"Keep your powder dry"

[Tom Rinaldo]

Pick your fight, give it your best shot, wait for the moment to be right; all battle related cliches with more or less the same meaning: be strategic in your timing to increase your chance of victory. We hear them often whenever caution is urged, and even when inaction is urged. But common to them all is an implicit call TO action, when the moment is right.

For the Democratic Party, and for health care reform, that moment is right now. Tens of thousands of us, each working at our own levels, have worked for years to restore the Democratic Party to strong majority control of both houses of Congress, and to return a Democrat to the White House. Doing so required acts of compromise too numerous to be tallied, some from the left, some from the right. But working together we greatly increased our forces. For what?

Armies do not exist for the purpose of perpetuating those armies, and neither do political parties. They exist to defend the interests of the people they were created to be there to defend in the first place. And when called upon to defend those people over a matter important enough to fight for, an Army will risk casualties to itself in order to win the battles they were formed to fight. There may an electoral risk for some Democrats in doing the right thing now. There is a life and death risk to tens of thousands of Americans in not doing the right thing now.

Universal health care delivered in a way that truly serves the needs of the American people is a justice long delayed us, and this justice delayed has been justice too long denied, at the cost of millions of lives. It is the unfinished business of the 20th Century Democratic Party, and there has been no better time in the last 40 years for us to complete this work that we were called on to do under Truman. Nor is there any reason to believe chances will improve tomorrow if we fail today, more likely they would fade.

Did compromises have to be made to increase our chance of winning the health care fight now upon us? Of course. For thousands of us writing blind checks to the National Democratic House and Senate Committees on behalf of whoever they chose to support, knowing full well that some of our money would go to Democrats with whom we fundamentally disagreed with on many important issues, was a compromise with a purpose; marshalling our forces for the strength needed to win a critical battle for America. Allowing Joe Lieberman to retain his Committee Chairmanship and continue caucusing with Democrats, after personally campaigning for John McCain, was a compromise that made strategic sense, in the context of marshalling our forces for the strength needed to win a critical battle for America. And so was acquiescence to shoving plans for a single payer health care system back to the most distant of back burners in return for the promise of "a public option". That was a compromise made by many to preserve Democratic unity and strength.

But what is the purpose of having 60 members in a Democratic caucus if achieving and maintaining that caucus requires retreating from the fight we supported them to fight in the first place? We helped build this Party for a reason and that reason, the fundamental well being of the American people, dwarfs the importance of the continued well being of the current Democratic majorities in Congress, if the health of the latter can only be ensured by endangering the health of the former. This is no longer the time to "keep our powder dry", this is the fight we kept our powder dry for. Deserters, in war, risk court martial or worse.

[annabanana]

1. If we accomplish nothing else,; If we lose the majority in both houses

in 2010, it will be worth it if we can deliver decent health care for the American people.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. I agree.

Soldiers risk their lives fighting for the people of this nation. I don't think it is too much to ask the representatives of the government in whose name they fight to consider risking their seats so that thousands more Americans can live.

[eridani]

7. Nothing on the table accomplishes that until twentyFUCKINGthirteen!

It is precicely that which will cost us control of Congress. Maybe. The Repukes may very well continue to act like assholes enough to counter that, but I'd rather not rely on that.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Sir they're headed straight for us.

Kif: Sir they're headed straight for us.

Zapp: A well calculated move straight out of Sunzou's classic text The Art of War or my own masterwork Zapp Brannigan's Big Book of War. But the one thing their captain will doesn't realize and never will is that...

Kif: Sir, they've docked with us and come aboard.

Zapp: Then I've risked all and lost. Kif old man I'll be in the escape pod, if that wicker chair I like so much survives the slaughter have it sent to my P.O. Box.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. Perfect, lol

Thanks for a relevant laugh.

[tblue]

5. I would much rather they go down fighting than go down not fighting.

I have been asking myself why did I work my butt off to help elect Obama and majorities in Congress? If they're just gonna hire people from Goldman Sachs to manage our financial system, prolong war and DADT, not hold the Bush admin and Blackwater accountable, and give the healthcare industry a blow job, why did I do it? And would I do it again? Right now I'm doubtful.

I know they've gotten some things right. I'll give them credit where it's due. But on some major issues, healthcare being the most important, I feel really, personally, let down.

Not happy.

[Rudy Adams]

6. K&R

Excellent point!

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. Thanks, and welcome to DU. n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. Though I've never given it blind loyalty....

... I've given real loyalty to the Democratic Party, with a concurrent dramatic increase of activities on its behalf, since 2003. Prior to then I almost always voted Democratic in elections but seldom did anything else to identify with the Democratic Party as an institution. Since 2003 I've actively worked on its behalf, and gave money across the board to candidates it ran in races for seats that did not directly represent me. I've blogged for years on the need to build Democratic majorities in Congress, I've rallied behind Democrats who won primaries in which I initially backed other Democrats, and I've sought to be a healing voice when divisions between Democratic supporters became overly bitter.

Something will profoundly change for me if the Democratic Party does not deliver real reform on health care in this session of Congress. I will no longer be the loyal advocate that I was for the Democratic Party that I have been during the last 6 years while it climbed back into power if it compromises away its legacy now.

[Stand and Fight]

10. You just described my own situation perfectly.

That is just how I feel about this. If they fail on this, if they should compromise now, I might join moderate Republicans in saying, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. It left me."

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

11. I am very bitter about the performance of all involved in healthcare "reform"

There's really no other word for it. Disillusioned, disappointed, and ultimately - BITTER. And, I guess I also feel FOOLISH for believing that real change was possible in this arena.

Your OP is eloquent. I think what the healthcare reform "debate" has done is to rip the scab off of our political system and reveal that our representatives are INCAPABLE of doing what is unquestionably the right thing for the vast majority of the American people and the nation as a whole, when it is in conflict with their personal self-interest - i.e. corruption, bribery, influence peddling, whatever you want to call it.

It appears as of now, that we will be grateful (how sickening) if our elected reps deliver to us a plan that keeps the most egregious abuses of the insurers in place for YEARS before being eliminated, allows age discrimination in rates,and gives us a gutted, pretend sham of a public option (if we should be so lucky as to get anything at all).

All the campaign promises, the very specific plans for reform are down the chute, compromised for the need for some make-believe bi-partisanship while thousands die or or bankrupted every year - real people, some of them who post here. I am bitter at the waste of my time, my hopes, my money and our collective futures. Why did they even bother to pretend that they would try to do something worthwhile? What was the point of the house parties and the websites where we all got to regale each other with our Queen For a Day sob stories of healthcare denied?

I am being very honest here. I fully expect to be descended upon by posters telling me how sad I didn't get my pony, that I expected to much, that reality and compromise are the order of the day, that the President doesn't have a magic wand, what kind of an idiot am I to believe campaign rhetoric, don't I understand the legislative process, itsy little increments are still getting us on the right path, Rome wasn't built in a day, etc. etc.

I know what I personally will do in the future. I will stick with the person that bests represents my views in this hopeless morass of a corrupt system. I started off with Kucinich. Next time around, I don't care who gets eliminated in primaries, etc. I will stick with my choice and write their name in. It will make me feel better, it will reveal where I stand on specific issues, and in some very small way, it might inject a little integrity into the election system if time had to be spent accounting for write-in votes.

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. I intentionally decided to suspend judgment for now

...until legislation finally gets signed into law and we know exactly what we are all left to deal with. For some of us our lives lie literally in the balance. I think it is fair to be upset by the limits of what it is ultimately possible to achieve now. I am like you already upset by that, by the compromises that minimally are certain to be found in any health care reform that passes Congress and that the President signs. There has been a great deal of backpedaling already on proposals made during the days of the Presidential election campaign, and that of course doesn't address a single payer system being kept off the table. We were never given any reason to believe that would seriously be given consideration this year.

When all is said and done my bottom line rule of thumb regarding my expectations for this Congress and this President this year are few; I ask that we be given reform that does not lock into place the current core structure of the health care system that has already failed America. I stand willing to test the central thesis of Obama's argument that private insurance companies might be capable of providing an adequate service to the American public if forced to vigorously compete for customers. They have already proved themselves incapable of doing so without real competition from the public sector in America. Too much is at stakes, tens of thousands of lives and the viability of our economy, to give them yet another pass from facing that type of competition now.

I strongly believe that the private sector is incapable of providing basic yet comprehensive health insurance, of the sort minimally needed by most Americans, nearly as well or economically as the Federal government can. But if they somehow prove me wrong by sufficiently improving their service in the face of real government run competition, I and we literally can at least live with that. Some backers of a public option, the President included, argue that the public option is only a competitive prod to private insurers "to keep them honest". Others see it as a way for single payer to "get a foot in the door". I think it can be the latter but if it only turned out to be the former, again, we can still literally live with that.

So my most pragmatic hard nosed political bottom line then insists that a real public option to private health insurance be guaranteed in a timely manner to a sufficient number of Americans on a scale large enough, so as not to doom it to failure before it even begins. And that public plan must be endowed with the same type of bargaining authority that all large businesses take for granted for themselves. I do not accept as an alternative some type of "trigger mechanism" that kicks that alternative down the road a ways where it can be mugged at some future date and prevented from ever getting there. This is not what I am asking for, this is not all that I believe it should be possible to now achieve, it is only my absolutely lowest bottom line. If this Democratic Congress and this Democratic President can deliver at least that now, we still get something we can build on in regards to challenging the dismally failed status quo insurance structure.

If instead the primary "public" aspect that emerges from this reform is a public mandate to buy services from private insurers, or if we get some weak straw man of a public option destined to fail from its inception, I, like you will feel once again betrayed.

It doesn't matter if one, some, or many posters here attack us over that sentiment. We are far from alone in holding it and though perhaps some can be intimidated from expressing those sentiments at this or any other political board, they will still be felt, and the Democratic Party will still be left to deal with the consequences of such sentiments taking hold in a broad segment of its activist base. But it of course goes beyond the Democrats activist base. As Obama has said, he knows he will be judged by the results that this health care reform brings, but it won't just be him, it will be the whole Democratic Party. Until now when people have been upset over the problems they face with their health insurance or lack of it, the Democratic Party was not the target of their anger. If any Party was it was the Republicans, but most of the anger was directed at the insurers themselves. In the future the Democratic Party will have it's fingerprints all over any problems that continue under the private health insurance system that Democrats will have mandated that we all buy into. If Democrats don't offer a public alternative now, they will "own" the private system as surely as the companies that they will leave in control of it.

[Sparkly]

13. K&R

Edit -- I see it's too late to "R," but big "K" and Kudos!

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. Thanks Sparkly...

You can still reccomend this OP at MyDD if you want, it's posted over there also (where it pretty much has been ignored, lol)

[SemiCharmedQuark]

15. Tried to rec...but it's been 24 hours.

Rec in spirit.

[asdjrocky]

16. I remember when Edwards said that as he was bailing on all the people that worked for him.

"Keep your powder dry." I really remember that. I was sitting there in my bedroom, six or so in the morning and I had just heard the bad news from the co-chair of One America on the phone. I turn of the TV and there's Johnny, telling us to keep our powder dry.

I looked at the three boxes of campaign material, sitting there in the corner of my bedroom that we had brought back from our crushing defeat in Nevada, with high hopes of using them for our campaign in California. We were to use those materials, along with all the stuff I printed on my own dime, the following weekend at the Davis Farmers Market. Now it had potential to be confetti, and little else.

Yeah, I remember that really well. I remember thinking- Keep your powder dry, what in fuck is that supposed to mean?

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. Dry powder pretty much loses its value, doesn't it...

after the key battle is lost.

[asdjrocky]

18. Very good post here by the way Tom, and you took my point well.

You're so right, our powder has been dry long enough. Funny thing, I've been a liberal Dem since I registered in '78 and my powder has been dry since then, I'm ready and the party I've supported for so long only seems to drag their feet. Sure I hope for real health care, but from what I've seen so far there is about as much hope of them responding to what the people need as there is of them ignoring Goldman Sachs.

I want to believe it's not fixed.

[Tom Rinaldo]

19. The real danger to Democrats...

...is that disillusionment manifests silently more often than not. If large numbers of active Democrats feel let down by what comes out of this health care reform process, the Democratic Party won't receive mail bags full of two week notices from members intending to put their time and attention elsewhere. There will simply be fewer checks in the mail, fewer people turning out for rallies, fewer people phone banking for Democrats in close races, and fewer people cutting short their dinners on election day to make it to the polls before they close.

The real threat to continued Democratic electoral success won't be measured in the number of angry blog entries that get posted if Democrats fail to deliver, a more telling indicator will be a long term drop off in political blog posts period.

[TheKentuckian]

20. Now is the time and not just for politicians but for US as well

Right now we should be doing our very best blitzkrieg on this right now. Make those phones ring off the hook for choices public and private for one and all. The exchange must be OPEN. We also need to be seriously putting a masive thumb on the scales for how this gets paid for. The Max Tax will bite us all in the ass. No mandates without choice!

[Cha]

22. Well said, Kentuckian..

Congress people are getting calls bc of ads like this..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

And Orgs like this ..

Cha --

Jenny U. from Missouri did what any parent would: When her son needed a kidney, she donated one of hers. But she didn't realize insurance companies would use her kindness as an excuse to never cover her again, calling her donation a "pre-existing condition."

Now, insurance companies are spending millions on a campaign of lies to kill health reform that would help folks like Jenny. So, today, with crucial negotiations taking place in Congress, we're raising our voices and making it clear: It's time to deliver on reform.

We've set a big goal: 100,000 calls to Congress made or committed to in a single day. To hit it, we'll need your help -- will you take 3 minutes to call Congress now?

Call your representatives and tell them: It's Time to Deliver on health reform. According to our records, you live in New York's 24th congressional district. Please call:

Sen. Chuck Schumer's Albany office at [phone]
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's Albany office at [phone]
Rep. Michael Arcuri's Utica office at [phone]


Health insurance reform is finally ready for consideration by the full Congress, and hundreds of insurance company lobbyists on Capitol Hill are working overtime to kill it. Calling is quick and easy, but effective -- and your voice has tremendous power at this critical moment.

After you make your call, tell the staffer who picks up where you live and that you're counting on Congress to deliver on health reform. Let them know that Americans like you support the President's plan -- and that if your representatives are working to pass it, they have your thanks.

If we hit 100,000 calls made or committed to, we'll send an unmistakable signal that this time, families must come before insurance companies. We'll be tracking progress toward our goal publicly -- make sure to report your call back to us so we can count it:

http://my.barackobama.com/TTDCall

Thank you,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

[bertman]

21. Error: you cannot recommend a thread . . .

Kick.

Excellent OP, Tom. I agree with you 100%.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

23. kick!