| Wednesday evening, Bill White showed up to the first University Democrats meeting of the year ready to speak to hundreds of potential block-walkers. He rocked the club and the crowd ate it up. According to University Democrats President Melessa Rodriguez, the club invited White to speak "because of the importance behind the US Senate race for both our state, and our democratic party."
It certainly sounds like the club wants to spend the Fall Semester helping a Democrat win an election. Unfortunately, that election likely won't occur in the Fall Semester...
I recall conversations with club leaders several months ago about a problem that probably plagued most local political clubs preparing for the Fall. Besides some state Constitutional Amendments, there are no elections until 2010 and there is no legislative session at the Capitol. The mundane droll of city policy can only excite so many activists. And local organizations can only have so much influence with the national politicians.
Yet clubs need to gain new members and retain old ones, so a plan of action with inspiration must be arranged. It seems that some of you clubs have determined the 2010 elections might provide the most excitement. Tom Schieffer, Bill White, and John Sharp have already highlighted meetings, and they will likely continue to do so along with Hank Gilbert and whoever else decides to join the statewide fray. We will have months in the Spring, though, to sort through these candidates fully. We should focus on more pertinent matters now.
A strong handful of activists have correctly identified that more pertinent matter: health insurance reform. And you have showed their support passionately. Unfortunately, the media will only display the opposition to health insurance reform, not that support that many of you are giving.
On September 9, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress regarding healthcare reform. With this, the endgame on the 2009 healthcare reform efforts will begin. Instead of simply showing support, we should work to increase support as much as possible in the final days.
Support can be increased more easily than it might seem. The difficulty in the health reform debate this year has probably been due to a lack of clear information. Both Democrats and Republicans are still utterly confused. Only 37% of Americans can correctly identify what the "public option" is. This has been the largest public policy issue in this country for months, and voters still don't have a clue.
For progressives, the public option or some other ambitious alternative is an obvious policy solution to the health care crisis. If it is so blatantly obvious to us, though, then surely other fellow Americans will fall in line if they simply understood what health insurance reform really did.
Ideally, the Democratic politicians would have successfully explained this policy initiative to Americans, but they have failed unconditionally. As activists, maybe you can do better. Make flyers. Invite health policy speakers. Or just hand out cards that say something along the lines of, "The Public Option = Giving people the option of being covered by a government health insurance plan that would compete with private plans." Or even just point people in the right direction.
A group of good minds like yours can make a real difference in educating the public on the most important issue of the year. Hey, as yall showed in 2009: it can definitely be done (Particular Kudos to the Texas Freedom Network and Students for Gun Free Schools). Let's get to work. |
