Change is hard. Ask an alcoholic or a congressman.

Some otherwise good eggs here have advocated that we step back, suck our thumbs and let President Obama handle all this unpleasant bickering over health care reform. As if all we have to do is trust the president and not get in his way by demanding too much.

Except that democracy doesn't work that way and health care reform is in deep trouble.

Democracy works by turning up the heat where it's needed, applying pressure where it will be felt and making noise that keeps elected officials up at night. Have we really done that with the issue of health care reform? No.

What we've done is gape and point our fingers like proper suburbanites at the minority of people who are shouting down town halls and brandishing weapons to chill public involvement. And that tiny fraction of a fraction of our population has succeeded in capturing the airwaves and hardening resistance to reform. They've been clear. We haven't. The president hasn't.

Sustained bitching is what's needed to pass real reform that includes a public option. But some are afraid to bitch and moan because they think -- wrongly -- that it might splinter the party, draw bad press, weaken the president or crash the legislation.

None of those things will happen just because we clamor for a public option. It's how change is made. The only way to balance the intense pressure of the Far Right. Neither our party nor our reputations nor Obama nor reform are so fragile that they can't withstand our raised voices.

Don't worry. Your representative, senators and Obama are used to bitching. Right now, the squeaky wheels of conservatives and Wall Street are getting the grease. They understand how the wheels of government get turned. They get it. Too many on our side don't.