One of my heroes, Paul Wellstone, used to say: "In the last analysis, politics is not predictions and politics is not observations. Politics is what we do. Politics is what we do, politics is what we create, by what we work for, by what we hope for and what we dare to imagine."
Imagine a country where you go to the doctor, he treats you, and the bill gets paid for by your tax dollars. We can create that world if we lead!
It is time to stop worrying about labels. It is time to fight for what we want and to stop backing down based on something polling as unpopular. In other words, it is time to lead and cease to be influenced by perceptions created by pollsters and Republicans.
They are hypocrites when it comes to healthcare. They are quick to call single payer "socialized medicine" or "government-run healthcare" with an angry tone. Instead of conceding ground, we should be arguing that "government-run healthcare" and "socialized medicine" are good things. Just like government-run police departments, military, fire departments, and schools.
I don't see any of these hypocrites arguing that you should have to have insurance for the fire department or police department to come to your home. 911 operators are not asking for your insurance information before dispatching the police to your house.
The Tea Party is not suggesting privatizing the military and finding another way to fund it outside of taxes. Government-run institutions are great when they are in areas that don't limit the financial sector's ability to get wealthy off us. I suppose private fire departments could make a lot of money -- they just wouldn't pass the smell test or be popular if they let your house burn down because you couldn't afford their services.
I remember the debate on Obamacare when the Republicans argued that a public option would be the back door to single payer healthcare. They were right, but the reason they were right is that the public option could cost less than private insurance. We can't have that! People need to keep buying insurance that is priced to cover huge profits and a wasteful billing system that is set up to limit your coverage. Not!