In the parking lot at Wegman's* last night

I had a conversation with one of my favorite LCDC members. She asked if I thought the health care bill would pass and I said, "I really hope not"

Whereupon, she, aghast, said, "But if it fails, we won't get health care legislation passed for decades! Look what happened when Clinton tried it!" and I said, "I'd rather have it not pass than get this piece of crap. It's WORSE than what we have now. No public option to keep costs down. No guarantee of affordable coverage for people with pre-existing conditions (and yet, a mandate that they must buy coverage), less coverage for women (who, btw, make up more than half the nation's population), and on, and on. AND IT DOESN'T COVER EVERYBODY. It stinks. It should fail."

She said, "But if it fails, we'll lose all those seats in congress and Obama won't get re-elected."

I said, "If it fails and then the Democrats pull up their socks and pass Medicare For Everybody with 50% + 1 vote, they'll look strong and mighty and they'll get reelected. They need to stop negotiating with people who won't vote for the bill no matter what. They need to act like a majority, or they deserve to lose. It makes no sense to work to put Dems in a majority if they cave on every little thing."

And then we smiled at each other, and I went to my car to work my way out of the Wegman's parking lot. Which is a whole other story.



*An error in judgment. I should have gone to Giant instead - but I wanted a pain de campagne.