GIMME, GIMME, MY NAME IS JIMMY (with a lotta’ heart)! © by Nat Christian  – –

Democrats were ecstatic. Great things will happen now.  A Democrat is in the oval office.  Obama made it. He made it!. And there is a democratic majority in both houses.  A lot will get pushed through.  Starting with health care.

And then they came.  Who?

The Woodwork People.  They always come around when good things happen.

Much like when a person wins the lottery and wants to do good things, but then people come out of the woodwork with the “Gimme, gimme…” routine.   So the person gives a little here and gives a little there and some over there and before long, there is nothing left to do good things with.

So there is this bill generally referred to as a health care bill.   The first in line to block it were the Republicans as a unified team, but that was sort of expected.  Sort of.

But then there were the Democraats.  Those with special interests, and those who were afraid of their more conservative constituents and those idealistic progressives.

Many Democrats, from the banter on the street to prominent liberal talk show hosts expressing their own individual sensibilities, spouted “Gimme’, gimme’, my name is Jimmy.”  Many, who were so happy to have Obama in the White house, wanted everything to happen in one fell swoop.

So their talk went from “Please keep these elements in the bill” to “If you don’t put in certain progressive (or other) elements in the bill, we’re not sure we are going to support you”, to even louder rhetoric that took a challenging tone.  And the discourses fueled others to get up and demand their “gimmes.”

No Democrat or progressive wanted to bring this presidency down or paralyze both houses to the point where nothing would get done and therefore risk losing the next bout of elections.  Most who were doing the shouting were begging, bluffing, or just plain being stubborn about their own agenda.  No Democrat or progressive really thought that they would actually stop this “movement”, the White house and both houses.

And, even now, when this whole Democratic majority thing might soon be in peril, many progressives are still hopeful.  They’ve got a lot of heart.  Those Damn Progressives – “When the odds are saying you’ll never win, that’s when the grin should start, you gotta’ have heart….”