A Rose in Bad Ground . . . is Still A Rose

The Rose in this situation just needs a little protection and TLC to really come into it's own . . .

From the Headlines Today:

“A new trove of emails shows President Barack Obama’s White House agreed to help drug companies block a proposal to bring down medicine prices so they would back Obama’s healthcare plan. 

House Republicans obtained the three-year-old correspondence between the Obama administration and representatives of the drug industry and released more of them to the public on Friday, The New York Times reported.” 

It's called 'sausage making' . . . which is something ALL pols normally do.  If you, reading this headline are so led into trying to lay this all at Obama's feet then you've got another thing coming: President Obama was simply learning from the past effort at the same.

Trust me: Big Pharma was instrumental in killing Bill and Hillary's first attempt in the 90's . . . because too many of both parties were leery of pissing off such a powerfully financed interests . . . especially those Democrats in the Midwestern states where Big Pharma employs A LOT of people.

The same conditions prevail today . . . actually even worse.

If Obama didn't try to cut a deal . . . he would have been forced to . . . and frankly I think he WAS forced to by these same Democrats in the Senate . . . the same Democrats that were really responsible for killing Health Care Reform back then.

So hanging this out there like it was President Obama and he alone that 'betrayed the cause' is simply bullshit . . . again: The corrupt Senate is the problem.

We would have had NO Health Care Reform versus the solid foundation for improvement we have now . . . I think many of you out there fail to see that!  Frankly I'll take a ‘good start’ over 45,000 preventable deaths per annum, and even greater numbers of people who suffer utter and complete financial ruination just to stay alive, who become wards of the state . . . I'll take that good start over NOTHING!

So you Liberals who are all so incensed about this 'apparent betrayal' the Good Old Times is talking about . . . you need to wake up and realize something:

After years of ‘pure apathy and non-participation’ in the political system as a fiercely defended 'right' and ‘option’ to express your anger, . . .Your suddenly deciding to pay attention and get involved FOR ONCE expecting 'Roses to Grow and Bloom in Exactly the Way You Envision it' . . . will NOT make them 'Bloom' the way you'd like!

 

You see the-less-than brilliant colors of the petals, the slight wilting of the leaves . . . the lack of perfection . . . and you're little disappointed and angered.  Empirically there might be cause . . . but only without perspective and reality is this umbrage warranted.  You're only looking at the aesthetics of the Rose but you haven't looked at the true history and constituents of the 'Soil' these 'Roses' are planted in . . . and you haven't even BEGUN to really work the soil and change the properties of it, so the Roses grow the way you want them to . . . (for those of you a little 'thick' on it, the ‘Soil’ is metaphor for the Washington Culture, and the entrenched, almost-fossilized, fixtures of Special Interests and the fear-based influence they have over our legislature).

Most of the liberals that are outraged at this seemingly 'egregious compromise' are very young and I can 'smell' the Breast Milk of Political Naiveté and Ignorance on you.  Those of you not-so-young, seem to subsist on the same ‘Tit’ daily as well.  You should know better, you should have been weaned, but still, pragmatists like myself, are subject to this sorry spectacle of disunity that is ravaging the party and chasing away independents.  This is NOT a good look . . .!

 

The Soil can only be changed by sustained, attentive, 24/7 tilling, augmenting . . . aka sustained activism at all levels and NOT just during an Election Year.  It can only be changed by a sustained effort at redefining for the public just What a Progressive Is, just like this brilliant piece of declaration written by Lawrence O’ Donnell  . . . and NOT just during an Election Year.

Yes you DO have the 'energy' to get this done . . . I'll grant you that.  If OWS is any example of how you can change the very conversations in the halls of congress from the street the way you have . . . yes you do have the energy.

But do you have the attention span, the discipline to stay focused on this for decades to come?

Do you have the wisdom to recognize the useful gains and foundations laid (Like the New Health Care Law) that have been had over the years, and do you have the ingenuity and skill to protect them, while building on them for something better?

Frankly . . . I'm not sure.

Why? 

Your track record says you don’t . . . and the folks on the other side have been 'studying' you for YEARS, decades . . . they know all your trends, they know what emotional buttons to push . . . and they’ve been 'working' the lot of you like a street hustler extraordinaire: For instance WHO were the ones that attained the ‘trove’ of emails referenced in the beginning of this article and released them to the Public?  

House Republicans

Now you folks need to think for minute here.  Republicans perform fellatio on and FOR Big Business and Big Pharma . . . why would they ‘object’ to the way Obama ‘made the sausage’ . . . especially if it’s the path they have tread down so many times back in the day, only worse(Think the Bush and Cheney Energy Policy)?

They did it to hopefully get the naïve liberals in Obama’s base incensed enough that they wouldn’t turn out and probably convince others to do the same by the rhetorical bellicosity and emotional purity of their ‘rage’ at this ‘unforgiveable compromise’. 

Republicans didn’t release these out of some earnest desire to root out the influence of Special Interests in our Government, despite the fact they are cloaking themselves in it.  They did it for one goal and one goal only:

To win the election in the Fall and possibly control of both houses of Congress with it.

They’ve done this before during this election cycle, in fact they’ve done this throughout President Obama’s term . . . like the troublesome provisions of the NDAA, the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts for other economically necessary things, etc.

They tried to cultivate and spur this division by forcing unpopular compromises into certain bills before allowing their passage . . . like the AFHCA, Financial Reform, etc.

They are pushing your buttons Liberals . . . pushing them while they smirk, laugh and high-five each other in their back rooms . . .

When do you buck the other side's expectations?

 

Liberals . . . Isn't it time to disappoint the GOP for once by what we do and how we do it?

This election and the opportunity to affect change is ours to lose . . . because they do not have a leg to stand on . . . and if they do it's so termite ridden . . . it holds no strength that will stand up to the hard Kick of Truth that we wield.

So look at this NY Times story that is all over the Talk shows this morning and 'breathe' . . . focus on what is really important. 

Your future depends on what you do for the rest of this year until the election.

Repot the Roses of 'What We Want For Our Future' . . . in the Soil that we’ve tilled, tended, watered and nourished.  You never get a garden worthy of any praise and repute . . . with only seasonal and sparse care.