Now abortion: The coming liberal revolt

Progressives who gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate the inauguration of the president to bring the change they thought they had won in election 2008 are asking: What kind of change did we win?

Now the House of Representatives has passed the healthcare bill, though the most transforming policy, a single-payer system, was not even brought to a vote! For the base of the Democratic Party, it was bad enough there was never a push for the most progressive policy, members were afraid to even vote on it!

What does it tell us that a vote to restrict abortion for women using private money to buy private insurance was passed, but single-payer insurance was not even brought to a vote?

Had I been a member, I would have voted for the bill with a real embarrassment that this is the best the Democrats could do. And now abortion will the latest example of the Democratic base being disappointed and appalled.

Under the House bill, if a woman is using her private money to buy private insurance, she won't be able to use it on the exchange for any policy that covers abortion. This dramatically negates much of the value of the private exchange and dramatically interferes with how women spend their personal money on private insurance. Whatever one thinks of abortion, this is a draconian policy for the women involved.

Meanwhile, whatever one thinks of Afghanistan, the White House is putting out the word the president wants to increase troop strength by 30,000 to 35,000, plus, presumably, support troops. This will not mobilize 2008 Obama voters, whatever the merits.

Meanwhile, the president appears to be pulling strings in the Senate to give up the public option, or at best, is doing nothing to get the handful of votes Harry Reid needs.

Meanwhile, the jobless rate has risen to 17.5 percent of Americans, with 10.2 percent counted as jobless, plus more jobless who have stopped looking, plus those who want jobs but are doing low-pay temp work. For the misery index, let’s add to the 17.5 percent their husbands, wives and kids while Wall Street bonuses soar to the heavens from those who profit from the bailout and banks raise credit card rates and fees to hard-hit Middle America.

More and more, progressives are asking why they are the ones making the most concessions when they are the ones who want the 2006 and 2008 elections.

In 2009, Democrats had a big problem in key states because progressive voters stayed home, Obama 2008 voters stayed home, first-time voters in 2008 stayed home, African-American voters stayed home, and political independents with progressive and moderate Democratic leanings stayed home.

Now the pro-choice Democrats will be far more offended than Washington insiders realize, while Afghanistan will alienate core Obama supporters even more, whatever the merits of the policy.

My bet is, the Democrats are one inch away from a progressive revolt that will take the progressive voter depression of 2009 to a whole new level.

The healthcare vote in the House was a kind of victory for Democrats, but so much has been given up by progressives, yet again, that a majority of voters who elected a Democratic president and Congress will soon say: Enough is enough.