The time for carrots has passed

Democrats must be willing to go to the mat for health care reform with a robust public option. The public option is the center piece of health care reform. Without it the whole thing is just a veichle to hand large piles of cash to private insurance companies while they continue the same criminal practices they currently do. The public option is what keeps them honest. It sets enforces the standards the private insurance companies will need to emulate if wish to stay in business.

It has become obvious to me President Obama has no interest in supporting the public option. In fact he is going to try and force the congressional progressive caucus to give up on public option. If the president is not going to willingly fight for us, we who worked, donated, and supported him in the 2008 election. Then we are going to have to MAKE HIM work for us. It is time to apply pressure. The time for carrots has past. Now is the time for sticks.

What we need to do for the public option:

A rally in national mall of citizens for the public option
Size: 1 million plus at minimum. Large crowds of people in front of government buildings cannot be ignored.

Post card (something else?) campaign to WH, house, senate
Email and twitter are great however they are easily filtered out and ignored. A physical piece of mail or a delivery of some kind is something they have to use people to process and get it to its destination. It takes time away from other things they would could be doing. It cannot be ignored as easily.

An alliance of netroots websites
We have a great democratic online presence with lots of great websites for content. Most of us visit many of them daily. If they could all pledge to work together to spread consistent news and messages to as many Democrats as possible on the issue of the public option we can get the word out and apply pressure much more effectively.
Media interviews explaining why public option is so important to health care reform
We frequently get drowned out by stories of GOP craziness or whiny Blue Dogs about how the Public option is [insert reason for FAIL]. It is time to speak out loud and proud for the public option and not lets its opponents silence us.

Take a pledge
Sign a petition to primary President Obama in 2012 and any senator or representative who does not vote for the public option and deliver it to them so they know it. This is the key to it all. The elected officials in office stab us in the back figuring we are going to have to vote for them anyway in the next election cycle. It is time to let them know, they work for us. ATTENTION: IF YOU DO NOT DO WHAT WE ECECTED YOU FOR, YOU ARE FIRED! No more: votes, donations, or support from us. Ever. No exceptions. We can choose another candidate.

Keep up current activities
Twitters, e-mails, letters, articles, blogs, etc…. Every bit of attention we can get on the merits of the public option is a good thing.

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