change

I don't like to get too politically serious on this thing, but health care is an issue I can't resist.

Sometimes I look back at the Obama campaign, and it feels like a dream. At the time, the momentum was so palpable--you could tell that this kind of energy was once in a lifetime. When I look at the sorry health care debate, though, that momentum feels so far away. I am disappointed. Not in the insane conservative idiots who shout their same sorry slogans built out of gut-fear--you can't be disappointed by those in whom you had no expectations. My disappointment is in the liberal activists on the other side, the ones who threatened mutiny as soon as the White House gave an inkling of compromise.

We forget why the Obama campaign was so successful. It was not because we got liberal progressives to vote. It was because we got people who do not always agree with us, even my Republican father, to vote for Obama. It was done not by preaching a liberal message or a conservative message but an inclusive message. The people who inspired me to stay involved were the ones who, every time I expressed doubt, said, "I hear you, and your view is important, and that is why you have to get involved--so you can actually be part of the change you've been waiting for." The people who discouraged me were the ones who let ego get in their way, who were convinced that they were the most committed, their viewpoints the most correct, and anyone who thought differently were useless. They thought *they* were responsible for changing history instead of feeling blessed to be part of such a rare point in time where the tidal wave of change was so strong that, with a little push, people couldn't resist riding it.

Health care was one of my biggest issues during the election. Having grown up with parents who have never had health insurance, I more than anyone want reform. But I don't believe the public option is the only option. I don't think it is the only option because no one knows exactly what that option or any other option will look like right now. It discourages me to see that former Obama supporters would cry foul just because our President stated that his goal was reform, not the public option. In my view, that is exactly how it should be: looking for the best way, not the liberal way, to crawl out of this health care mess.

For now, the White House seems to have caved to the pressure of its base and returned to championing the public option, but this fight is far from over, and I know that more position changes are coming. I dread that health care reform will fall prey to to the divide that results from single-mindedness, not from those who oppose it but from those who support it. I hope that those on the side of health care reform don't lose sight of the big picture--without a unified effort, there will be no change. While I think it is fabulous that those who support the public option will continue to pressure their neighbors, Congressmen, and President, I hope that when push comes to shove, they will back any effort at reform that ends up on the table. It's going to be a nasty fight--we just can't afford to be punching each other in the face. The other side is doing a good enough job of that already.