House Dems plot health care comeback

In late July, Arkansas Rep. Vic Snyder was a fired-up partisan, declaring that health care was going to be transformed “under President Obama’s leadership.”

By mid-August, the physician and moderate Democrat had been humbled: “I’ve never been a big fan of this public option,” Snyder told a tough crowd of 1,000 people at a town hall in Little Rock.

Democrats lost the month of August — not just in the polls and at town hall events but also within their own caucus. The question now is whether they can win September and win back the Vic Snyders. Or reel in freshmen Democrats such as Reps. Thomas Perriello of Virginia and Betsy Markey of Colorado, both of whom say they will vote against the House bill as written. Or lure back Rep. Steve Driehaus of Ohio, a freshman Democrat who is already engaged in one of the most competitive 2010 House races in the country and remains undecided on whether to back his president and his party on health care.

“A lot of us were blindsided by what we heard out at these meetings,” Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told POLITICO.

The comeback for Democrats — if there is one — will begin in an all-important closed-door caucus meeting next week in the basement of the Capitol, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her top lieutenants will try to undo the damage of the August recess and convince their wobbly members that a vote for health care reform will not cost them their jobs in 2010.

Leaders say their strategy is to convince members that nothing is set in stone and that they are more than open to negotiations.

At some point, citizens are going to make it just plain dangerous to be a politician, or an activist, and quite possibly a lot of other things as well. I'll rewrite something I sent to an old former USAR/SF buddy of mine locally...as best I can remember it anyway...

There's a very dangerous dynamic in the works right now nationally and it's the sum total of several on-going factors. One is that people have lately become very willing to spend their own time, money, and resources on expressing their displeasure at the current administration's pillaging of our Republic. While it's certainly a good thing that people are now willing, this by itself isn't noteworthy. It's certainly observable now however, whereas just a few months before it wasn't as easy to see. Soon, the MSM will have to pull off a major cover up to conceal it. This will be especially true if anything surrounding the 9/12 Project comes off as predicted according to current sign-up and interest levels. The level of anger has (in my best estimation) overtaken fear and people have become willing to organize and act in various ways and on a larger scale.

The ways in which they act are largely ineffective at the moment though, but the anger, frustration, and sentiment come through loud and clear. It's difficult to ignore and for a representative leadership to not perceive it, can only mean that they are mentally deficient (and should therefore be forcefully removed from office), or they have malicious intentions and are planning in some manner to counter these things which myself and others like me currently observe.

What we have right now unfortunately is a cold civil war in full swing. All the dynamics are present, and worst of all, it's escalating. With many, MANY other facets of human existence this wouldn't be such a bad thing. But with a cold war, the next predictable and logical step is a hot war. Socially, politically, and nationally, life shifts dramatically for the worse when cold turns to hot. Ask anybody who's been through it, and take note of the expressions on their face as they give a recount.

People moved to the point of organizing and action through anger isn't noteworthy. It's completely predictable here in America and everybody expects to eventually see it happen just like it is happening now.

HOWEVER... what makes the current situation noteworthy is that the representative government is by all outward appearances ignoring their constituencies and forging ahead with actions that corrupt the very basis on which the Republic was built. In a large part, effectively they've ceased being a representative government.

What we're observing right NOW is that point in time during the evolution of a cold war not too terribly long before the shooting starts. It's that point where people shout threats across the lines, and dare the other side to do certain things, and issue ultimatums. At some point, one side will escalate and the other will react and this conflict will no longer be one of words....relegated to the blogosphere and the MSM and talk radio and over the water cooler at work. At some point it will become dangerous to state one's political affiliation. At some point it will be dangerous to sport an Obama bumper sticker on your car...or a McCain/Palin bumper sticker for that matter.

Since these dynamics are measurable and observable, certainly others can see that the administration and those in power are either -

1. ...just too stupid to live and are therefore eventually doomed to be destroyed in some way, shape or form.

...or...

2. They are unimaginably malicious and are intelligently plotting based on the predictable response of their adversary.

I'm betting on #2 being the truth. Of course I could be wrong, but so far within my own peculiar little circle, I haven't been; and if I'm not, then those who are motivated to organize and act right now will also escalate in response. At some point a cold war has a cut off. At some point, it either dissolves, or turns hot. But one way or another, a victor is revealed. This current situation isn't dissolving. In fact, all indicators point that it's in a state of steady escalation.

All the years I served with the USAF when the USSR was our primary focus, each side kept an uneasy truce of sorts. It never broke forth and escalated into open warfare, and for this I am grateful. But this is only because both sides held each other at a certain arm's length and didn't escalate past a certain point. If either side had, then we would have had what I'm observing now within our own nation.... which is a breakdown that will result in a larger form of organized violence in order to secure certain goals and objectives by one side or the other. One side seems to have a pretty good idea of their goals and a will to enforce methods by which to achieve them. The other throws a mean tea party! Somebody will probably take offense to that, but I will remind them to draw a mental picture of ACORN thugs, or those Black Panther Security Patrols who were interfering with voting at the polling place in Philly. Don't forget that these types of groups largely have the tacit approval of our current government, and contrast that with the real effectiveness of the power of free speech! True! Free speech is a wonderful thing! But it just doesn't hold up to aggression and physical force. ACORN knows this. The Black Panthers know this. Eric Holder and Obama know this too.

The conclusion to what we're watching escalate politically within our own borders might play out more like the Alamo than we'd all like to admit. Somebody has to fire a first shot. Wait for it...because when it happens, there will be no turning back. That simply won't be an option.

I hope it doesn't get ugly. The problem is that all indicators point to exactly the opposite of what I hope for! Something out of the ordinary could happen, but historically these sorts of problems are sorted out at GREAT EXPENSE by the type of men who do things like storm beaches at Normandy and gouge bad guys out of holes in volcanic rock, kill Nazis in the frozen woods outside Bastogne, and other stuff like that. If those who have the fortitude to do such things (and everybody KNOWS who they are!) decide to organize and MOVE, the soccer moms in this nation are going to FREAK...as will every butch-haircut, tattooed lesbian, who's primary concern is paying for her new cutsie hybrid car, her vegan diet, and reducing her carbon foot print... and let's not forget the vast sea of morons produced by our illustrious public school system over the past three decades who in spite of condom handout programs, high tech metal detectors, and on-site law enforcement, can't seen to keep the teen pregnancy rate, gun violence rate, and gang activity under control. My how the list could go on, and on...

So while I hope it doesn't get ugly, at this point it certainly looks like it can't happen any other way. In fact, at this point it seems rather unavoidable.

Good point about the elections... can we see a friggin birth certificate for heaven's sake already?! They're not listening... or worse than that, they ARE listening! ...in which case we're in a lot of trouble. Either way, it's not looking good in the foreseeable future.

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