Subject: [big campaign] New Huff Post from Creamer -- An Historic Sunday: March 21, 2010
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:09:54 EDT
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

An  Historic Sunday: March 21, 2010 

Sunday, March 21st, 2010.  Remember that date.  
I have been involved in progressive politics for over four decades.  This 
Sunday at 2:00 pm, the House of  Representatives will convene to conduct the 
most important vote it has cast in  those forty years. The vote is historic 
both on substantive and political  grounds.  
If it passes, the health care reform bill will make it national policy  
that health care is finally a right in the United States of  America. And it 
will rein in the out-of-control  private health insurance industry that has 
given us a health care system that  costs two times more per person than any 
other country and produces results that  rank only 37th in the world.  It 
will mark a turning point in a century-long struggle between the  interests of 
everyday Americans and enormously powerful private interests.  
That vote will also have a massive impact on the future of the Obama  
Presidency and the progressive movement in America.  Success will empower him – 
and the  Democratic Party and progressive forces at its base – to make more 
change.  It will empower us to hold accountable  the Wall Street banks that 
wrecked our economy and cost seven million Americans  their jobs.  It will 
empower us to  lay the foundation for the creation of millions of clean energy 
jobs – and free  America from the tyranny of foreign  oil.  It will 
strengthen our ability  to pressure Congress to create the jobs America so 
desperately needs.   
Failure, on the other hand, would deal an incredible blow to the  President’
s ability to make progressive change.  For the President, and for all of us 
who  hold progressive values, failure is simply not an option. 
To his credit,  President Obama has bet the political ranch on the outcome 
of Sunday’s  vote.  On Sunday, we’ll all see what  he’s got in his hand. 
The vote on Sunday will also have an enormous effect on the President’s  
ability to fix our broken immigration system.  This gets me to the second 
reason that  Sunday will be such an historic day. 
Several miles down the mall – at exactly the same moment that Congress  
convenes to pass health care reform – tens of thousands of supporters of  
immigration reform will gather to demand that Congress to pass a long overdue  
overhaul of the nation’s immigration system.  The crowd will include immigrant 
 families, people in law enforcement, public officials, religious and labor 
 leaders – and representatives from the business community.   
The families of immigrants – and especially Latino immigrants – are  
increasingly desperate for change, because while immigration enforcement and  
deportations have inexorably moved forward, until recently immigration reform  
has not.  
Now, that has begun to change.  Today, Democratic Senator Charles  Schumer 
and Republican Lindsey Graham published a bi-partisan blueprint for  
immigration reform in an op-ed for the Washington Post.  The President responded 
with an  endorsement of that blueprint -- and Senate Majority Leader Harry 
Reid committed  that if a bill based on the blueprint is reported out of 
Committee, it will be  considered this year on the Senate floor.  
The march on Sunday could easily be remembered as the historic, symbolic  
beginning of a campaign that finally brings order and justice to America’s 
shattered immigration  system – and with it hope for millions of immigrant 
families that currently live  in the shadows of Americans society.  
The immigration reform forces are not calling for amnesty.  They are 
advocating a common sense,  bi-partisan proposal to sharpen and modernize 
immigration enforcement,  rationalize future immigration, and require that 
immigrants that are now  undocumented become legal residents, pay a fine, and be 
integrated into the  mainstream of the American economy.  They are advocating 
proposals that would end what amounts to a black  market in human labor that 
undercuts the salaries of American workers and makes  employers who play by 
the rules uncompetitive.  
But just as the health care vote  carries with it massive political 
implications for the future of the progressive  movement in America, the 
immigration struggle may  have far-reaching consequences for the future of the 
Republican Party.   
One segment of the Republican Party – lead by Senator Graham –  
understands all too well that the Republican Party will ultimately be consigned  to 
permanent minority status if it cannot appeal to the growing number of  
Hispanic Americans.  And he also  understands that immigration is a politically 
realigning issue for Hispanics  that is every bit as potent as the Civil 
Rights movement was for African  Americans.   
In the months ahead we’ll see if other Republicans follow Graham’s lead,  
or whether they take the path of least political resistance in the short 
term  and squander their political relevance in the decades to come. 
On the one hand, Sunday, March  21st could mark the climax of a 
decades-long battle to make health  care a right.  On the other, it  could begin the 
final chapter of a struggle that has enormous consequences for  millions of 
immigrant families and the future of the American economy.   
One way or the other, March 21st could be a big day in the  history of the 
United  States.  But the significance of March 21st, 2010 will not be  
determined the way this weekend’s NCAA playoffs are decided --  a few star 
players won’t be the only  thing that counts. 
In both cases, everyday  Americans, from all over the country, will have an 
enormous say about the  outcome. 
The results of Sunday’s health care vote are still very much up for  grabs. 
 A lot will ride on what the  remaining swing members of Congress hear from 
their constituents between now and  2 p.m. Sunday.  It would be  
unthinkable if health care reform loses by one or two votes.   
Yesterday, speaking to the House Democratic Caucus, Congressman John  Lewis 
(D-GA)--who helped lead the historic civil rights march from Selma to 
Montgomery, a man who knows something about  making history -- called on his 
colleagues to stand up and do the same.  
He told them that some people say that voting for health care reform is a  “
dangerous” vote.  But, he said,  there are no police with bludgeons, fire 
hoses or guns waiting when you cross  this bridge. We’re not calling on you 
to confront growling dogs.  “You just put your voting card in the  slot and 
you vote yes – and you make history,”  he said. 
The insurance companies and their  political allies are engaged in a 
desperate last-ditch effort to stop the  bill.  They are flooding the Capitol 
switchboard with  calls.  Don’t let them drown out the  voices of everyday 
Americans.  If you’ve called before, call your Member  of Congress again – right 
now, at 202-225-3121 – the moment you finish reading  this column.   
Tell them to step up and make  history. Tell them that if they vote right, 
you’ve got their back.   
Tell them that you’ll campaign for their re-election, and defend them  
against the lies and fear that the insurance companies have used, without shame, 
 to try to protect their CEO salaries and exploding profits.  
Tell them to do  what’s right for America and the future of their  
grandkids, and to forget about trying to trade their votes for petty parochial  
benefits.  Ask them to search their  souls about why they came to Congress in 
the first place. 
Tell them that they must choose between the interests of the insurance  
giants and those of everyday Americans.   Tell them you will hold them 
accountable at the  polls. 
The same goes for the immigration battle.  There is still plenty of time to 
go to the  Mall in Washington,  DC for this Sunday’s march  – or to sign 
up to be part of the  rapidly-building campaign to pass immigration reform.  
This Sunday, the spirit of the late Senator Ted Kennedy will once again  
infuse Washington.  Throughout his career he led both the  battle for 
universal health care and for immigration reform.  
This Sunday, March  21st, let’s make Senator Kennedy proud. 
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=1213241439&sr=8-1
)  
 (mailto:[email-masked]) 

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