In American politics, it all too often looks like tribalism, political positioning and gridlock are the order of the day – with all too little actually getting done. Last week, this impression was fundamentally left for dust as Barack Obama succeeded where mighty predecessors, such as Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Bill Clinton had tried and failed before him – with the passage into of health care legislation. Despite Republican fear mongering and scare tactics of the worst kind, the legislation designed to help the most vulnerable in society became law.
With one stroke of a pen, Obama today signed into law the most important piece of domestic legislation, benefiting poorer Americans, since LBJ left office. Obama was elected on the promise of reforming healthcare and he has delivered on that promise. After eight years of Bush’s Presidency that saw the divide between rich and poor widen; the economy reach its lowest nadir since the disaster of Hooverism; and the number of Americans without health insurance sky rocket, it is greatly heartening to see health care pass. It is legislation in the great tradition of William Jennings Bryan and Franklin D Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Lyndon B Johnson.
At the same time as Obama is delivering on his campaign promises, the Republicans have grown further and further away from the traditions of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. The campaign against health care reform was, all too often small minded and petty – driven by a bandying around of words like ‘socialism’; an irresponsible use of scare tactics such as Sarah Palin’s ‘death panels’; and an increasingly primitive ideology. They are further away from the election winning centre ground than at any time since Barry Goldwater’s humiliation. I have seen little evidence of opponents of healthcare reform coming up with suggestions about how to deal with the issue of 30 million plus Americans without health insurance or the problem of sky rocketing health care costs. I have seen little evidence that they are concerned with Americans losing their homes because of the cost of healthcare.
It is time to stand back and salute a tremendous achievement on the part of President Obama. This was the week when ‘Yes We Can’ became ‘Yes We Did’.
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Here, here. It was a truly inspiring moment, as ‘the leaders of the free world’ actually honoured their moniker. That the Republican party of recent years is slowly being exposed as a self-interested, poisonous collective, is an added bonus. Republican proponents have frustratingly self-destructive tendencies. Let us all be thankful that, in this instance, these tendencies were not enough to derail the passage of a vital piece of legislation.