“Our presence here today is remarkable, but improbable!”

President Obama speaking today about the passage of health care legislation into law.

President Obama spoke for all the people in America that have been doing the “heavy lifting” to pass health care legislation today when he said that “people who love this Country can change it!” I again felt the same swell of optimism that warmed me back in January on that bitterly cold but historic inauguration day. As he signed the most sweeping health care reform for Americans in decades into law today, he evoked all the past leaders who fought to make America more equitable. He mentioned Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, the Clintons, Ted Kennedy and Rep. John Dingle, who has been fighting for health care legislation his whole career, but I grudgingly give a nod of thanks to a most unlikely group; the Republican party, especially the national party.

I could hear John Boehner gnashing his over-bleached teeth as the President called Nancy Pelosi “the best speaker the House has ever had!” Newt Gingrich is probably spitting up bile and Rove and Cheney are busy sharpening their word knives even now, but one of the reasons this moment happened is partly due to all the raving and pitch-fork shaking of the far right and all their punditry. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/23/obama-signs-health-care-b_n_509715.html

The big tent we call the Democratic Party, much like the Methodist church I belong to, is unwieldy and multi-faceted. Getting us to agree on things is truly “much like herding cats,’ but under the leadership of a dynamic Obama and the tireless efforts of Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders like Clyburn and Hoyer, we refused to “scale back on aspirations” and faced the challenges. In the face of the most disturbing racist and fear-mongering I have ever witnessed, Democrats from the anti-war Kucinich to pro-life Stupak came together to pass reform.

One thing that MSM paid little attention to with their coverage of the infamous Neugebauer “baby killer” remark is what Stupak actually was trying to say when he was interrupted by the Republican from Texas. Even though I think he was played by the conservatives like a fiddle, Rep. Bart Stupak had some words of wisdom as he called for Democrats to vote for health care Sunday night:

…Democrats guarantee all life of the unborn to the last breath of a senior citizen is respected, for the unborn child and his or her mother will finally have pre and postnatal care under this bill…. www.huffingtonpost.com/…/baby-killer-yelled-at-bart-stupak_n_507718.html

And in the grandest irony of all, it was the obstructionist turned defender who characterized his party with “We stand for the American people! We stand up for life!”

How unlikely that this pro-choice, progressive would be quoting Stupak today, but now he knows the lash of their whip and the stink of their hypocrisy. I hope this serves as a lesson to all the Dino’s out there who are Democrats in name only, that when you lie down with the extremists, you get more than fleas.

The outrageous actions, words and threats by a disturbing number of people today that resulted in the rocks thrown through windows, death threats against the children of Democrats that voted for this bill, and “lock and load” remarks by the queen of the crazies should not deter or dampen our spirits. According to a Gallup/USA Today poll conducted the day after health care legislation passed the House of Representatives, 49 percent of the respondents think the passage of reform is a “good thing,” compared to the 40 percent who think it is bad. The DNC also received a million dollars in one day without even sending out a request.

Today the Senate cleared a major procedural hurdle and the health care fight hits the floor, but we must not forget that we have accomplished something historic today; historic health care reform legislation is now the law of the land Rep. James Clyburn, a veteran of the civil rights movement, who received numerous threatening faxes Monday morning, including nooses on gallows, shared his insights. “This is all about activity trying to deny the establishment of a civil right. And I do believe that health care for all is — a civil right,” the House Majority Whip argued.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/23/clyburn-racist-faxes-imag_n_509365.html  

Clyburn has been very vocal in calling on House Minority leader John Boehner, who frequently calls on members of the Democratic Caucus to distant themselves from Nancy Pelosi’s remarks, to speak up against such outrageous remarks.

After watching the hate on Boehner’s face Sunday night as the votes for health care added up, I think this is like calling for an arsonist to fight the fire he has lit. But I would caution my fellow Democrats to not let these threats and antics spoil the moment and take heart from the victory.

“It doesn’t make me nervous as all,” Clyburn said, when asked how the mob-like atmosphere made him feel as he walked through the protesters to pass health care reform. “In fact, as I said to one heckler, I am the hardest person in the world to intimidate, so they better go somewhere else.”  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/clyburn-town-hall-protest_n_259118.html 

Don’t be intimidated, dear friends. Instead see the anger for what it is–fear. Fear that all America changed fundamentally today for the better. And it scares them to death.