A minimalist tinkering that will not even come close to fixing the horrendous mess that this country's healthcare 'system' has become, is not remotely good enuf. You may be willing to compromise away all principle. We are not.

The Republicans pretend that things are just fine as they are now, and they have persuaded millions of stupid, stupid people that we should do nothing. We would fite them, and crush them, if you would fite with us. But you won't. So we'll do nothing.

We accept, sadly, that things apparently must get even worse before public opinion will permit us to make them better. Who knows? Maybe the health-insurance and medical systems will self-regulate, chastened by the bullet they just barely dodged. We doubt it, but we'll let them prove their good faith. Or bad.

We suspect that healthcare costs will continue to rise mutiply as fast as the overall rate of inflation, and that millions more people's lives will be ruined — even ended — by claims denied. Perhaps a few more years of reduced benefits, increased co-pays, and massive increases in premiums is what employers and the general public will need to suffer before even the stupidest and most evil Republican admits that they were wrong. Only THEN, once they have APOLOGIZED to Liberals and to the people whose lives they have ruined, will we put ourselves on the line again. We do not trust you, Mr. President. We are not drinking your Kool-Aid.

Mr. President, you don't seem to value your friends and allies, only your enemies. WE can be your enemies, if you like. We can be as determined to consign you to a failed Presidency as they are. We can stop you at every step of every piece of legislation you attempt to pass. We can deny every spending initiative you make. We can join with your Republican enemies to frustrate you at every turn and OVERturn every veto you might dare to make of legislation of Congress's own devising that you don't like. We can cause your poll numbers to plummet like a stone. And we can deny you the Democratic nomination in 2012, to put forward instead somebody much more to our liking.

Do not take us for granted. We are not your "soldiers", good or bad. We are not children, to be lectured about practicality and when to compromise on principle — that canard about not letting "the perfect be the enemy of the good". We are not your puppies, either, to be smacked with a newspaper if we dare to propose legislation you don't like or don't have the guts to stand with us to enact.

We belong to the true Democratic Party, the "Party of the Little Guy" who needs and deserves help from the Government now and then. We are not going over to the enemy. We are not playing games with the enemy. Yet. But if you abandon us, we will abandon you, and indeed cozy up to your Republican enemies: "We hate the guy too. Let's do business."

You seem to be on the verge of making a terrible mistake, treating us with contempt and selling out our principles to curry favor with implacable enemies not just of your Administration — and your race — but also of the American people. Don't do this, or you will regret it. We will make you a textbook case of what not to do as President.

There are a lot of white people in this country who are unhappy with a black President and will work for his total humiliation. It's not even about principle, just about race. Because it's not about principle, some of these racists will side with us on many legislative initiatives, if those initiatives will destroy you. So we can accomplish some of our goals for the people, by manipulating the racism of Republicans. That is at least as principled as your behavior has been regarding healthcare reform. We would remind you that the Democratic Party was very happy to do business with racists. Does the word "Dixiecrats" sound familiar? It should. We might revive it. If we're going to have to do business with racists and reactionaries from the South, why shouldn't they be Democratic racists and reactionaries? They'd be more likely to vote with other Democrats on at least some issues that Republicans won't.

Question: Do you want to go down in history as the first BAD (or "failed") black President?

We can make that happen. Don't play with us. Don't sell us out. Or we will DESTROY your Presidency. And in that, we will have LOTS of help. Wouldn't it be odd if you were finally able to achieve broad bipartisanship — but only in destroying you?

- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 7:49 PM