To the winners go the spoils. Unless you're a Democrat.

A health care reform bill has passed through the house and is being deliberated in the senate. News came out a couple of days ago that two key provisions - the public option and the employer mandate - have been removed from the bill approved by the house. These two provisions are vital to the Democrat's vision of health care reform.

After reading this news, I began to wonder...

Why are Democrats conceding anything to a Republican party that represents a shrinking fringe of Americans? Why are they compromising with a Republican party whose ideology was overwhelmingly rejected by the American people in the last election? Why are Democrats offering Republicans a leg to stand on when they have none?

Democrats need to see what the Republican Party has become - the party of corporate interests, religious zealots and southerners who secretly long for days of Jim Crow. The only mainstream members left in the Republican party are the ones who advocate greater fiscal restraint - an argument worth listening to despite its laughable hypocrisy.

Democrats must blow off any notion of opposition to their health care plan and ram it through congress with a big middle finger to the Republican party and its increasingly irrelevant ideals. Democrats were voted into office to pass progressive legislation, not to spend their time hopelessly trying to convince Republican senators to see their point of view. They never will. So leave them behind. Pass health care reform, allow it to become insanely popular (like Social Security did) and then let the Republican party try to explain to the American people why they stood against a bill that helped so many and hurt so few.

If Democrats fail to pass their version of health care reform with everything they want in the bill, it must be seen as a legendary failure. Super majorities in both the house and senate and control of the White House means that Democrats don't have to give ground on anything. The American people gave Democrats these majorities for a reason. By not using it, Democrats are ignoring the will of the American people.

The American people are becoming more and more progressive. By compromising with Republicans on progressive issues like health care reform, the Democrats elected to represent this shift in principles are neglecting their duty.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that if this country is going to move forward, Democrats are going to have to do it on their own.