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In 2002 and 2004, I walked and I talked and I wrote and wrote and wrote. I worked in the Democratic headquarters of Katherine Harris' infamous 13th congressional district, at the south end of the Tampa Bay, trying to staunch the flow of the too-many-to-count Bush and Republican moral deprecations. The 2002 congressional race wasn't even close.
Not so in 2004. However, it was closer, but still no cigar. Nonetheless, we began to sense the first ripples of citizen anger building.
In 2006 I had moved to Reno, the "Biggest Little City in the World," in one of the reddest states of the country. Those who composed the volunteer base in 2002 were senior citizens. The youth brigade had yet to form. In 2006, in Reno, that brigade was forming.
In 2008, what I witnessed in the Democratic headquarters in Reno was a mirror of what was going on across the country. That youth brigade had grown to a massive army. And it would not be defeated. Nor, as the returns clearly demonstrated, it was it. Make no mistake, that army was screaming for genuine change; in everything! It was the mantra of their raison d'être. Review your surveys: the party label - Democratic - only figured in the mix because it was the strongest opposition to the staid and completely corrupt GOP.
You have asked me to contribute to the DSCC because we need to keep, even enhance the party's control in 2010. But I would ask in return, given the Democratic senate's position concerning healthcare reform of "single-payer" clearly off the table, and a "public option" nowhere in Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' vocabulary, why should any of the millions of us who fought so hard to deliver the loud and clear message give the first 'D' of a damn?
Mr. Poersch, we don't. Do you really grasp the sincerity of that, and what is in our hearts, and the political power at least 10 Democrats are flushing down the toilet? It will not be the GOP that defeats the Dems in 2010. Alphabetically, here are the culprits who will be personally responsible for the grievous self-inflicted mortal wound: Max Baucus (D-MT), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Tom Carper (D-DE), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Arlen Specter (D?-PA).
You know full well what the country overwhelmingly wants, relative to healthcare reform. Those senators I cited also know. FULL WELL! And yet they insult us daily with prevarications and the most disingenuous of talking-point spin. Please, please, please do not underestimate the anger seething just below the surface. You and the cited senators ignore it at your joint and several peril, and at the peril of the country as well.
No sir, I won't contribute one more cent, unless and until word is delivered from the Senate that the bill that leaves that body and heads to the House reflects 100% what you know this nation is demanding: if not 'single-payer,' then absolutely containing the 'public' (or, 'government') option.'
Above I said that I "wrote and wrote and wrote." They were editorials that made it to The Pelican Press in Sarasota, a few that showed up in The Daily Kos, one that made it to Huffington Post, and almost every day were featured at Veterans for Common Sense.org, and almost every day at Op-Ed News.com. A copy of this letter will be sent first to Op-Ed News, then, after 48 hours, to Huffington Post, and The Ed Schultz show, and to Rachel Maddow. I just do not know what more it might take for you and your wavering companions to get the message.
Again, - please listen to us. Or, not. But if you choose not to, if you choose to disregard and disrespect us, do not wonder why . . . in 2010. "The fault," to borrow from Shakespeare, will be "in [your] eyes."
Sincerely,
Ed Tubbs
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Op-Ed News.com
Huffington Post
Ed Schultz
