krebscycle

Democrats have been attempting to pass universal national health in the USA since the Truman administration proposed national health insurance and other reforms in 1945.

“Under the plan I suggest, our people would continue to get medical and hospital services just as they do now — on the basis of their own voluntary decisions and choices. Our doctors and hospitals would continue to deal with disease with the same professional freedom as now. There would, however, be this all-important difference: whether or not patients get the services they need would not depend on how much they can afford to pay at the time – Harry Truman, 1945

Since that time, there have been a series of defeats (Several plans by Truman, Clinton’s universal health plan) and partial wins: ERISA, Medicare/Medicaid, SCHIP, ACA.  The enormous difficulty of this project is due to fundamental problems in US society and in the US political system. Most glaringly, racism and sexism are, as always, the wrecking balls against progressive policies:

Trevor, dying from liver damage and opposed Obamacare, perfectly demos the power of whiteness: “I would rather die. We don’t need any more government in our lives. And in any case, no way I want my tax dollars paying for Mexicans or welfare queens.” Capehart

And yet the fundamental response of the current US “left” to this 75 year battle is a kind of whiny peevishness: Obama didn’t “fight”, he was a “shill” – the entire problem is due to a lack of will, to corruption, to personality flaws in the “Democrats”, flaws that can only be cured by a better celebrity spokesmodel, namely the Savior Bernie Sanders.  In fact, Sanders apparently invented the whole cause of universal health care and is dragging reluctant “corporate” Democrats forward despite their craven loyalty to their funders – at least that’s the story. There’s no analysis of racial dynamics, no class analysis, no discussion of the structure of the US government (which gives enormous power to rural areas), no analysis of competing interests of different elite groups or different segments of the working class,  no nothing: just angry attacks on the imaginary character flaws of “establishment Democrats” who won’t simply impose the Swedish health care system on the USA in a few weeks.   Even more amazing, is there is no thinking about how a new system could be adapted to our times.

There’s nothing in Sanders proposed M4A that was not in Truman’s plan 70 years ago: as if nothing changed in the USA, not only did we learn nothing about how to sell policies in this country, but everything else stood still.  So we see the basic characteristics of the “left”: blind hostility to Democrats, an appallingly shallow and ahistorical approach, nostalgia or just simple failure to come up with anything new, and a gullible celebrity driven view of politics.