Dear Democracy for America,

I appreciate the great work that Dr. Howard Dean and his brother Jim Dean have done on behalf of DFA and progressive politics around the nation. However, when it comes to the fight for "real" healthcare reform, it appears that Dr. Dean and DFA are aiming only for uninspiring half-measures, rather than speaking to principle. This approach will not succeed.

Access to health care is a Human Right, in the same way that voting (suffrage) is a right. Once this is understood, the discussion becomes simply matter of how to get there, rather than this sort of Washington D.C. closed-door dealing, rife with big insurance cash, fake and co-opted grassroots support, and the ambiguous nature of the ever-changing “public option.”

Speak to principle, and you can achieve greatness. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that. Faced with impossible odds in his time, Dr. King did not aim for "a negotiated compromise of slightly-better-than-second-class citizenship" for all men -- nor did he promise his followers that he would "fight for their right to be counted as more like 65-68% of a person, rather than the going rate of '3/5 of a man.'" Not one for half-measures, Dr. King had the courage to speak to the principle and say it out loud: all human beings have rights.

Your plea lost me immediately when I read an equivocating appeal to "join our fight to draw a line in the sand: without at least a public health care option, it's not real health care reform."

Real reform is needed, and real reform will require real courage, and a real willingness to focus on principles. Although I have been a generous donor to DFA in the past, I do not expect to renew any pledges with DFA until the able DFA leadership in the hands of Dr. Dean and the army of well-intentioned DFA followers come to understand, and say out loud, that health care is a Human Right. With that simple step taken, DFA can then begin a new strategy towards fulfillment of the guarantee of that right to health care not just for some, but for all.

Rather than cash, I'll donate to DFA a possible new health care mission statement:

"DFA supports the right to healthcare access for all, and will not give up the fight until a publicly-funded, privately-delivered single-payer health care system is established in these United States."
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Until that day arrives, save your postage.

Mike Copass
4042 Mount Blackburn Ave
San Diego, CA 92111