I recorded this thing, but just want to share some notes I took while the Governor spoke this morning. He had some very interesting things to say, especially about the Tea Baggers and how we should frame the debate...
By the way, Dean said that the public option was "vital" to health care reform, and that its inclusion in a Congressional bill was likely, if not already foregone...
The Town Hall protests, said Dean, are not about health care. It's expressed anger. Here are the three reasons behind it:
(1) The GOP has been running on anger for 30 years. They're good at stirring it up.
(2) These are not the demographic that voted for Obama. Essentially it was the younger generation that won the race -- the Teabaggers are a shrinking group, becoming increasingly marginalized, thus evoking the anger. The smaller this group, the angrier it'll get.
(3)They're not accustomed to looking at presidents who look like Obama.
More on the generational point. Dean said the older generations -- the ones involved in the protests -- are more prone to polarization. The younger gen, not so much. (Clinton described it as a "communitarian" crowd.)
Also, you know you're winning the debate when the other side has to make stuff up. And don't bother countering or confronting the rhetoric; again, it's not about health care.
Dean did acknowledge that not starting with single-payer entering the health care debate was a mistake. He called the strategy a "hangover from the old Democratic party," an attempt to jettison a contentious provision as a peace offering in the bid to craft a bipartisan bill. But the GOP isn't interested in participating. (Leaving the House Blue Dogs to negotiate for moderate and conservative Americans.)
The public option is the compromise.
Without the public option, there's no health care reform (just health insurance reform).
The public option allows Americans to have a choice, no one's compelled to try the public option. Reform, then, would happen at the pace American consumers themselves would set. Dean said it was the best health care reform proposal he's seen because of it.
Message to Congress:
Let Americans choose! The public option allows Americans to choose their kind of health care for themselves. Do not let Congress and insurance companies choose your health care for you!
Either you're with us, or you're against us. Either you're with the American people -- your employers -- or you're with the insurance companies. We'll count and examine every vote after this is done, and take action accordingly. |
