Motley Moose – Archive

When patent-lawyer and ex-Deputy Assistant Secretary at Obama’s Commerce Department, Ro Khanna, announced his intentions to run against incumbent Democrat Mike Honda, the national media was a buzz – a liberal with a high-tech sparkle running to represent Silicon Valley.  And with him, he brought some of Obama’s OFA team whose high-tech approach to GOTV was credited in Obama’s victory. The shiny new tech-savvy candidate who promised, “change”, dazzled many of the local progressives. The message and OFA-esque graphics were exactly what you would expect from Khanna’s campaign consultant, OFA hero Jeremy Bird.

Khanna got a quick fundraising boost from many high-tech corporate elites, no doubt they liked his pro high-tech talk and Commerce Dept. credentials. Of the approximately 1200 people running for congress in America, he is number 2 with big money donors.

I have waited to write this diary because I knew I needed to cool off. The health care debate has been a rollercoaster for months now, and the up-down-left-right topsy-turvy nature of the whole ordeal has been turning my stomach for a long time. Over the months, we’ve been bombarded with a dazzling and dizzying array of mixed messages. I’ve allowed myself, at times, to become as hysterical as the worst alarmists in the blogosphere, and just yesterday morning, I was ready to get up in front of all of you to curse Reid, condemn Obama, and prophesy doom. (Not my finest moment, admittedly.) But as I examine and reexamine the dialogue on this issue, my moods and thoughts are as wildly mercurial as the volatile health care debate itself. I have been torn and troubled all along, but the latest news from the Hill has me more perplexed and conflicted than ever. More mixed messages, more obstruction, more disputes — more infighting, alarm, compromises, concessions: A sea of contradictions, contravention, and confusion, well-poised to overwhelm and unravel even the steadiest among us.

So how do we navigate these roiling waters?