Although most Democrats serve districts that support a public option, the concern is not that people will be angry that they supported one. The concern is countering the following talking point:
Some House Democrats have expressed reservations about voting for a health bill that includes a public option if the Senate was never going to consider a government-backed insurance plan that would compete with private insurers. They feared that Republicans would turn such a vote into an issue in 2010, saying that Democrats voted to turn the health care system into a government-run operation and that the Senate wouldn’t even consider such an extreme scheme.
It’s fairly easy to accuse Democrats of being extreme if they vote for something that doesn’t ultimately pass, even if what they voted for is popular in the abstract. I personally think this fear is overblown. For one thing, the Republicans are going to make some attack along these lines no matter what happens. So, you’re really worried about an issue of incremental credibility. It’s like trimming your votes on procedural matters to make your overall voting score less ‘liberal.’ They’re going to call you an extreme socialist anyway, so what’s the point?
Secondly, the more important consideration should be whether your constituents are going to like the legislation. If they like it, they won’t be too impressed with criticisms that you advocated something even stronger.
A lot of the struggle to get Democrats to behave well has nothing to do with lobbyists and corporate campaign donations. A lot of it is just a struggle to get them to overcome their fear of Republican attacks.
Americans respect people who stand for principles, even ones that they disagree with. They do not respect a group of sniveling cowards. Where is the fucking backbone?
Grayson is gonna be the test case. If he survives in a R+2 district saying what he is saying, maybe others will have stiffened spines. If he loses, I fear for my party.
So far, Grayson hasn’t drawn a real challenger. He has millions of his own money and he’s willing to fight dirty, so it’s a bit daunting to take him on.
But he needs to be careful about making too many statements he needs to apologize for.
his first big mistake is appologising for the “whore” comment. if we are goig to support a honest speakig representative then maybe we should encourage his bluntness. my initial response was to be angry at him for crossing the line but after digging a bit, the woman is a whore. sure, there are “nicer” ways to say the same thin but look what the pc approach has gotten us. i won’t list them all but just atke a moment to exan]mine the simple fact that after the initial gooper screams, what happened? not a damned thing! grayson is fine just as long as he does not attack based on something false. it is simple but it will b the ballsles dems that will once again kow tow to the pc police. bipartisanship- bullshit. how many times has any party controlled all three branches? now ar never!
He got initial good reactions because he attacked Republican ideas in no-nonsense, plain-spoken style. If he starts attacking people in the same way, he is going to lose a lot of support.
Stick with “tell the truth about Republican ideas”.
One more “whore” and he’s out the door. I love the guy, but you cannot use the kind of language that is common on the internet in the real world.
One note of interest – he is a frequent poster on DK, and does not use a “nom de post”. Perhaps he needs to get an editor.
Please, Alan!! No more “whore” comments.
“Whore” was probably a poor choice of words, even if basically true, since when directed at a woman, there’s a hell of a lot of misogynistic baggage carried along with it that you’d better make sure you mean before you go slinging it around. “Mercenary” or “hired gun” would have carried the same meaning, at least where the actual point of the remarks was concerned, without being needlessly inflammatory.
That said, if he had used “mercenary” instead of “whore”, no one would have blinked — or noticed. That’s the danger in the mushy language popular in politics. Calling a liar a liar is a heck of a lot more effective than saying that so-and-so “misrepresented himself”.
As far as fear of Republican attacks go, Democrats need to accept two things. First, unless the Republicans all decide to give up and retire at the same time, Democrats will be attacked by Republicans every election, and if they don’t provide the GOP with dirt, the GOP will make some up. And second, if they aren’t infuriating the Republicans, they aren’t doing their damn jobs. I vote for liberal Democrats in the hopes that they will work towards the elimination of conservatism as a viable political faction. Conservatism can and will go the way of monarchism and feudalism if we keep up the fight. But it will persist by sheer inertia if we end up with leaders who value bipartisanship and going along to get along.
No more namby-pamby crap about the political pendulum, either. It’s the 21st century. We can afford to rip the damn pendulum out and replace the clock with an electric model.
If this is true, the real question is, how in hell did these people get nominated and elected? I makes me sick to think that even a fraction of a penny of my contributions went to the campaigns of inept cowards. How many decades does it take for even the dimmest bulb to figure out that they’re going to be called commies, America-haters, extremists, child molesters, Jesus-haters, and all the rest of the crapload arsenal of the corporate goon squad?
I think the problem is the “consultants” who have engineered more losses than the Cubbies. They want to preempt attacks by “staying under the radar” on “controversial” issues. Not a chance in hell it will ever work, but anything else would require actually doing what politicians get paid to do: stand for something and communicate why that’s a good thing. Democratic cravenness runs a close second to Republican psychopathy as the prime cause for the mess we’re in now when we should be making change happen.
If I could talk to democrats on the Hill I would tell them a few things:
Like Nixon was more liberal then democrats today.
Be proud of who you are and if you are so ashamed to be a dem then, go and become a repub. We’ll then elect democrats who are proud to be democrat.
Stop letting the bullies turn you into slush. If they call you a socialist then say ‘so? So what if I am. who care?”
30 years of conservative bullying and running roughshod has turned everyone into jelly.
I cannot believe how the far rightwing is considered a reg. repub by the media’s standard and moderate dems are label far left.
Our country is ready to turn back but, you have to have the guts to stand for what you believe in.