Pragmatism or Pussy-footing?

Watching the amateur video vignettes from Iran over the past week, I am tempted to ask, “Why can’t the United States do something to support those poor people crying for democracy?” The truth is, given America’s history in dealing with Iran, boldness is not an option. We need to tread very lightly around the periphery of Iran and not thrust ourselves upon it. We have meddled before with the ultimate consequences of bringing upon it an Islamic state. Our former pragmatic approach of supporting a dictator we could influence over a democracy we couldn’t led directly to the Islamic revolution of 1979. Pragmatism of the moment has unintended consequences, as does any other form of short-term thinking.
Iran is the issue of the moment on the international scene. Health care is the issue at home. The public option is the crux of the issue, and the Republicans have already staked out their “principled” position: private enterprise trumps public welfare at all costs. In the ever fallible belief that private enterprise is more efficient and more trustworthy than anything the government might produce, they are ready to deny a public option of any kind in our health care mix. Even though health care costs are careening out of control under our present circumstances, Republicans are saying essentially “stay the course.” No new ideas need apply.
The Democrats who have safe seats are all for the public option. Those who face mid-term elections or who are from historically red states are equivocating under the aegis of “pragmatism.” They feel they can’t afford to have their names sullied with the “socialistic mud” the Republicans will sling at them, so they are distancing themselves from the public option for fear of losing the independent vote, even through a recent poll says 70 percent of Americans want a public option.
Pragmatism turns out to be more often than not about maintaining the status quo rather than about actual problem-solving. It is about fear of losing the next election rather than about doing what is right. It is about short-term, selfish thinking and not about long-term public benefit.
There are times when it is best to step back and restrain from acting. Iran is a good example before us right now. But when politicians fail to act because they are fearful of the consequences to their longevity in office, then they are more concerned for their own political well-being than they are for the public good. And that approach to problem-solving is no better than the Republicans who hide behind dubious principle to re-supply their campaign coffers with corporate contributions. It is time for the pussy-footing Democrats hiding behind the concept of pragmatism to step up and show courage for the benefit of the American public. The public option for health care deserves your full support because we the public deserve the public option.