Time To Get It Done

President Obama seems to be backing away from the public insurance option. This is a huge mistake. A vast majority of the voters favor it, and the base of the Democratic Party insists on it. The last thing the Democratic Party can afford is to have the people forming its base shrug their collective shoulders and say “what’s the use” during the upcoming elections. Holding the conferences on health care is politically sound. Those televised conferences should allow President Obama to draw a sharp contrast between the absurdly partisan representatives of the special interests and the party that actually represents the working men and women of this nation. But when all is said and done, it will be time to pass a bill that includes the public insurance option. This must be done soon, and it must be done even if it takes drastic measures to accomplish it.

I know many people will say the filibuster has been useful in the past, but that argument is not valid anymore. When the Republicans threatened to do away with it the Democratic Party caved in. The result is that we now have the most reactionary, and arguably the worst Supreme Court in our nation’s history. Far from being useful, the filibuster rule has become detrimental.

I cannot believe how many people are misreading what happened in Massachusetts. Partisanship per se is not what caused the voter dissatisfaction. What caused that dissatisfaction was the inability of the Senate to get anything done because of the irresponsible actions of the Republican Party. It is time to call the Republicans on that. It is time to do what needs to be done to get the badly needed reforms and programs passed. If this means steam rolling the Republican Party, then we must steam roll them. The people of this nation want and deserve changes they can believe in. Passing the public insurance option will energize the base of the Democratic Party. Furthermore, it will demonstrate an ability to do what needs to done. Independents will forgive the partisan measures that are necessary to accomplish that. In fact, they will actually breath a sigh of relief over the fact that their government is functioning again.

As I have said before, no party has behaved as irresponsibly as the Republicans are behaving and survived. If the government must function in spite of them, they must change their ways or cease to exist as a competing party. They have already suffered some serious defections. It would not surprise me if other sensible conservatives also defect and form a viable third party. It would not be the first time in our history that this has happened, and the results are usually beneficial in the long run.