Also...

[catsittingstill]

We're in crunch time for Health Care Reform in the House.  If you want it, imperfect as it admittedly is, for goodness sake call your Representative and say so.  You can find your Representative's phone number here.  You need your zip + 4 but there's a link on that page to get it if you don't already know it.

I called (had to call the local number; the DC number is always busy) and I sent an e-mail.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I called and was told my congresscritter is solidly in favor of the bill and already intending to vote for it. Part of me was pleased, part of me wished I lived someplace where rounding up some phone calls might make a difference to a waverer.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Well, I will be unabashedly astonished if my Rep votes for it. But I had to try.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

You can at least let them know that there's somebody in their district who will be pissed off at them for rejecting it.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

This is what you get for leaving Oregon for Tennessee, alas.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Don't I know it!

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

I figure you're in either TN-02 or 03, and in either case, you're right, he's unalterably opposed to any HCR whatsoever, no matter what it says.

You might be able to do some good by calling Lincoln Davis, the Democrat from the neighboring District 4, though. He's said to be still undecided.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thanks--I'll try to check this out.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I tried calling but couldn't reach a human, and his voice mail is full and not accepting messages

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

I guess we weren't the only ones with the idea.

Latest news is, Davis is leaning "no", which would put him with the entire Tennessee delegation except the two Reps from Nashville and Memphis.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

I've been following the sausage-making over at Firedoglake. The Democratic leadership is negotiating with the Stupakites, and some sort of deal has been struck. As of 11:25pm your time, the whip count stood at 204 yes, 209 no. I'm starting to wonder if the Democratic Party is going to survive.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

The voting public is fickle, and there's still time before the mid term elections.

However, while I personally would prefer a party that accomplishes nothing to a party that is very effective at finagling polices whose results are unabashedly evil, the American public seems to have a history of preferring King Stork to King Log. So failing to pass health care reform could work out very badly indeed for the Democratic Party.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

The public likes "winners" and "successes," for sure. I was thinking more of the internal conflicts and the prospect of alienating women voters. This may be a win-the-battle, lose-the-war victory for the Democrats.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I don't know about this. It is possible to reduce the enthusiasm of women Democratic voters, for example, but are we going to vote Republican? We don't hate ourselves.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

More likely stay home out of discouragement, I think. US elections hinge on turnout, the radical right is fired up, and the left is discouraged, which could lead to a very unhappy outcome. I won't stay home and I don't expect you to, but we are neither of us typical and voter behavior is (as the political scientists have shown) not rational. Also, the activist wing of the Democrats is very unhappy, and these are the people who do the hard work of turning out the voters. Personally, I don't have the heart to work hard for the conservatives--it is too much like participating in my own abuse.

I think the internal coalition of the Democrats is breaking up and this might--might!--lead to the formation of a viable new party. Considering that the two biggest factions that elected Obama were women and young people and that this administration is stiffing both groups, there is probably as much energy for a third party as there has ever been.

Articles on this over on my own blog: What Brung Them, parts 1, 2, and 3. Brief analyses of the party's internal coalitions.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I vividly remember Ralph Nader pulling one or two percent of the Democratic vote away from Al Gore. A vote for Nader was half a vote for Bush. Look what we got as a result!

I'm not saying I would *never* be drawn away from the Democrats. But I will *never* be drawn away from the candidate with the best chance of defeating the candidate who is crazy--and right now that means I vote Democrat so I won't wind up under the thumb of the Republicans and I do that without exception.

So Greens or whoever shouldn't bother offering me progressive candy hoping I will throw away my vote. If we splinter, we will end up the way we were under Bush, and the Earth can't take too much more of that.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

I decided years ago that I would vote for the less crazy candidates which have a chance to win, and for a long time those have been the Democratic candidates. But I did not have the heart to work for the conservative Obama, and I do not have the heart to work for a conservative party. This is not the Democratic party of our youth: all the great liberal Democratic Senators of that time are gone and the Democrats are dominated by their conservatives. On a personal level, I think you will find supporting a party which compromises with the anti-abortion right very hard. I don't see the Democrats as moving to the left in this decade. Maybe if there are more major environmental disasters they will improve their environmental policies.

The Greens were grandstanding in 2000. I hope we never see that again. Any third party has to start at the state and local level, and in the House. On the other hand, the Republicans are a rump party. Their policies are enormously unpopular and, without the arcane rules of the Senate, and its undemocratic electoral structure, they would be very weak. Yet on major environmental issues the conservative Democrats are so far only a little better than the Republicans. At least the Democrats are willing to accept and support science. I like Dr. Stephen Chu--besides, he may fund a job for me. But I don't see the Democratic leadership challenging the oil, coal, automobile, or road-building industries, any more than they have challenged the financial services industry or its health insurance branch. Matters are going to have to get much worse before the Senate will act, and I think a challenge is more likely to come from outside the Democrats than within.

Meantime: more women in the House, more women in the Senate, more women on the Federal bench. Electoral reform. Separation of church and state. Health care for everyone. Jobs. It's the environment, stupid!