Well, that title isn’t really what this article is about, but I get there eventually.
This started as a Facebook post, but it’s too long and preachy, so I went for the blog. But it plays off threads started by my friends Ivan and Corky on FB.
Ivan was saying there’s no sense in those of us on the left arguing with each other about nuances. But Corky thinks we have to unite around certain big ideas and redirect the Democratic Party.
So what I think — and what I’ve thought since 1980 – is that, as Ivan says, there’s no point arguing about small differences. What we need to do is get a majority in both Congress and in our state legislatures. After that, we can argue about whether we should continue with the ACA or move to a single payer system. Or how to approach climate change, or figure out a way to get campaign finance reform through the Supreme Court or take on the really big issues.
But there’s absolutely no point in going into the next Congress with the current party distribution united behind a single payer health care system when we don’t even get to make amendments on Republican bills.
And I also don’t believe that an issue like single payer health care is going to rally the populace to such an extent that they are all going to vote Democrat on the basis of that — when, if you remember — a large portion of the population didn’t even know that the Affordable Health Care Act was the same as Obamacare.
I think what we need is to agree that we’re all going to work really hard — at the local level, at the state level and for any Democrat Congressional candidate that has a snowball’s chance of winning. That may mean supporting a candidate that you don’t agree with 100 percent. (Hmmm. Would I go door to door for a candidate who’s not pro-choice? That would be a hard one, but I might do it if it meant we could achieve other essential goals.)
I would send money to and go door-to-door for a Democrat who supports 80 percent of what I care about if she or he could take out a Republican incumbent or win a race in a close district.
Then when we get a good, solid majority in Congress — when we know we can protect against the deliberate erosion of environmental regulations, when we can protect health care and the rights of women and minorities and immigrants and refugees, when we can legislate to protect our voting rights — when we can stop the assault on all that was achieved over the last 50 years — then we can look ahead to major changes like single payer health care, free universities, etc.
My goals for the next two years:
– Find and support candidate in a swing district who can use my help
– Support the efforts of President Obama and Eric Holder to fight gerrymandering at the court level
– Do what I can locally to keep established, working families from being torn apart by ICE.
I just have to keep reminding myself that I’m not helpless, that together we can do a lot and that I lived to see a Black president. Maybe it’s not true that all you need is love, but love is a great starting point.
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