Why the health care bill is the greatest social achievement of our time.

[dtotire]

Why the health care bill is the greatest social achievement of our time.
And the Rest Is Just Noise

Jonathan Chait December 24, 2009


American liberals have a habit of withdrawing into cynicism and ennui at the most inopportune moments. The 2000 presidential election, and subsequent recount, was one such moment. The most die-hard reaches of the left, deeming the Democratic Party hopelessly corrupt, rallied to Ralph Nader’s fulsome populist denunciation of Al Gore’s subservience to the corporate agenda. Among more moderate quarters, an attitude of wry detachment prevailed. (“G.O.P.-lite, Democrat-lite,” sighed Frank Rich, “For the 95 percent of the country unwilling to go for Ralph Nader or Pat Buchanan, that is the choice, it always has been the choice, and it will still be the choice on Nov. 7.”) Those liberals who did see something large at stake took on an almost apologetic tone, conceding the lack of any inspired positive choice and focusing instead on the dangers of Bush.

The right, meanwhile, was engulfed in passion that occasionally flared into rage. Mobs of chanting conservatives harassed Gore at his residence day after day. Another such mob intimidated Miami canvassers into abandoning a recount then seen as potentially decisive. The left met all this with a shrug.

The denouement of the health care debate has brought about a similar moment in the political culture. The opponents of the bill are full of passionate intensity. The right, of course, is subsumed in rage and paranoia. Conservatives have been joined by fiery liberals like Howard Dean and a slew of left-wing blogs, denouncing the bill as a corporate giveaway and urging its defeat. The attitude closer to the center is more resignation and disappointment. (Frank Rich again: “Though the American left and right don’t agree on much, they are both now coalescing around the suspicion that Obama’s brilliant presidential campaign was as hollow as Tiger ’s public image.”) The endorsements invariably have a defensive tone—the bill “has some imperfections but is worthy of support,” concludes a New York Times editorial.

At some level, it is possible to understand the roots of liberal frustration. The machinery of Congress has ground away at the health care bill, as it does to almost any bill. But at a broader level, the liberal mood is insane. What has emerged from that machinery is not merely “better than nothing” or “a good start.” It is the most significant American legislative triumph in at least four decades. Why can so few people see that?
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more:

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/just-noise?utm_source=TNR+Daily&utm_campaign=edb8bf56c3-TNR_Daily_122409&utm_medium=email

[RainDog]

1. the reason they can't see it is b/c it's a corporate pig trough

and people HATE THIS. and rightly so.

[Oregone]

3. Corporate pigs need to eat too

Shame on you

[Sarah Ibarruri]

11. It's a FIRST STEP. Even the UK's social medicine system was imperfect and a mess in the

beginning.

[havocmom]

12. No, Medicare was the first step, and in the correct direction too

this is crap

[Sarah Ibarruri]

17. Medicare was not medical care for everyone

We're talking medical care for everyone. It will be tweaked as it goes on. It's better than anything in the history of this country. Can you show something better in our past?

[havocmom]

20. and neither is this crap

[Sarah Ibarruri]

21. I understand you want things asap. Where were you during the decades of Repukes?

Just wondering.

[havocmom]

23. You understand NOTHING about me & what I want

I have LONG been an advocate of 'takes a long time to undo decades of damage'

What you really don't grasp is the righteous disgust many of us feel, after working for fucking decades and being most pragmatic.

Make your little insinuations about what I did during decades of GOP rule. Makes you look pretty ignorant and willfully so. Just because I, and many others have boundaries that we FINALLY admit some dem (yes, little d) leaders have fucked around with once too often does not mean we have not worked our asses off for decades.

I was posting signs for DEMs when Jerry Brown's DAD was running against Dick Nixon in California.

You know zilch about me and you seem smugly and willfully ignorant of that fact to the point that you really do show some silly colors.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

24. You may have worked for fucking decades, but you're clearly blind - Obama just got in office

But you seem to think he's been around for decades, and are demanding that he have the power to change every single thing, when YOU couldn't keep the Repukes out during all those decades. Obama is not a magician. Even so, he's reversed a tremendous amount of the damage done by the Repukes.

You are unreasonable beyond all comprehension.

[havocmom]

25. one with boundaries is not unreasonable

Does one have to do it your way to be reasonable?

To repeat, I have advocated patience with trying to fix decades of problems, but what was done with HCR was an abomination that is not acceptable.

I comprehend and see quite well.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

26. You have advocated nothing. You've lived under Repukes for decades....

but now suddenly, the 1st Dem president (who hasn't even been in a year mind you) pisses you off because he's not fixing in months the damage Repukes did over decades. Brilliant.

[Oregone]

2. It seriously is.

There is a lot of nutritional content in human feces (although chicken manure is far superior for plant growth). If congress mailed the bill to every man, woman, and child in America, it would eliminate malnutrition in the country for at least a week. And thats a historic feat

[begin_within]

4. It depends on who you are and what point you see it from.

If you're an insurance company or own stock in one, it's great. If you're dirt poor and have no health insurance, you might see it as helpful but the reality of being forced into a purchase may change your view pretty quickly. If you're a supporter of Single Payer, public option or Medicare-for-all, it's a failure.

[NJmaverick]

5. Good article, thanks for posting

[xchrom]

6. The liberalmood is insane?

I'll keep that in mind next time dems ask for money.
Why would you ask from a crazy person?

[yurbud]

9. or want a crazy person knocking on doors, making phone calls, or passing out flyers...

[yurbud]

7. Democrats owned the playing field. they didn't have to concede anything and easily could have

strong-armed the moral filth of Lieberman and the Blue Dogs, if not by the public humiliation of withholding pork for their states and stripping their plum chairmanships, then by letting them know which of their acts of corruption the Justice Department has enough evidence to convict them for (or which hooker or mens room tryst they will regretably have to release to the press).

[havocmom]

13. +1

and then some.

[yurbud]

15. this bill would be a victory if they had a one vote majority in each chamber or didn't control

one or the other, not when they have supermajorities.

[havocmom]

19. Yep. They are pulling a variant of bush's terraist. Always cultivating a sense of panic

We busted our butts to get a huge majority in, and they act like every breath they take is a struggle against the all powerful GOP. It's just bullshit excuse making. They should get Oscars for their fine acting, but they should not get blind support for their kowtowing to big business.

edited for typo

[tblue]

8. "the liberal mood is insane"? And the conservative mood is what?

Teabaggers, corporatists, Conservadems. They're sane. Otay....!

[OHdem10]

10. I will concede the fact that both bodies, Senate and House were

able in the end to get "something call HIR" passed in each
body is monumental in achievement. No one has been able
to do that in years.

The substance of the Senate Bill is a little difficult to
swallow still.

[yurbud]

16. I suppose if they had been honest in the first place, it might have been easier to swallow

like if Obama had said, ''we are going to talk to all the top lobbyist. Rahm knows them well and hopes to be their king someday. We will figure out a way to increase their profits, AND get more coverage for more Americans, because if we tried to do anything else, the corrupt pols in DC would grind government to a halt, and the suits in corporate suites would call their shadier associates and give me a very bad day and Joe Biden a very good one. And if Joe tried to cross them, they would give Joe a bad day, and so on until the replacements got it through their heads that the president of the United States is NOT the most powerful man on earth and our democracy means about as much as an election for fourth grade class president.''

[Demeter]

14. If This Abortion of a Corporate Subsidy is the Best the US Can Do, It's Over

We can join Africa in the basket case line.

[sabrina 1]

18. Not surprising coming from Jonathan Chait.

He's an Obama fan. He's also pretty humorous at times so it's always possible he's joking.

[burning rain]

22. The New Republic tends to be fiscally moderate conservative so it's no surprise they love this bill.

.

[niyad]

27. what a load of codswallop--if THAT is the "greatest social achievement of our time" we are clearly

screwed.

[lamp_shade]

28. Excellent.