I said I was leaving TPMCafe, and I am. I came back for one last post to make the most important point I've ever made on these pages: You are being betrayed by nearly every leader in politics, media and your local "grassroots" organization.

The president is shutting down debate on health care reform, signaling to both the Right and Left that "Every argument has been made" and no further dissent will be tolerated. But mostly, he was signaling to the Left, because the Right couldn't care less about anything he says.

The public option is being thrown under the bus, and supposedly liberal media such as TPM are assisting in its demise when they run headlines like this, slowing momentum by predicting its failure.

I came up with and helped organize Operation Picket Fence in St. Louis to picket Sen. Claire McCaskill's fence-sitting regarding the Bennet letter and support for the public option through reconciliation. We were opposed by the White House, by the senator, by local "grassroots" leaders and Organizing for America who want to settle for a hollow victory and trumpet the final HCR legislation anyway. They worked a chessboard to cripple our message. The local newspaper ignored our rally. You have no idea how vigorously our leaders are working to save their skins at the expense of the skins of the uninsured.

They want to cut you off at the knees for the mistaken notion that they have more to gain by playing at bipartisanship than winning the game for those who elected them.

They are cowards. They are betraying us. And their rudderless leadership has led to the beginnings of chaos.

Rise up. Awaken. Go to your window now and shout "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" But don't take my word for it. You can already feel it in your bones. Something is amiss. You aren't being heard. Dark forces are arrayed against us.

So it will be with Wall Street reform, immigration, campaign finance, civil rights, energy, the environment, the planet, foreign relations, war and every other issue you can name.

Cowardice. Betrayal. Chaos.