While the crazy Right is sending in stormtroopers posing as citizens to disrupt town halls, the crazy Left is sounding the alarm of betrayal at every sign of compromise on the part of the Democrats in Congress and the Administration.  So far this week I have written on how we need to step up and be a more active part of the solution.  Today I am focused on how we need to stop being part of the problem.

Do any of these blog titles sound familiar?

• Single Payer not even on the table
• Obama refuses to rule out bill with no Public Option
• Baucus bought by insurance companies, holds true reform hostage

Well sure they do.  Because they are almost - though not quite - every other thing one reads these days on Daily Kos, Open Left or TPM.

Why is this?  Why do we (I am a card-carrying, third generation liberal Democrat) fall into the same digital, simplistic lensing of this debate that we rightfully call out conservatives for in all the other blogs we pen each day? 

How is the Party of Just Say Not Enough any better than the Party of Just Say No?

How counterproductive is this tendency to discount those with differing points of view and to discredit those who bother to sit down and talk with them - let me count the ways:

• We shut out conservative Democrats who helped turn many red states blue in 2008, leaving them vulnerable to big-government labels thus putting their districts at risk in 2010.

• We turn off the Independents who want politicians to stop politicking and start governing

• We turn off the Republicans (remember them?) who voted for Obama because he said he would represent all Americans - old, young - black, white - rich, poor, etc. - bringing us together instead of continuing the same old politics of pulling us apart.
  

• We play into the hands of the Media who love drama and have little or no interest in reasoned debate of the issues

• Here is the real kicker - we turn off each other  - Liberals who need to be energized to make change happen at the very moment when they are most needed.  I mean come on, who wants to head down to a town hall meeting for change when single payer is not even on the table?

And when you add all these up - the loss of Conservatives, Independents, Republicans and even Liberals - you get falling poll numbers, feeding the meme that Obama has already failed, that change is not going to happen - again. 

And then Americans - with our notoriously short attention spans and our well documented tendency to turn on our heroes when they show the slightest chink in their armor - start to tune out, leaving the field to those who have no interest in the public good, only in lining their own pockets.

And then consider this: 

Are we just a tad too sure of our own infallibility?    A wee bit self-righteous perhaps?

• What if those with opposing points of view have a point?

• What if taking Single Payer off the table was the right thing to do?
  

• What if this debate is more involved than just Public Option Good - No Public Option Bad?

• What if those we accuse of selling out are doing exactly what is needed to deal with the complexity of reforming one fifth of our economy at a time when we are still emerging from the worst recession since WWII - staggering under trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see?
  

What if we start by considering the possibility that we don't have all the answers?

Now that would be different.  What would the implications of that for us, for our way of engaging in this health care debate?

We could try:

• Really listening to our opponents, taking their concerns and arguments seriously

• Cheering on Republicans still willing to work on health care

• Praising Conservative Democrats for keeping an eye on deficits

• Letting Obama know we are support his efforts to bring us together to get this done
  

• Showing up at town halls with signs like "Keep Working On This - It's Important"

Sounds hard?  Sure.  Not quite as fun as slamming the opposition and nailing the wobbly-kneed in our own camp?  Probably not.  But it is change, no doubt about it, real change, the hardest kind - change in ourselves.

"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Ghandi

Yes we can.