Organizing for America | NinaBlog: A Comment Posted to the NYT that got 439 Recommendations

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A Comment Posted to the NYT that got 439 Recommendations

By Nina - Aug 24th, 2009 at 11:31 pm EDT

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Tags: Health Care, liberal, New York Times, Paul Krugman, Progressive

Sometimes all this activism seems to be vanishing into the void, but I was happy to see that one of my comments on the NYT site garnered 439 "recommendations." It was in response to Paul Krugman's article about the seeming lack of trust in the voting base...

Here it is:

NinaDenver, CoAugust 21st, 20097:20 amI think you've put your finger on it, Mr. Krugman, liberals aren't jumping to enthusiastically promote the president's agenda because they don't trust that he will stand firm on his agenda. They worry they'll pour their passion into the cause only to find out that he has "given away" one of their core causes.

After hearing about the possible loss of a public option, I jumped into action, but not to follow the president's lead. Rather I am pushing for the public plan and for roundly rebuking the Blue Dogs, Senators Grassley, Baucus, and Conrad, and all the other obstructionists. I urge every interested party to call the DNC and complain about the lack of cohesion in the party and the bad behavior of those in the Senate finance committee.

I respect the president and still hold out hope, but he does have to realize that he is dampening the passions that carried him into the White House by failing to follow the rules of hardcore negotiating. My mother, who worked as an environmental lobbyist (on the good side), always said that you pick a "red herring"--a more extreme, but less desired aspects of a bill--and treat it as your do-or-die issue. Then, when you agree to get rid of the item, you insist that your opponents won't get further concessions (leaving intact the elements you really wanted). Mr. Obama starts off with nothing extra in his legislation, stripping it down to its barest elements, so that when his opponents demand concessions, they are major concessions that cripple the legislation. He doesn't seem to understand the nature of industry and corporate power either--he treats them as equal parties in any negotiation, not realizing that their goal is to eviscerate him (i.e., the industry-paid "grass roots" town-hall-meeting kooks). He needs to seriously learn to fight back to power and out-threaten those who threaten him (tell the Blue Dogs that's that, tell industry he'll switch to single-payer if they don't back the more moderate public option).

More than anything, Mr. Obama needs to return to a position of bold vision and strong leadership, firmly stating his demands and holding true to them--rallying his supporters when needed. If they have full faith that he won't waver, they won't waver either. Industry should not be making these decisions for us. Our elected leaders should be listening to the real (not the industry-financed) American people who spoke out clearly in November.Recommended Recommended by 439 Readers

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