Aim low
Conservative Democrats always think they know that only the most conservative possible platform can get Democrats elected. Pelosi is warning us away from any wild and crazy ideas like universal health insurance, you know like what every other developed country has had for decades.
Sitting in her office with its panoramic view of the National Mall, Ms. Pelosi — the de facto head of the Democratic Party until a presidential nominee is selected in 2020 — offered Democrats her “coldblooded” plan for decisively ridding themselves of Mr. Trump: Do not get dragged into a protracted impeachment bid that will ultimately get crushed in the Republican-controlled Senate, and do not risk alienating the moderate voters who flocked to the party in 2018 by drifting too far to the left.
“Own the center left, own the mainstream,” Ms. Pelosi, 79, said.
“Our passions were for health care, bigger paychecks, cleaner government — a simple message,” Ms. Pelosi said of the 40-seat Democratic pickup last year that resulted in her second ascent to the speakership. “We did not engage in some of the other exuberances that exist in our party” — a reference to some of the most ambitious plans advocated by the left wing of her party and some 2020 candidates, including “Medicare for all” and the Green New Deal, which she has declined to support.
Well what is “health care” supposed to mean? Everybody thinks health care is a good thing, apart from the religious maniacs who decline it on principle and watch their children die in agony. The issue isn’t health care, it’s the ability to pay for it if you’re not rich. The issue is whether or not to treat it as a public good like schools and libraries, or a profit generator like cars and shoes. It’s not “exuberance” to think health insurance should work the way Medicare does; other prosperous countries do it that way and we could too.
There’s also nothing “exuberant” about thinking we have a responsibility to take climate change seriously as opposed to just shrugging it off because we won’t be alive to see the worst of it.
I remember when we sang this:
There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
—Young people speaking their minds—
—Getting so much resistance from behind—
and this:
Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
We did not learn, and now our children die almost weekly on the streets and campuses.
The problem is that they are so determined to pick up people from the “center right” that they will neglect their traditional, solid core of voters in order to pick up a tiny fraction of the right. Most of the right will not vote for a D, no matter what. Most of the left wants a sane, practical program that looks different than the other party. Striving for those who won’t vote for them in the hopes that 2 or 3 will for them, while losing the ones who already vote for them?
They’re banking on the core sitting back and taking it because they just hate Trump. I’m not so sure that will happen. Lots of people are rumbling; they want something more than watered down Republicanism with a few tidbits occasionally thrown to the left, mostly in the form of rhetoric that comes way late in the lame duck term after a Democrat has lost the election to an incoming Republican. Then a few changes happen, usually by executive orders which the incoming president will undo.
The problem is that politicians and voters have vastly diverging ideas of what “middle-of-the-road” means. For most Democratic voters, that means way, way, way left of where the party currently is, but the pols have allowed the media to redefine terms so that Hillary Clinton can be branded a foaming at the mouth radical and Marco Rubio can be seen as a moderate.
“Exuberances” – in reference to things that other nations manage to afford easily, despite being less wealthy than USA.
Well according to the 538 crew the Democratic party is about 50% self-identifying “moderates” and conservatives so I’m not sure (vs. Republicans’ 10% conservatives and 90% batshit crazy) so I don’t know that Pelosi is wrong here…
The party is a lot more left-leaning than it had been but it may not be enough. The Democratic party is the party of everyone that’s not Republican and that’s quite a diverse coalition.
I read somewhere that for the average American worker, health insurance is the second largest monthly expense, the largest being the mortgage/rent. I find it incredible that so many want to keep such a ridiculously expensive system rather than adopt socialised healthcare.
In the UK, standard National Insurance contributions are 12% of income between £166 and £962 per week. If income exceeds £962 per week, then the rate drops to 2% of every pound over £962. This is what pays for everybodies’ healthcare; nobody has to pay to see a doctor or be treated in hospital, nor pay for an ambulance if one is needed. On top of this, prescriptions for medicines are free for many people including all under-16s and over-65s, people receiving disability or unemployment benefits, and pregnant women. Even for those who have to pay prescription charges the cost is subsidised, and currently stands at £9.00 per item.
On top of this, many people receive free dental care and eyecare. It also pays for the basic state pension, among other things.
So why are so many Americans averse to adopting a similar style of healthcare? Is ‘socialized’ such a dirty word? Do people really prefer to pay through the nose and go through life knowing they are one major accident or illness from bankruptcy, than risking having their dollars pay for somebody else’s treatment? Even though a socialised system would actually leave them with more money for themselves each month? Surely such a blind selfishness can’t be the reason…..can it?
AoS:
COUGH COUGH prescriptions are free for everyone in Wales.
Carry on.
‘…moderate voters who flocked to the party in 2018’
Flocked? California had a 37% voter turnout in 2018. Except for survivalist/Klan strongholds like Modoc County, which had a 78% turnout.
John,
To be clear, that 37% number was for the primary, and for a midterm primary it was fairly good, the highest since 1998.
The general election turnout was a shade under 65%, the highest in a nonpresidential year since 2006.