The big tent blah blah

The media blah blah blah

GOP dirty tricks blah blah blah-blah

An ignorant electorate blah.

What it comes down to is this: it takes an able man to build a barn, but any jackass can kick it down.

You all know it's true, even in your own lives, even here on the Salon boards. There are the earnest few making large proposals and attempting to engage in "real debate", and there are the wiseacres, one-line artists, and hatchet men. We've probably all been both at one time or another. It's much harder to put yourself, your opinions, your vision on the line than it is to zero-in on the unfortunate overstatement, the niggling inconsistency, the mildly negative characterization that can be reframed as an outrageous slur. This is the game as its played by all sides.

In short, the Dems and Republicans make for great jackasses, but few in either party have the ability or inclination to be barn-builders. The Republicans are now fulfilling their role as putative jackasses very well, and the onus is on the Dems as the party in power to be barn-builders. That's the obligation that power brings.

Fretting and wringing your hands over the unfairness of it all does nothing but make you appear even more weak. This alone raises doubts as to the efficacy of your proposals.

Don't fear an "anger" or "intensity" deficit. Screaming one another down, packing heat and facile Hitler comparisons won't build a barn, and will not ultimately prevail. As someone recently noted, the hot August winds will pass and the cooler temparatures of September will prevail. And this is certainly true.

No gang of militia-men with assault rifles and a Lord of the Flies social/economic philosophy will ever change the fact that Americans love Medicare (the ultimate single-payer public option) and hate the private insurance industry. Make plain what "Romney-care" means: a rejection of Medicare styled public option and a financial windfall to the pharmaceuticals and private insurance industry in the form of all those public subsidies to cover the presently uninsured with private insurance. It's a jackass's plan, one that cannot withstand scrutiny.

Is the question which of the two major parties is the more authoritarian? No.

The question is simple: since the Republicans have signed on to all the spending elements of healthcare reform - and refused to sign-on to the public option - how do they intend to control costs?

Answer: the same way it's done now, with the private insurers rationing healthcare and raising premiums on the unsubsidized policy holders. In short, "Romney-care".

We know the result. The private insurers will gladly give up "pre-existing conditions" and other exclusions for the huge windfall of public subsidized private plans, that is, for a big suck on the government teat. And the nation will end up like Massachusetts under "Romney-care", a half-measure reform that will result in enormous cost increases.

Folks, this gutless and untenable position is the REPUBLICAN position. A public moneys boon to their friends in the pharmaceutical and private insurance industry, and a socking it to the current American taxpayer and future generations. The same sort of budgetary voodoo that only fools and Republicans can believe in.