Americans have always loved freedom fighters. After all, it’s in our DNA — our story of the land of the free bought with the spilled blood of our forefathers who rebelled against oppression to create the most powerful nation in the world is a heady and exhilarating ideal. It’s hardly a surprise that so many would be captivated by events in Iran, particularly when viewed through the prism of our own election process and leftover baggage from the 2000 election outcomes.

Inside American idealism, there is a hope – a small burgeoning hope – that Iran will shake itself out from under the rule of the fundamental Muslim clerics – the mullahs — and become a true democracy. As Tom Regan points out, that dream is unlikely to come true, though some nominal change may indeed come to Iran as a result of the unrest over their elections. However, Americans are allowing themselves to become distracted and embroiled in the Iranian dream at the expense of their American dream.

We have our own totalitarian mullahs here in the US. They rule in the form of bankers and insurance company executives, the shadow actors who broker our health at a profit to serve Wall Street and investors while robbing us of the ability to run businesses, get health care at a reasonable cost, and force us to ignore very real health issues for fear of having them become ‘pre-existing conditions’ or causing us to be uninsurable.

If you think we’re free in this country, you’re wrong. We haven’t been free since we bowed down and let our lives and our health be sold at a profit for the benefit of Wall Street, who has not been as forthcoming about sharing the wealth. Make no mistake: If we aren’t healthy, we aren’t free. We become slaves to claim forms and ‘managed care’, we’re made to feel guilty for circumstances which may or may not be within our control, while insurers cover Viagra but leave smoking cessation to the means of the insured.

This isn’t news. Everyone has a story, knows someone with a story, or fears they will become a story. Despite the fact that 3 in 4 people support a public health plan option as part of comprehensive health care reform, the press and the Republicans are successfully trumpeting erroneous numbers released by the CBO (Yes, a failure to factor in the cost savings of competitive pricing in a public plan is a clear and large error) as proof positive that health care reform cannot include a public option.

Without a public option, there is no reform. Repeat that after me: Without a public option there is no reform. The public option is how we remove the health insurance mullahs’ power. There is no other way.

The timid Democrats in the Senate, led by Max Baucus (who has been well-financed by health insurance companies) bowed to the CBO report without so much as a question and removed the public option. House Democrats have included it as the center of their reform bill, which has been negotiated, considered and debated for 6 months.

Here’s the problem: Health insurance mullahs understand that they wield power by making large contributions to friendly politicians like Baucus. They then use the mainstream media as an amplifier to play the “it’s too expensive to have a public option” tune, and pretty soon, real reform dies.

This is how they killed it in the 90′s. It’s how they propose to kill it in 2009. They can do it. They know they can, just like the Iranian mullahs understand the power of religious totalitarianism, control of the message and the police.

When they own the message, they own the outcome.

They don’t have to own the message. We don’t have to let them. But as long as Americans remain focused on events in Iran and continue to romantically tilt at the Iranian mullahs, all power is abrogated to the American Insurance mullahs who wish to control our present and our future. In other words, we’re not watching what’s going on here because we’re focused on what’s happening there, where we have absolutely no power to change what has been set in motion.

Here are some facts. Consider them as powerful as Neda’s death broadcast from Iran on YouTube and now on all the major media outlets. Consider the stories of people dying every single day for lack of access to or ability to pay for health care to be as powerful as the story of one beautiful Iranian woman who was killed for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Consider the suppression of these stories to be how they control the message.

Let this be a challenge and a warning: If we continue to tilt at Iranian mullahs, health insurance mullahs will win. It is time for the 3 in 4 Americans who support the public option to be heard. Here are some ways to take control:

1. Get the message out.  Next Saturday, June 27 has been designated as a National Health Care Day of Service. Click that link. Find a local way to participate and raise awareness.
2. Use the hashtags #hcan #hcr on Twitter, Friendfeed and other social networks. (Yes, I still hate hashtags but understand the value they bring for this moment.)
3. Write the editor of your local paper. Most newspaper websites have an online form you can use to compose your email. Write it. Do it. Don’t self-edit, tell your story.
4. Make signs. Handwritten signs. Put them in your window, write the message on t-shirts. Just like we did with the 2008 election, this is an opportunity to raise awareness by simply wearing, saying, displaying the message. Signs telling neighbors and passers-by to pay attention, to investigate the facts, understand all of the issues, get involved.
5. Call your representatives. Do not underestimate the power of your voice. They may not respond. They may not even listen personally. But your voice is heard, nevertheless. Midterm election campaigns are gearing up. Incumbents who shy away from real health care reform should not be confident of re-election. Hold them to the fire, make them accountable.

Yes, we can. We can depose the insurance mullahs, but not if our heads are turned away from the urgency of now. Now is more urgent than ever. Electing Barack Obama was an affirmation of participatory democracy, on and off line. It wasn’t an end. It was a beginning. Now, more than ever, each and every voice must be heard. We must hold the cowards in the Senate to the promise of actual health care reform. It will not happen if we don’t participate. Please. Participate.

cross-posted to Bipartisan Report