Do Democracy, Episode V: Thank Senators Brown, Merkley, Bennet, Leahy, Kerry, Franken, Whitehouse and Gillibrand for Continuing the Fight for the Public Option in the Senate!

Man I love Sherrod Brown right now.  And I’m gonna call him to tell him so tomorrow.

Consistent readers of my blog will remember my last episode of Do Democracy, in which I suggested that you call your representative (especially in Ohio, which then had not contributed any signers) and tell them to sign on to the letter demanding that a public option version of health care be passed through the Senate using the reconciliation option.  I’m gonna let wikipedia explain this better than I can, but the long and short of it is that it bypasses the filibuster (the target of future Do Democracy episodes, you better believe it- partisanship by liberals the reason the Senate sucks, god I dislike toady Evan Bayh…)

Fast forward to now, when the letter has 119 House signers and 8 Senate signers!  Despite Reid and Pelosi pooh-poohing the idea, it is gaining momentum and support.  We need to show Democrats that we dig momentum and leadership, not abandonment, cluelessness and not-leadership.  At a time when some of these clowns are actually considering adopting failed Republican ideas, running away from all the promises they made in 2008, there are some members of congress trying to live up to our expectations of them.  Thank them, and let them know you’ve got their back in November if they continue to fight like true progressives (god damn it!)

If you wanna read and sign this letter yourself as a citizen, check it out here.  One thing I love about this letter, that I’ll talk about in depth in a future post, is that it not only defends the public option, but it combats the bullshit meme that fiscal responsibility = conservative principles of social service cutting.  Fiscal responsibility can (and I’d argue usually does) equate simply to better designed social services (shocking, I know).  It also chips away at the filibuster, as I see it a hugely anti-democratic impediment to governance, by showing how only with its removal (in this instance, via reconciliation) can real policy momentum take place.

If your Senator is not a signer yet, check out OpenLeft where they’re enlisting citizen-journalist help to help whip to find out how many Senators are definitively in play either way.  You wanna talk about doing democracy?  How about doing the Senate Majority Leader’s job because he’s wussing out?

As David Dayen puts it, “Democrats are choking in a desert looking for results right now, Bennet and these other Senators are at least offering that path out of the desert.” Seriously.  While wimps like Evan Bayh are peacing, progressives are doing the actual work of, you know, governing. I like it when we govern.

Peace,
Joel