Stuart Altman & David Shactman - Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care - Foreword John Kerry

[Mass]

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Politics-Universal-Health-Care/dp/1616144564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325352667&sr=8-1

I posted about this book a while ago, when John Kerry was doing a keynote address about it, but I just got my hand on it (3 month waiting list at your local library), and, while I have only read one third of it, it is a very worthwhile resource of the history of missed opportunities in healthcare reform in this country since the Nixon years, as well as what made Obama succeed. If you read only two pages, read the foreword, for Kerry, of course, but also because he describes Kennedy's philosophy to get progress (summarily summarized here): take what you can get, pass it into law, and then immediately start fighting back. This made me happy to read this because, quite often during this healthcare debate, I have been befuddled by both sizes: those who thought the law should be rejected because insufficient, and those who refused to address the smallest criticism way before the discussion was finished, and even now, where both success and limitations of this bill become apparent.

While this book will not satisfy those who want to hear only about how single payer is the only acceptable solution and anything else should be rejected, it is an interesting book about political process and how ideas take a long time to germinate and become law.

What I find more disturbing reading this book is that it seems that the US have become more regressive in these past 30 years. Without a moderate Republican party, and with the Democratic party welcoming into his house people who once were moderate Republicans, and now sometimes are seen as liberal Democrats, the pendulum's equilibrium seems to have switched radically to the right.

[MBS]

1. thanks for this

and I agree completely with the last paragraph. Everything/everyone has gone astray since 1980. Not that there weren't far-right Republicans before (as a native of southern California, I pretty much grew up with the wing-nuts in my very own neighborhood), but, since 1980, the far right perspective has somehow become the Conventional Wisdom, rather than the marginalized, out-there, destructive outlook that it really is, or really should be. It seems like I've been fighting these people all my life.

The media and "the people" seem to characterize the perpetual arguments in Congress as "petty". But the thing is, as frustrating as the situation is, and as furious as I am with the House Republicans, the arguments in Congress about issues that really matter to the future of the country.. It's not enough for Congress to stop the fighting. It's about winning this fight.
It's why we have to get Obama re-elected, why we have to take back Congress, and why we can't, simply can't let the Republicans take back the Senate.

[ladym55]

2. We have become far more regressive

I am basically a moderate, and I am perceived everywhere is a left-wing extremist.

I'm old enough to remember Republicans who supported public education and invested in infrastructure. They supported women's health. After 1980, we began to slide into the mess we find ourselves in now. Health care is but one example of our self-destructive behavior. We vote against our own best interest over and over because we have been trained to turn against each other.

Sounds like a good book. I don't know where I learned about Kennedy's approach, but it is a good one and one we need to remember. We need to take small steps forward and just keep fighting. Many of my more progressive friends are mad at Obama, but need to remember what happened in 2010 when we all stayed home and pouted.

[Mass]

3. I dont think they are mad at Obama (most of them at least), but they (and I) are really irritated at

the knee-jerk defense of him by some of his supporters, which prevents the "continue to fight" part of Kennedy's doctrine, particularly when the criticism is not against him, but against part of bills he may not have wanted in the first place. I hope they will accept there is something wrong in the NDAA now that the president has said so in his statement. I find it just as destructive. They behave as if they were worshiping a god, not as if they cared about ideas.

It is no surprise that the right wing ideas are the ones that are seen as mainstream. For the last 30 years, Democrats have stopped promoting progressive ideas, saying they cannot pass. We do not see the far right stop promoting stupid ideas like the flat tax. A large part of those who form the ranks of the Democratic staffers come from the Nixon people (and some were still Republicans under Reagan). They have not changed their view of the world. They have been pushed out of their party and continue promoting these ideas under a Democratic label.

Kennedy was one of the last few who fought for progressive ideas. We only have a few left in office. I wonder what it will take to promote a progressive America again, but we have to stop thinking it is the GOP fault. They did their job: promote the ideas they thought good (yes, they are wrong). We stopped doing our job, which is basically the same.

Now, it is true that election times are not the best moment to promote ideas, but you do not see Democrats trying to promote them at any time in the first place.