even a portion of the effort to educate that i have.. there would be no need for this meeting because they all have access to a much wider audience than i.
If they were actually behind reform instead of trying to craft a compromise that would be politically advantageous to their personal careers and get them more campaign contributions, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
I am going to continue talking because i have realized that talking has been the most effective political tool of my lifetime... but if the democratic party wants my support in that talk, they will have to belly up and deliver to the ordinary citizen.
For that.. i would expend huge amounts of effort... at the cost of my quality of living for the next few years. I care that deeply.
the good news for America is that i am not alone."
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West Seattle Blog
West Seattle Blog
