Subject: [big campaign] New Huff Post from Creamer -- Crashing the Gates of the Status Quo
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:41:37 EST
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Crashing the Gates of the Status Quo 

Senate Majority Leader  Harry Reid’s announcement that he will send health 
insurance reform to the floor  of the Senate this week signals that the long 
march to change America, that  began with Barack Obama’s announcement for 
President three years ago, has  arrived at the gates of what is most 
certainly the “castle of the status  quo.” 
The next two months will –  without question – be a decisive period in 
American history. The Obama victory  opened up a great historic opportunity to 
make fundamental change in  America.  But the ability of the progressive  
forces to take advantage of that opportunity now hinges on our success at 
laying  siege to that “castle” and crashing through its gates by passing 
significant  health care reform. 
Everyone realizes that  health insurance reform is not just another piece 
of legislation.  But its significance goes well beyond  the fact that it 
affects one-sixth of the economy; or that it will massively  impact our country’
s ability to create jobs in the future; or even that it will  determine 
whether or not health care finally becomes a right in  America. 
If we succeed in winning health insurance  reform we will have breached the 
gates of the status quo.  We will demonstrate that fundamental change  is 
possible.  Into that breach will  flow a wave of progressive change.  That 
victory will also make it possible for us to pass legislation to  restructure 
the energy economy – to put the brakes on climate change and free us  from 
the tyranny of foreign oil.  It  will make it possible for us to rein in the 
power of Wall Street and pass  long-overdue comprehensive immigration 
reform. It will make it possible to  structure a bottom-up economy that can 
produce the jobs of the  future. 
Of course none of  these changes will happen automatically. The massive 
forces whose economic  interests lie in maintaining the status quo will not 
just roll over and concede  defeat.  But if they are capable of  preventing our 
victory on health care reform, they will make it ever so much  more dif
ficult for us to succeed on other critical fronts. 
So an enormous amount  is at stake – both for the progressive agenda and 
for the forces that oppose  us. 
All depends on our ability to  vanquish the forces that -- over the next 
two months -- will use every weapon at  their disposal to prevent our success. 
 It won’t matter whether the special interests in question have a  
fundamental interest in health care.  The Chamber of Commerce, the insurance 
industry, the Republican Party,  and right wing talk show hosts will all rally to 
defend the status quo.  They understand beyond the shadow of a  doubt the 
significance of this engagement. They will lie, they will threaten,  they will 
sew fear, they will batter our supporters with negative  advertisements, 
they will pay for busloads of right wing zealots, they will  offer jobs, they 
will do favors, they will bite, scratch and poke out eyes –  they will do 
whatever is necessary to prevent us from breaching those  gates. 
It is up to us to have  the resolve, the resourcefulness and endurance to 
defeat them. 
This particular battle is so  decisive for three reasons: 
1). Change is about momentum. Just as  in physics, it takes a great deal 
more energy to accelerate an object at rest  than it does to continue its 
motion.  Those who fear change have always used delay and obstruction to slow  
momentum to a standstill.  
In the Senate, the  other side will do everything it can to delay action.  
Their first trick will be to demand that  the entire 1,900 page bill be read 
aloud.   America has  debated health insurance reform for over 60 years.   
We have seriously debated the  current round of proposals for nine months. 
Now is the time for action.  Americans deserve and up or down vote on  health 
care. 
As we confront the  obstructionists in the Senate, we must maintain our 
momentum for change and make  our movement a battering ram that is un-slowable 
and therefore unstoppable.  Progressives in the Senate cannot accept  
infinite delay.  They must be – and  I believe they are – prepared to use every 
parliamentary technique available to  make certain there is an up or down 
vote.  If the other side insists on a filibuster, we need to make them  
filibuster – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  We need to force them to stay on the  
Senate floor and show themselves to be the obstructionists they are, for as 
long  as it takes. 
2). To maintain an  unjust status quo, those with power must always prevent 
the majority from  believing that change is possible.  They must extinguish 
 hope.  They must convince us  that the status quo is immutable – the 
natural order – that we must accommodate  ourselves to things as they are, and 
satisfy ourselves with our lot in  life. 
Once people see that change  is possible, the flood gates open, so the 
defenders of the status quo  must prevent us from even imagining a different 
world.  
Once the sons and  daughters of African American families left their lives 
as sharecroppers in the  South – took jobs in Chicago and New York – saw 
Europe  during World War II -- there was no longer any stopping the surging 
demand for  change that ultimately became the civil rights movement.  
Suddenly, they could imagine the  possibility of a different world.    
The other side understands  this completely.  If they block health care 
reform, they  know that it will convince millions of Americans that change – 
not just health  care reform -- is not possible – that they have to live with 
things as  they are.  They know it will  snuff out the light of hope that 
was ignited by the Obama victory. And just as  important, it will drain the 
reservoir of confidence that President Obama can  make change.  They know it 
will  cause America to lose faith in possibility  – and that is exactly what 
they desperately want to do, because they know that  the reverse is also 
true.  They know that if we win, faith in the  possibility of change – and in 
President Obama’s ability to deliver change –  will explode. 
3). The outcome of this battle will send a  signal to economic and social 
forces throughout American society, telling them  whether they should get 
onboard the bandwagon of change, or settle in and  accommodate themselves to 
the status quo. 
That is true of politicians  who know that failure will make change appear 
to be “bad politics.”  It is true of business people who will  either make 
investment decisions that seek opportunities in a new economy, or do  their 
best to exploit the inequities of the present order. It is true of  everyday 
voters who want to be with a winner. 
The results of this  battle will define a narrative about the likelihood of 
change that will shape  millions of individual decisions about career and 
educational choices,  investment opportunities, and votes.  
The battle that will  happen over the next two months will test the mettle 
of progressive leaders – in  and out of political office.  More  than 
anything else it will be a test of wills.   
It is not appropriate  to pull out the big guns for every engagement.  You 
can’t go-for-broke on every issue,  every day. But this is the time. 
·       We must demand  that Congress pass a health insurance reform bill 
that restructures the  relations of power in the health care industry by 
creating a strong, viable  public option that will free us all from the 
stranglehold of the private  insurance industry.   
·       We must demand that  health care decisions are ripped from the 
control of Wall Street investment  bankers and insurance company bureaucrats, 
and returned to doctors and their  patients.  
    *   We must do whatever is  necessary to assure that we do not miss 
this historic opportunity to finally  make health care a right for all 
Americans.
This is an historic opportunity. Of course nothing in history is  
preordained. It is up to us to make that history by winning this decisive  battle and 
turning this opportunity into a new era of progressive change in  America. 
Robert Creamer is  a long-time political organizer and strategist, and 
author of the recent book:  “Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win,” 
available on _amazon.com_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Your-Mother-Straight-Progressives/dp/0979585295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206567141&sr=8-1
) . 

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group.

To post to this group, send to [email-masked]

To unsubscribe, send email to [email-masked]

E-mail [email-masked] with questions or concerns
 
This is a list of individuals. It is not affiliated with any group or organization.