The headline and lead of a New York Times piece today:
Trick for Democrats Is Juggling Ideology and Pragmatism
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and DAVID M. HERSZENHORNWASHINGTON — Democrats have displayed a striking degree of pragmatism in seeking to push the health care bill through Congress, embracing or rejecting ideological considerations as needed to keep the legislation moving.
By “ideology,” the Times means policy ideas that are popular with voters and that would be more likely to reduce the costs of the healthcare system and cover more people (single-payer, a truly robust public plan). By “pragmatism,” they mean the things that are less likely to reduce costs, or the trade-offs Democratic leaders have made in an attempt to win conservative support (excluding coverage for abortion services, for example). The choice of such language is intended to send a political message about what policy ideas are wise, and which are not–based on ideology, not pragmatism.
It is amazing how many so called progressives equate the policy preferences of elected officials, the DC think tank groupies, and the poohbahs of the press with pragmatism. If any of these groups declares a policy not pragmatic, it is eliminated from any further “serious” consideration. This narrows the policy choices to tweedle dee and tweedle dum. This also results in the stultification of our political dialogue and prevents serious remedies for serious problems. The solutution is to build a political movement outside the two party system that forces change. Working within either the Democratic or Republican party will never result in substantive reform. The health care legislation is only one example of this truth.
Thank you Ted Steege. “Centrism” IS ideology.
In simple (not being simplistic) words, money/propaganda rules. And if we don’t get meaningful campaign reform, it will continue to be so. / Jean Clelland-Morin (your friendly, neighborhood lefty/heathen
The right-wingers are correct when they label the health care reform issue as one in which freedom and democracy are threatened. The only problem is that it isn’t the reform that is the threat, it is their cynical twisting of the facts, their opposition to the establishment of health care as a human right and not just another commodity to make profit off of – even at the expense of people’s health, lives and financial security – that is the threat.
Contrary to the constant drum beat of propoganda delivered up by the right, the Western European and Canadian systems of national health care have established that health care can be delivered effectively, efficiently, universally and cost reasonably, while the U.S. profit driven, corporate controlled health care system is bloated, focused on profit and not results, inhumane and undemocratic.
What kind of health care system in a democracy determines the quality of health care delivered by your ability to pay for it?
Contrary to what the Republicans and turn-coat Blue Doggers in the pockets of the insurance lobby say – I say that’s just down right un-American.
Of course our argument is that they define American as the right to run any scam you can think of for the sake of profit, while I believe it has to do with an expanding egalitarianism, wherin every person has equal access to the fruits and protection of society.
Maybe that is what fundamentally separates progressives from conservatives – Progressives believe democracy and freedom are about equality and protection from exploitation for everyone, and the conservatives believe, like the vaunted founders who used words like “all men are created equal” that democracy is only for those like themselves, while they practiced slavery, genocide against Natives, sexism and chattelry.
Health care is a social responsibility every bit as much as the cops on the street.
Plain and simple. I am much more endangered from not being able to afford quality health care than from being mugged, robbed and killed. Why? Because our society recognizes the necessity of universal crime protection, but not from corporate mugging, robbery and even murder for their profits.
Even the most primitive societies understood that health care was available to everyone, and didn’t withold the services of the community healer to only those who could pay the fee.
This health care reform before Congress has already been watered down to near meaninglessness by the corporate lobbyists and their Republican and Blue Dog puppets. To not pass the remnants of the reform still standing will be a clear indication that the needs of the people have been completely supplanted by the power of the corporations.
It is not the government that WE elect that we have to fear, it is the corporations that stand as a law unto themselves, with control of every institiution in our society, including media, that threatens our democracy.
Have you ever considered what “capitalism” and “socialism” mean?
Capitalism means that you believe in and dedicate yourself to the supremacy of capital, of profit, while socialism means that you believe in and dedicate yourself to the supremacy of a civil society.
When seeking to create “a more perfect union”, which principle do you really think is going to get us there?
The Western Europeans have managed to get beyond the catastrophe of Soviet Communism to realize the true promise of a democratic socialism. Don’t you think its about time we in America do the same?
Stop being the puppets of the corporate capitalists whose only interest is their profits and not your health, and certainly not a more perfect union that might cut into their profits.
Tell YOUR elected representatives to stand for a democratic and fair health care system based on people’s needs and not on profit for the corporations.
We already have government health care. Here’s how it works. The government is paying 60% of all health care costs in this country already, and you don’t hear the people who are getting their health care paid for by the government,(like republican and “conservative” democrat congressmen), whining about a government takeover based on that.
The Insurance companies happily collect their clients’ insurance premiums until their clients get really good and sick, then they find some cheap excuse for removing them from the client list, (rescission). Why are they cheap excuses? Because if they were legitimate excuses, the insurance company would have removed the client when they were healthy, instead of happily collecting their money for years.
So, what we have now is a system where insurance companies, (most especially their executives and other insiders), make money hand over fist, and then let the government pick up the tab when their clients get sick.
What is that if it isn’t a criminal enterprise, facilitated by crooked politicians greasing the wheels by legalizing business practices by the insurance companies that should never have been made legal?
Most of our health care is in 401(C) corporations (non-profit hospitals). Doesn’t that mean they are not capitalist organizations? If most of our actual health care is not capitalist does that mean our health care is already socialized? So really this bill only fixes the gaps in our already socialist organization and stops letting capitalist companies stop taking money away from actual health care. A different way to evaluate if for profit health care is effective: what percentage of patients under 65 on dialysis have for profit health insurance and what percentage are on medicare and medicaid (socialized medicine)? If for profit health insurance simply releases sick people to public health care then the public is paying directly for the profits achieved by health insurance companies. If the public is paying for sick people then health insurance is simply a scam on the taxpayer – health insurance companies are simply redistributing money from the poor to the rich without improving service. When health insurance companies can garentee health care from cradle to grave for everyone (and make medicare and medicaide obsolete) then we can talk about a health finance bill without a public option.
Pragmatic is not the word I would use to describe certain congressional democrats. Sold out, gutless, lack of principles are terms that are more accurate. While apologists for these rats argue that this is the way that “politics” is done, I say NO THANK YOU!
When three to five per cent of the total population control the government, the news media, the economy, the entertainment industry, our school systems and even the churches… well that’s hardly a democracy!
Got third party blues anyone?