This appears to be the delicate stage of negotiations for a health care bill. As War On Error has shown so thoroughly today, the House bill as stands is a pure giveaway, because the “public option” it offers is only available to the self-employed, and then only by 2013, by which time the insurers will have (maybe) a bit firmer control of the Federal government than they do today.
We should understand, then, that we will have to be in this for the sake of building a historic bloc, a larger social movement with a political aim. If we can do that, we can say that it’s not over when Congress decides to vote, and we will not have to wait another sixteen years to get what we want. Voting down all sellout bills will, in this light, be our first victory as a historic-bloc-in-formation. It is still early in the game — it is not “now or never.”
(Crossposted at Orange)