I don’t share Al Giordano’s goal of replacing capitalism with something else. It’s not that I necessarily disagree with him, it’s just not my focus. But I agree with Al about his assessment of the Johnny-Come-Lately anti-corporatist movement in the blogosphere:
Also forgotten in this born-again anti-corporatism is what Alinksy, Gandhi and others have demonstrated: To create and sustain successful political movements and revolutions, you have to turn small triumphs into ever increasing larger ones. If you don’t have victories along the way and call them that, the people lose hope and motivation to back any movement or revolt.
And yet that is precisely what the bill-killer tendency (and we will surely see them behave the same incoherent way on future battles: immigration reform will be next) is pushing: This sense that nothing is progress, nothing can be defined as a win, and that winning itself is evil if it doesn’t overturn everything.
I also want to emphasize another major point that Al is making. It’s all about the people “down below.”
In lieu of any real plan, we are offered “feel good” solutions of lashing out against corporations. Lost in that discourse: the people down below. That is what has defined the health care debate on parts of the blogosphere. It doesn’t matter to some that 30 million people who don’t have any health insurance at all will now have theirs subsidized. To them, if the insurance corporations also benefit from it, then it is a moral “evil” that must be stopped.
Perhaps it is our shared history of on-the-ground political organizing, but Al and I tend to see things the same way. That our government and society are dominated by corporate power is a given. We’d both like to lessen that power, and breaking the backs of the health insurance companies would be a huge victory that we would both celebrate. But that wasn’t the battle we just went through. Bernie Sanders recently estimated that his withdrawn single-payer amendment would have had the support of five senators. If you want to know why Hillary Clinton and John Edwards and Barack Obama and Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson didn’t propose a single-payer plan, that is why. It would never have won the support of even a sixth of the Democrats in the Senate. Does that mean you don’t fight to get access to health care to the forty-some million people who don’t currently have it? Of course not.
The Senate just agreed to subsidize health insurance for every American citizen who cannot currently afford it. If you couldn’t buy it at any price because of a preexisting condition, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. You won’t have to worry that high health care costs will ruin you financially. You won’t have any reason to put off going to the doctor for a check-up because you are afraid of what they might discover about your health.
We lost the battle to destroy the health insurance industry because no one was really willing to wage it. We lost the battle we did wage, to create a public alternative. But, for the people “down below” we won a giant victory. And, I don’t know about you, I couldn’t look them in the face and tell them they’ll just have to wait…again.
People in dire need don’t have time for ideological battles. They need small victories, and that is what this is. We ought to call it that.
I got an email from Jane this morning with the subject line: Kill the Bill! I read thru the list of “horrors” this legislation will inflict. One example: people will have to pay 8% of their income for health insurance. Damn, I thought, the last quote we got wanted 20%; we could afford 8%!
At the bottom, I hit the unsubscribe link which opened a window asking, Why? To which I replied, “Because you’ve gone insane.”
I’m still cynical and doubtful about the benefits of this legislation. BUT. Something is always better than nothing and every long journey has to start with a first step.
yep.
She’s thrown in with Phyllis Schafly.
You damn well know that’s not the case!! Do you support the Audit the Fed bill? If so, one could say you’ve thrown in with Ron Paul and his band of wackos.
Hazarding a guess that BooMan was only snarking.
Only a half-snark.
Meanwhile, the author of the public option lends his voice:
Just keep the ball moving in the right direction every time you can. Sometimes you will spend YEARS just keeping the ball from going backwards. Sometimes the ball will only move forward inches.
Then there will be those times, few and far between, when the ball moves a lot.
This just might be one of those times. A goal? No where near that. Not even half way to that. But the ball is moving.
nalbar
They need small victories, and that is what this is. We ought to call it that.
But the D.C. Democrats won’t call it that. We’ll see whether it matters in the long run.
It’s populist claptrap that would cripple the Fed’s independence and turn all its decisions into political decisions. I don’t necessarily oppose some increased transparency for the Fed, but no, I’m not a Paulist and not about to get bullied into going along with their effort to go back to 1912.
Aren’t all it’s decisions political decisions now? What else do you call seeing their only task as preventing inflation but pure right wing political bull shit?
Ah, and that’s not to say anything about how they goose the economy for republican presidents in election years.
It’s whole purpose and design is to be independent of political considerations.
Yes I am aware of that, but de facto, de jure and all that.
Smells like defeat.
Yep, I’ll go with that. The bill is unfortunately far from what we really NEED, but it still has some good provisions in it even if some take several years to kick in, it will make a difference for a sizable chunk of the population that previously had no shot at health insurance at all, and it starts to bend the curve in the right direction.
And it will pass (or it should, at any rate), and the President will sign it.
And then we start pushing for the next step along the way.
And prepare for the next battle, because at least for the next cycle or two, the apparent plan of the Republicans is to continue saying NO, to everything, regardless of how non-controversial or nonpartisan or NECESSARY it is — to bog down the whole process of governing, just for the sake of bogging it down and then claiming that it’s all the Democrats’ fault.
And if we can get one or two or three more Senators (or kill or limit the filibuster), then Lieberman, Nelson, etc. will no longer have the veto power over entire bills because of certain elements in it they don’t like.
A Senate rarity.
Yes, you’re right, but the need is now.
A lot can happen in a flash, that’s the problem. (no satisfaction, and still waiting)
Who really knows if they’ll see the year 2014? If I were in dire need now, my slogan would be “too small to bail.”
One day at a time can be fatal when you’re sick.
The president-elect of AMA is on msnbc with Harry Reid voicing his support for the bill
Well I guess we will just have to see what happens in the conference committee.
I loved Al’s “We have met the corporation and it is us” piece, which aligns somewhat with many things you and many of us have been saying while Al has been away in Honduras. Don’t miss Giordano’s follow-up piece, “Countdown to Health Care: Pray for the Dead but fight like Hell for the Living”. (http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3695/countdown-health-care-pray-dead-fight-hell-living)
While all the whining and tantrum-throwing goes on, some of the most important work in this entire process is still taking place. Bernie Sanders inserted amendments that added considerably to the money for community health centers, and apparently added a measure that will forgive student loans for medical students who commit to serve the centers. Giordano notes that the $750 fine for not purchasing health insurance in the current Senate bill is actually cancelled out by rules and provisions that the penalties NOT be enforced. The conference to reconcile the House and Senate bills is likely to provide a number of opportunities to push the legislation to the left, in ways that are both obvious and more subtle. With all the loud squawking going on, the quiet action behind the scenes can push the bill that Obama eventually signs towards something we can all live with as a first important step.
As you say, Booman, this will in effect subsidize health care for every American. It is a foot in the door. If it can be implemented sooner, a detail Dean has been on top of, and a change I pray will happen in conference, then the political benefits will grow. What I look forward to hearing in the future is something analogous to the teabaggers’ cry of “get your Government hands off my medicare”. How about “Get your socialist government hands off my government-subsidized health insurance”.
Granted, this is not winning pretty, but it moves things in the right direction and helps the people who need it most. I’ll count it as a major step forward.
Obviously I’m more in the Booman/Al camp than the FDL, but I think its way too early for post-mortems like this. There’s three big unanswered questions:
I think if the answer to all three of these is “NO” then I think the rational response by progressives will be to “de-couple” from the Democratic party and continue to focus on supporting, progressive candidates and primary challengers, and defending incumbents like Grayson and Edwards, as well as fostering their own institutions, like the netroots. I think that’s when things will get interesting for old school, big picture bloggers like Booman and Al G- will they toe the party line or join the netroots in working outside party institutions?
Booman and Al Giordano – old school and toeing the party line? You can’t be serious.
you know, I don’t really object to his characterization. It’s not that we’re toeing some line. But we’re trying to keep people focused on realistic expectations and goals that can be accomplished in this Congress. I don’t mind people who have larger goals and who are disgusted by the political realities we face. I don’t blame people who are more interested in bringing systemic change to the system. We need those people. But, Al and I are big picture bloggers in spite of the fact that we’re trying to keep people focused on the hear and now and playing smallball. If that seems counterintuitive, it shouldn’t be.
Burned by the Nader experience, During the political wilderness years of 2000-2008, progressives fully supported the party and its campaign institutions like the DSCC and DCCC. This made sense when the GOP had complete power and were destroying everything progressives value. I’m just speculating whether the recent rift thats developing between the White House and progressives might widen and as a result, there might be some sort of split among progressives themselves on whether to continue to support party institutions, or whether some will choose to distance themselves from those institutions. I don’t think this latter camp will go Full Nader, but I think they might actively work to make sure not a cent of their dollars or organizing efforts gets 50 feet near Rahm or any person or group he has leverage over.
From Goldwater up until Bush II, movement conservatives had a similar love hate relationship with their party. Eventually, under Bush II, movement conservatives finally were equal partners in governing and had a president who was actively fighting for their causes. But in that 40 year history at times, they took their ball and went home and continued to organize, expand their messaging with their base and really only returned to the party fold when they had much more power. Just something to think about as we on the left have the “high class problem” of dealing with the burdens of power.
I wouldn’t assume that we will lose senate seats. It could definitely happen, but it is far from assured. If Reid, Dodd, and Lincoln lose, we could be in for a bad night.
But, if they survive, and we hold the Delaware seat, we could very well win seats in Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, and North Carolina. And wins in Kentucky and Louisiana are not out of the question. For the GOP, they have opportunities in Colorado, Illinois, and Delaware, (and perhaps in North Dakota, too). So, it is far too early to predict who will net seats in 2010. But the chances are at least 50/50 that we’ll break even or even pick up a couple seats.
In the House, we’ll almost definitely lose one to two dozen seats simply because we only stand to pick up three of four seats but we have a lot of reps who are reliant on presidential level turnout to hold their seats.
to quote from a posting on Huffington Post by Senator Paul Kirk of MA:
It’s a Feel Good Victory because it is a REAL Victory.
If those points prove true in the final legislation, it seems to me they’re a powerful engine for next year’s campaigning. What are the Republicans going to say — vote for us because we fought to prevent you from getting insurance if you’re sick? To let the insurancecos make as much profit off your premiums as they want?
As long as the Dems don’t pretend this is everything we wanted, 2010 could be a very good year.
I think we’re seeing to some extent the internet being used to extend social signaling by one’s choice of consumer goods to politics.
Honestly, I don’t have an in-depth analysis of the bill. I think at this point one would be pointless, since we have no idea what’s going to come out of the conference. However, it looks like for the rest of my life I will no longer be excluded from insurance for my pre-existing conditions (especially diabetes, which is a catch-all pre-existing condition for anything that might ail you from a hangnail to lung cancer). It looks like if I lose my job my family will still be able to get the medical care they need. Those two things are very important to me.
On the political side, though, I don’t think we realize what a major victory this is for the Democrats. The Republicans came out and said, point blank, that they were seeking to deny President Obama a victory on his most important domestic priority, and unless something very unexpected happens in the next few days, they are going to fail. They wanted no bill at all; any bill, even a bill that gives the insurance industry a big shiny wad of cash, is a defeat for them.
But even more so, the fact that they defeated the Republicans once shows that they can do it again. And like anything else, it will be easier the next time. To quote Emerson: “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased.”
Maybe the finance bill will be easier to Democrats to pass over Republican obstructionism. Who knows?
This is the beginning of the end of the 2 class system that Nixon wanted and Raygun promoted. A lot of people have been hurt by it and now there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
I remember seeing on tv, a man wearing a sandwich board that stated: I am a man. Today, Barak Obama is president.
It’s easy for the comfotable to rail againt incremental steps toward universal healthcare coverage. They don’t live with fear of sickness or their children not getting medical care.
The cruelty of undermining the middle class and poor is being undone.
This is huge and I am holding my breath until the final vote on HCR.
Thanks, Boo.
You said it – a BIG victory and let’s hope that nothing, including Republican prayers for failure, upsets the apple cart as it hopefully gets signed into law.
Does anyone know how many more times we have to hold our breath (for Byrd and Lieberman and any other areas of concern) for the 60 vote threshold? I know at least 2 times this week. But after that how many more times do we have to do the #60 dance before it would be on the President’s desk?
Amen Boo. Amen!!!
Not exactly directed at you BooMan, but there really is nothing to pretend we want to celebrate.
I don’t celebrate junk. And that is what it is. Gun laws and restrictions on women’s rights (What do gun laws have to do with healthcare? Oh yeah, lobbyist dollars) with a cobbled together corporatist give away full of enough loopholes to render the few clauses that are supposed to make sense as useless.
The House bill is the closest thing to a victory. The dump on the floor of the Senate is what it is. Something to be flushed in Conference. Which is why nobody on the left cares about celebrating fake little things. We knew there was a good chance that junk was all we would get from the Senate. They even managed to exceed that expectation in lowering the bar.
The one real consolation prize to celebrate? The Senate took a quick dump. Do you really want to celebrate that?
And, honestly, that is the one good thing. We move on to bigger and (hopefully) better things.
Ya want to know when we will know we really have something to cheer about? When (IF?) the Progressive Caucus holds it together to give us something to cheer about.
But if the House ping-pongs this junk without some major fixes we are doomed. If we can’t hold the Prog Cauc together on making this meaningful reform then we will never, never ever, get anything out of the US government on any issue that actually helps people.
But you know all that already.
I really don’t get this kind of rhetoric. Do you believe the bill won’t extend coverage to those who can’t get any now? That it won’t prohibit insurance companies from dropping coverage for Americans because they get sick? Won’t end lifetime limits on coverage?
Or do you think none of these insurance reforms are important enough to bother with? We’re all disappointed that we didn’t overthrow the insuranceco plutocracy, but what we did get will do a lot of good for a lot of people who desperately need the help. How accomplishing that is shitting on the American people is truly beyond me.
The Senate version has BIG loopholes in it that render much of it useless. If we get the Senate version (we better not and I don’t think it will stand as it is) you would end up paying for an overpriced piece of junk.
It isn’t rhetoric. As it is, alone and without some fixes I would say don’t pass the Senate version. It would be just welfare for insurance corporations.
But it won’t be on its own. Between the House and the Senate there is enough stuff available to push something good through conference. Still may or may not include a PO.
We have one weapon left in this fight. The Progressive Caucus. Don’t be afraid to use it.
This is not the time to back down. The only real victory is that we have jumped one hurdle – the Senate will pass something and now we will move to conference.
Now we get to see if Obama was serious about his campaign promises (the PO, end rescission and denials, etc.) because now he has as much input and leverage as the entire House and the entire Senate.
If we don’t get the PO and the real fixes needed it will be because Obama and the White House Admin. sides with the heavily insurance industry influenced Senate junk.
I remain optimistic that Obama will insist on good stuff in the House version being put in there. How much and what? Who knows? He has been walking back in an embarrassing manner from the PO pretty much since the day the elections ended. Heck, up and down the ticket Dems were running on the PO as a big part of their campaigns.
I also remain firmly in the camp to keep up the pressure. There are two places that we can apply the pressure.
I didn’t work as hard as I did for Obama to have him arrogantly double cross me in favor of corporations at every opportunity.
This bill is a load of crap. I still can’t get a policy, 2014 is at least 4 full years away, and the policy I’ll finally get then sounds like a bad and expensive one. The same thing is true of every other pathetic gesture Obama has made to live up to his promises – Cuba, the Constitution, torture, executive power abuse, wall street reform, bank reform. All crap. All Rahm Emanuel corporate crap.
Obama could have used reconciliation. He could have fought for the public option. He could have put the screws to the senators. Instead he “got us and gutted us” just like Emanuel told him to. 11-dimensional chess my ass – he just took us out in the alley and mugged us.
I.AM.DONE
Next time Obama wants me to give him two grand and spend a year calling every person in florida and colorado 24 times to remind them to vote and enter all that into the computer, he can just get Rahm to do it, because I am freaking DONE and every single last person I’ve talked to who worked on that campaign says the same damned thing.