Perhaps it would be wise to revisit the following in order to gain perspective...

[WCGreen]

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." Thomas Paine....

We are in a revolutionary moment, a sea change in the political process...

The gnarled special interests have their tentacles everywhere. In the Media, on the Internet and in the Halls of Power. We must stand resolute against these entrenched interests and not walk away because we have suffered a defeat.

Politics is a fancy name for war.

It is waged via information and misinformation.

It is waged with bundled campaign funds from the largest institutions and collective contributions for individuals across the country.

If we show we will not be deterred, the powers that be will take note.

It isn't easy to sway a senator who runs but once every six years unless you stay with it.

CIGNA, BankofAmerica, Goldman Sachs et al are all in it for the long haul. The only way to confront that kind of power is to join the battle for as long as it takes.

Change comes slowly in this country.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Well said.

K&R

[jotsy]

2. Your words speak to the integrity of the colonial heart.

The problem is these days is integrity is viewed as vulnerability and vice is what we seem to value.

I know that if I only cleaned out my fridge once every two, four, or six years, things would get pretty nasty, so it seems to me that a whole country would need more avid tending.

Nearly nothing in modern American existence is a reflection of what the founders thought they were building, the question becomes one of how much we are willing to try and mean what they said.

As a parent, I see revolution as a queasy proposition, but believe something like it is absolutely necessary and soon. I encourage others to stop the flow of money to the corporate powers as their objective also might prove to be their biggest weakness.

I fear we haven't the time for what changes are needed for it to come slow. If the corporate mind set views working publics all over the planet as one of two things, labor markets or consumer bases, I worry because I know at the moment, the U.S. can't aptly be described as either. This suggests to me that we're not going to like much of what we find on this road, so it's high time to walk another.

[Greyhound]

3. How does this "change happens slowly here" meme ever come to be?

We are denied the change we demand for a long time and then it happens suddenly. Slavery, suffrage, labor laws, civil rights, all were demanded and fought for for years "within the system" with no result. In each case the ruling class opposed and denied it for years or decades until the people finally rise up and threaten to take their power back, then change happens.

The people fight the parasites until the parasites are forced into the light, then we get change. Nibbling around the edge serves them, not us.

[tridim]

4. We have had more change for good in the past 11 months..

Than most of us have had in our entire lives.

Open your eyes.

[WCGreen]

6. A lot of people only recognize titantic change....

[Greyhound]

9. You should take your dad's advice to heart.

We're being suckered and we enable the con men to operate because we don't want to look in the mirror.

[tridim]

11. You're being suckered by the GOP/Teabagger/corporate/MSM bullshit.

You don't demonstrate the slightest understanding re: the actual bill.

[Greyhound]

12. Oh please, I don't even watch TeeVee and even a blind pig finds an occasional mushroom.

The fact that they have reached the right conclusion for the wrong reasons does not negate the fact that they are correct. The transparency of this scam and the determined blindness to what is being prepared is simply astounding.

The insurance industry will have this disaster in court for years with an unlimited legal budget until everything is gone but the requirement to pay them. Forever.

This is why it has to be the government that administers the system. We could redefine corporations and insurance through laws and adopt a Japanese style of "insurance" but that would be even more difficult than simply passing HR. 676.

[Greyhound]

7. Open yours.

What has gotten better in this country in the last 30 years? Do you think this is an accident, a conspiracy of unfortunate circumstances that nobody could have foreseen?

You're being played again.

[tridim]

10. Health care will be MUCH better starting tomorrow at 8:00am.

I'm not being played, I just know what's actually in the bill.

[WCGreen]

5. It takes that long because power be omes entrenched....

Just look how long it took to fight WWI when the Trenches appeared...


It wasn't until outside events happened that the stalemate was briken. (The Russian Revoution and the US entering the war.)_

[elias7]

8. I don't agree. Change in your examples didn't happen suddenly...

For example, the 19th amendment passed in 1920 or so, but it didn't start with the Iron Jawed Angels...