Honoring Paul Wellstone's Legacy: Fighting Like Hell for Health Care Reform

I had the rare privilege of meeting one of my heroes, Paul Wellstone, shortly before his death in 2002 when I visited Washington as part of a conference for high school students interested in politics. We had the opportunity to meet several senators during our time in Washington, but Paul Wellstone treated us differently -- more like we were friends coming over for a cup of coffee than a bunch of nerdy high school students on a trip. He insisted that we not call him "senator," but instead simply Paul.

While other senators were going on and on about their accomplishments or telling corny jokes, Paul went around and asked what issues were important to us and what we were doing currently to advocate for these policies. He suggested ideas about how we could become more involved, more effective, and what other issues we might want to get involved in. He encouraged us "to go out and fight because that was the only way change has ever been achieved." Paul's faith in my ability to achieve social change inspired me so much that I spent the rest of my summer volunteering full time to help elect Ed Rendell as governor in Pennsylvania.

A few months later. I was in tears as I listened to the news over NPR that Paul Wellstone and his loving wife, Shelia, had died in a plane crash on their way to a funeral of a steelworker in Northern Minnesota. Paul Wellstone, a tireless champion of the working class served as an inspiration to a generation of activists during the dark days of a decade long Republican reign. For the last seven years, I have kept a photo of Paul Wellstone and me on my desk as a source of inspiration for when the times get tough.

Paul came to the United States Senate under the most unusual of circumstances. He was a college professor who had been arrested protesting with union workers and had previously spent most of his career organizing welfare mothers and poor farmers. No one had expected him to win his first campaign for Senate against an incumbent Republican Senator as he was outspent nearly seven to one. Paul had a secret weapon though his ability to inspire regular people to get out and organize. Unemployed, single mothers held bake sales to help fund his campaign, youth not old enough to vote spent hours volunteering for him. He formed a grassroots army of thousands of ordinary folks and trained them in community organizing.

When Paul Wellstone was elected to the Senate, he never forgot the thousands of ordinary folks that put their hopes and their dreams in him by working to get him elected. He summed up his philosophy about why he was in the Senate by saying, "I don't represent the big oil companies, the big pharmaceuticals or the big insurance industry. They already have great representation in Washington. Its the rest of the people that need representation."

Many Senators had referred to Paul as "The Conscience of the Senate." Only 5 feet 4 inches tall and walking with a severe limp, Wellstone would stand on the floor of the U.S. Senate and rail against corporates interests with the tenacity of the All-American wrestler that he was once. And then he would go back home on the weekends and teach those people how to community organize and fight against the powerful interests that were ruining their lives. Its unknown how many people Wellstone inspired, but to this day you can still see thousands of green bumper stickers in Minnesota with the phrase "W.W.W.D. -- What Would Wellstone Do?"

Last week, Al Franken, a friend of Paul's who had been inspired to run for office by Paul's death, took back Paul's old seat from Republican Norm Coleman. After reading, I found myself wondering of what Paul would be doing now if he was still a U.S. senator. Paul had spent the majority of his career in the minority party in the Senate. In his book Conscience of a Liberal, Paul admitted that in his time in the U.S. Senate he spent nearly 85 percent of his time defending against Republican attacks on working families and he never had the opportunity to fight for things like the big reform measures that he craved. I thought about how Paul would be down on the floor of the Senate to talk about the 20,000 people that die every year due to a lack of health coverage, or to talk about how his access to quality health care as a United States senator allowed him to continue having a productive life despite his semi-debilitating multiple sclerosis.

While Paul spent the most of his career in the minority, he did indeed spend a very brief time in the majority in 1993-1994 when Democrats had the opportunity to pass a health care reform. However, Democrats caved to the insurance companies' lobbyists and no comprehensive health care reform was passed. As Mike Lux, a top Clinton aide at the time argued in his book The Progressive Revolution, Democrats were then swept out of power for their inability to stand up to special interests. Democrats would remain in the wilderness for the rest of Wellstone's tenure in the Senate.

If Democrats fail to deliver on a strong public health insurance plant that an overwhelming 76% favor according to the Wall Street Journal, they too will fail as a party. Reforming health care is about standing up to the big special interests that are spending $1.4 million every day on an army of lobbyists so that they can continue to deny people the health care they need.

Furthermore, health care reform is literally about saving lives. Democrats should avoid looking for some easy compromise on health care with the insurance industry that would deny some people care in order to score a quick legislative victory.

As Wellstone said, "Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people."

Beating the insurance industry is going to be one of the toughest fights we as a movement have ever engaged in. Unfortunately, we don't have Paul Wellstone around to fight for us anymore. However, we do have the people that Wellstone believed in the most -- ourselves. So I say its about time that we ask ourselves, What Would Wellstone Do?

Let's fight like hell. Let's win one for Paul!

Follow Mike Elk on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MikeElk

Comments

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The Blue Dog Coalition

Contact these members of Congress and urge them to support the public plan option! These are the Democrats holding us back from the best health care plan possible.
Key people to contact - view the entire list of the 56 Blue Dog Democrats here!

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration
Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy
Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA-03), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications
Rep. Heath Shuler (NC-11), Blue Dog Whip
Rep. Mike Ross (AR-04)

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[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/its-time-to-spay-and-neut_b_235730.html

[tmock59]

"I thought about how Paul would...talk about how his access to quality health care as a United States senator allowed him to continue having a productive life"

Does ANYONE think we will get the same quality and level of health care as our "distinguished" members of Congress?

You must be joking!!!

[pfrogger]

great piece. well written. sadly we don't have too many politicians like that. they are a rare breed. Kucinich and Sanders come to mind. and that's about it.

based on what I'm seeing, I don't see real healthcare reform passing. the only viable option is single payer, and Obama has taken it off the table, with many Dems in favor of that move.
the public option is constantly being watered down. Dems are still taking Repub ideas to water down the public option even though no Repub ever votes in favor of it.
as you said, the insurance industry and many other industry groups are spending a lot of money to thwart any real change. and in America, everyone has a price. they've bought most of the elected officials with their lobbying, ie. legal bribery.

they're floating ideas of a mandate, which is not reform and is a major giveaway to the industry. they want a tiered system so that once again there will be those who can buy better healthcare and those who are relegated to mediocrity. and they want to cap payments at $5000. this is the deductible for many private plans and the same mess that has led to the bankruptcy of millions. and they want to continue it.
it's not looking good. God I hope I am wrong.

[Mike Elk - Huffpost Blogger]

thank you for reading it and writing back to let me know how much you liked it. im really flattered.

[Mixpixlix]

HURRAY!!!

You said it. Bipartisanship is a concept the GOP shirk in their never ending quest for power.

But as soon as real healthcare reform takes place and the citizens of this country no longer worry about medical bills they can't pay or losing their home or dying because care isn't availabe, the GOP will be trying to convince us that they were for reform all along.

WWWD? He'd push it all back in their faces and we should, too.

[Samalabear]

I didn't know much about Wellstone. Bad loss, especially at this time. The bill that the Dems and Obama are looking to pass is going to be a gift to the special interests. But I have been signing petitions and am hopeful that the groups that are fighting hard for the people for real reform will come through. I can't imagine that Wellstone would think this bill is good. Sanders is one of my heroes right now. He speaks the truth. Many consider him too socialist. I really don't know. I just know on health care he is 100% right. And everything he has talked about Wendell Potter, ex-Vice Pres from Cigna, has verified it.

I still can't believe that this guy testified before Congress and they still passed a bill so rife with insurance industry gifts.

[plzchuteme]

The article leaves out that Wellstone voted against the war with Iraq. In hindsight, it looks like an astute move. I wish he was still around today. He may not get everything he wanted, but he went a long ways in trying, and sometimes succeeding in keeping his colleagues honest. Let's hope enough of Wellstone rubbed of on Al Franken.

[Mike Elk - Huffpost Blogger]

excellent point, i tried to focus on health care in order to make the article more concise. there is a great video though on youtube of dick durbin talking about how wellstone told him it was okay if he lost his seat over the vote.

[pontesisto]

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