The other day I got a phone call from a woman soliciting money for Democratic Senate campaigns. Without her knowing it, she had made the mistake of calling me shortly after I had attended that town hall on health care, and after I had read with shame in the L.A. Times just how many thousands of people, many of them middle class, who had shown up for a day of free medical treatment at a special outdoor clinic because they couldn’t afford health care.

Here’s how our conversation went:

Her:  I’m calling on behalf of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. We’re asking you to please help make health-care reform a reality by making a donation today. You know, we can’t do it without you. Could you pledge $200?

Me:  Why not?

Her:  Oh, wonderful. Thank you.

Me:  No, why not? Why can’t you do health-care reform without me?

Her:  Excuse me?

Me:  You say you can’t do health-care reform without me. And I want to know why not.

Her:  I don’t understand.

Me:  It seems to me that Democrats control the presidency, the House, and the Senate, and in the Senate they have a filibuster-proof majority. So what do they need me for? More specifically, what do they need my money for? They should just do it.

Her:  Yes, don’t you want us to keep the pressure on them?

Me:  Sure. Get off the phone and call them! That’s what I’m doing! I’m emailing them and I’m calling them. I don’t know why they don’t just pass it! They hold all the levers of power in their hands! Why they would need two hundred bucks from me is a mystery. Tell them to pass it!

A friend of mine who has done telemarketing tells me that he’s sure that after that call, the caller went into the call leader’s room and asked for talking points to counter future such responses.

While they’re figuring out their response, here’s mine:  No. No more money to federal-government Democrats until they do what they said they were going to do. If Arlen Specter now wants to be a Democrat, he needs to act like one. If Dianne Feinstein wants to retain the D after her name, she needs to vote like one. In the meantime, I’m not sending another nickel to any of them.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Politics, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.