Healthcare, History and Kennedy

I was writing this column when I heard of Senator Kennedy's death.

I am heartbroken.

For more than five decades, my father William vanden Heuvel was a close friend and political ally of Kennedy's. When I called him this morning he had been weeping. He'd just seen the footage on CNN of Kennedy's extraordinarily emotional visit to Ireland, one year after his brother John's assassination. My father traveled with Kennedy on that trip, as he would on many others in the years to follow. He also shared memories of sailing trips on the coast of Maine, and the good times, and tough times, and the campaigns waged and won.

My father told me he was supposed to be on the small plane that crashed and nearly killed Kennedy in 1964; but what with Bobby running for the New York Senate that year, my father went to campaign for Teddy's older brother. He spent the next year shuttling to the Massachusetts hospital to visit Teddy, who was strapped down on a gurney to avoid paralysis.

My father wrote many speeches for Kennedy, and informed many others, including the eloquent and impassioned statements Kennedy made opposing the war in Iraq. Vietnam was never far from Kennedy's mind or the memories of those -- like my father -- who had served in President Kennedy's administration and watched Lyndon Johnson's Great Society destroyed.

When Kennedy was deciding whether to endorse Senator Barack Obama for president, he took counsel with friends and advisers, including my father.

Senator Kennedy was a fighting liberal; a passionate and exuberant lion to the very end -- often among timid cubs. He will be remembered as the best and most effective Senator of the last century. Kennedy helped shape every major piece of legislation, with his powerful commitment to civil rights, labor rights, and women's rights -- always fighting for equality, always standing with the underdog, the poor, the most vulnerable, who he believed deserved lives of dignity.

Kennedy's final fight was for quality, affordable health care for all. As recently as July, he called that fight "the cause of my life." In the coming months, President Obama and a Democratic Congress will determine whether that cause is realized.

Whatever one thinks of President Obama's presidency so far, he is one of the few reform presidents in modern history -- a potential Senator Kennedy recognized when he endorsed his candidacy. A reform President takes on the status quo in order to improve the lives of the majority and ensure that America lives up to it's potential and promise. Franklin Roosevelt was the very model of a reform President. Lyndon Johnson, in a sense, was pushed to become a reformer by the turbulence of the times.

When a reform President takes on the status quo he confronts a ferocious, well-organized, reactionary opposition. What we're seeing today -- with right-wing groups comparing Obama to Hitler and health care reform to socialism--Roosevelt faced with the American Liberty League calling him a socialist or a fascist (ironic, since it was Roosevelt who led the US into war against fascism). Like Obama, Roosevelt also confronted well-funded business lobbies. And in the Catholic demagogue Father Coughlin, Roosevelt had his Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck in a Roman collar.

As Congressman Keith Ellison -- Vice Chair of the Progressive Caucus -- notes in a recent post, "The special interests and protectors of the status quo acted worse when America was on the brink of passing Civil Rights and Voting Rights legislation. They spread lies and fear when America was contemplating women's suffrage too."

The rabid protestors opposing Obama are representatives of a long national tradition: an irrational fear of a strong central government. Obama has found it more difficult to turn away from the contemporary edition of the fanatical right than his reform predecessors, partly because conservative ideology has been in the saddle for three decades and the recession began too late in the Bush administration to sufficiently discredit its free-market fundamentalism and those who still speak on its behalf.

Obama himself acknowledged parallels between now and previous battles for reform when speaking to a coalition of religious leaders on August 20. He said, "These struggles always boil down to a contest between hope and fear. That was true in the debate over social security, when FDR was accused of being a socialist. That was true when LBJ tried to pass Medicare. And it's true in this debate today."

Indeed those words might be a valuable frame for a presidential speech after Labor Day, as Obama returns to presenting and--one hopes-- truly fighting for his health care agenda. Obama would be wise to place his agenda in the tradition of reform in US history -- especially the two most popular programs in modern history, Social Security and Medicare -- which were staunchly opposed by the GOP.

The President, his congressional allies, and millions of Americans should also be inspired to honor and fight for the cause of Senator Kennedy's life. Surely the President recognizes that the Senate's fighting liberal would not place the fate of affordable health insurance back in the hands of the private sector without a viable public alternative that isn't driven by profit or greed.

This country now has the best opportunity since 1912 -- when Theodore Roosevelt included universal healthcare in his progressive party platform -- to pass real health care reform and fulfill a moral imperative. A bill with a strong public option would be a victory not only for progressives but for all those who seek a healthier, more humane country where health care is a right not a commodity.

One has to question the value of bipartisanship at this moment. This is not a Republican Party out to criticize or modify health care reform. This is a party out to cripple or kill reform, and with it the future of Obama's presidency. It's high time to part ways with the Party of No-- which once opposed Medicare and Social Security and is now committed to fearmongering about government takeovers and socialism coming to America.

Democrats must pass a strong reform bill by any means necessary (and Congressman Ellison makes a strong case here for using reconciliation to avoid a GOP filibuster). If the Republicans defeat it, let them explain themselves in the 2010 midterm elections to voters who remain at the mercy of insurance companies. If, on the other hand, Dems choose to enact a bipartisan sham reform bill instead of seizing this moment when they are in charge, they will shoulder the blame and see ugly results come 2010.

Every President, no matter how popular at the outset, has only so much political capital and must use it wisely and strategically. And if one looks at American political history--as Mike Lux explains in his valuable book The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be -- every so often a window to change opens and the combination of crisis, leadership, and political movement makes big, positive reforms possible.

"That window is open right now," Lux writes, "and President Obama, to his credit, is trying to keep it open" to make changes that will make our nation immeasurably stronger. But if he gives up this fight and caves to lobbyists -- or either the Congressional Democrats or the grassroots fails to deliver the support he needs -- then that window will slam shut, and the next opportunity for reform might not come for another generation.

That would be a real tragedy -- and also no way to honor the Lion of the Senate. Today President Obama said, "The Kennedy name is synonymous with the Democratic Party." Now, for this fight, the Democratic Party must become synonymous with Kennedy.

This article originally appeared at The Nation.

Comments

[creolechild]

If you are concerned about receiving "real" health care reform in this country, please take the time to watch a video on our current system. The video was created by Oregon physicians who are advocating for the single-payer option. The video is very informative and helped me to gain a better understanding of various aspect of health care, as we know now it.

https://www.madashelldoctorstour.com/Mad_as_Hell_Video.html

These Oregon physicians are in the process of organizing a caravan designed to inform the public about the benefits of the single-payer option. At last count they will be stopping in approximately 23 states, on their way to demonstrate in Washington. They need volunteers and our support. Please spread the word.

[Michaela1976]

Wow thank you !

[hoosier96]

So we should hand over 1/6th of the economy and give the government life or death power over all Americans in order to honor the memory of a dead senator?

[pinkibus]

Well hoosier - what can I say. Do you want to leave 1/6th of the economy in the hands of profit seeking corporations who will refuse to pay for you to have medical treatment you need and without which you may die or do you want the government which runs the post office, police and other everyday things to make it your right to have the treatment.. I would rather have a government bureaucrat paying the doctor of my choice for the treatment he feels I need than a corporate health care democrat telling me I have to cough up a half million or so for the health care my doctor says I need. Don't do it to honor Ted Kennedy who is dead after getting the best health care money can buy at taxpayers expense. Do it for yourself. You can have the best health care at half the cost.. Do you like being treated as a commodity or as a citizen who has rights even though you have been tossed off your job because your health problem makes it impossible to do the job. And then you lose your job and your health insurance and you can't afford to buy any or even if you could the insurance company wouldn't pay for it. If your choice is paying for profit health insurers then maybe I can sell you this great bridge in Brooklyn. Let me know if you want it.

[Jahbundance]

Remembering Teddy, where is your voice? Death panels are real! I've been a health insurance agent for 20 years and the unconscionable way they've treated my clients is far worse than the way the tobacco companies treated smokers. There is absolutely no humanity in their decisions; people are actuarial figures representing gain or loss, period. That the Republicans choose to protect these companies and their ever-increasing profits with lies and fear mongering needs to be exposed. Do not allow the stupidest among us to be the only voices heard! Speak the truth! Carry the torch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja8h2wxTzJY

[SueInCA]

I hear ya. I have been working with OFA on this for months. They do not want the truth about insurance companies to come out. See how Freedom Works started to fade when they were exposed? Also like your avatar lol

[hoosier96]

Exactly.

Everyone should sign this petition now.

http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/form.php

[CTtransplant]

Ooops! Here's the other one!

http://www.democrats.com/honor-ted-kennedy?cid=ZGVtczQ0MTA5OGRlbXM=

[Mark Mack]

"Obama has found it more difficult to turn away from the contemporary edition of the fanatical right than his reform predecessors, partly because conservative ideology has been in the saddle for three decades and the recession began too late in the Bush administration to sufficiently discredit its free-market fundamentalism and those who still speak on its behalf."

I am glad to read this fantastic, succinct and in a nutshell, analysis.

Not to mention some fanatical far right clusters have a deep-seeded distrust for spending programs and regulations. This philosophy sets up so much of the feeble opposition to Barack Obama's health-insurance reform. It is odd considering even the framers debated the Constitution's meaning. Yet these rightist are willing to deny their fellow citizens the right to health at minimum, by their tortuous interpretation of the Constitution. Let’s be real, these contemporary conservatives really have deep-seeded affection for authoritarianism. Ironic. Ian Millhiser does a much better job than me, at explaining it here: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=rally_round_the_true_constitution

By the way - thanks for reposting the 2002 Ted Kennedy piece, by Jack Newfield. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020325/newfield

[CTtransplant]

As Senator Kennedy said, "...the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

This is a man who worked tirelessly for the working man. And one of our greatest champions of health care reform. It has become even more important than ever that we get this done! And rightfully call it the Teddy Plan in honor of the man who made this his life's work! He carried the torch for a long time...and now it is up to us to continue to carry it for him!

We cannot let the scare tactics dissuade us from reaching our goal!

While many of us are struggling to afford medical insurance/medical bills.
While Congress people try to stop healthcare reform.
While Congress people accept large contributions from lobbyists to prevent health care reform.

Our elected officials in Congress receive health care mostly paid for by us tax payers, yet many are trying to make it impossible for us to purchase an affordable plan of our own.

Please sign both petitions! Thank you!

http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html

[hrholmes]

Thank you Katrina for your usual truth and insights. Now if we can only convince some spineless wimps in Congress to do the right thing we will be able to start Americas recovery from the abuses and waste of 30 years of republican incompetence.

[overd0g1]

Affordable by who?

[pinkibus]

overdog - affordable to everybody. Capice?

[MNmommy]

Excellent.

I'm so proud to have voted for Rep. Ellison twice. Probably two of my most important votes in 28 years.

Thank you, Katrina, my condolences.

[medicare4all]

A very nice personal touch on Senator Kennedy. The more I learn, the more I realize what a "Lion" he truly was.