Willful ignorance is probably a necessary prerequisite for progressive observers of the American political system. The corruption, corporate domination and general lack of democracy that defines the American government would be too painful to bear if one didn't lie to oneself or shield one's eyes from the glaring obscenity of it all once in a while. Looking back with this in mind, my initial hope for meaningful health-care reform was at least partially tinged with wishful thinking.
Sure, I knew that a just and universal health-care plan, or a system that emphasizes human health over profit as seen everywhere in the first world, wasn't going to happen. The establishment, or more accurately, their corporate overlords, decided that a single-payer system wasn't going to be discussed, so it was immediately swept off the table of debate and into the trash bin of so many other practical notions deemed too radical for mainstream discussion, including state-funded (instead of corporate) elections, serious investment in clean energies and an acknowledgement that Israeli foreign policy is not morally infallible.
Nonetheless, I was hopeful that something inbetween the European model and the abomination of our own health-care system was possible. Public support for government-mandated change, encouraged by the hugely popular Michael Moore documentary ""Sicko"" (though I must admit, I don't much go for Moore's propagandistic style), was simply too great to be ignored any longer. The left-wing party's takeover of both the executive and legislative branch also seemed decisive, especially since they campaigned with precisely this issue on the forefront of their agenda. Finally, the weakness of the right seemed to ensure that a ""strong and viable public option"" would pass––a program that would drastically curb costs, the number of uninsured, and the foul play emanating from the insurance sector.
Passing a public option also seemed likely because, unlike the advancement of progressive issues, President Obama and his constituency made this a focal point of what Obama-era ""change"" was supposed to include. On civil liberties, the Justice Department has manufactured new legal justifications to keep ""enemy combatants"" imprisoned indefinitely, simply transferring many of them from Guantanamo to Bagram. With respect to foreign policy, Obama has transferred troops from one imperialist abattoir (Iraq) to another (Afghanistan). He has also sat silently as the great hope of the labor movement, the Employee Free Choice Act, has wallowed in the Senate, its essential components gutted by those awful, soulless conservative Democrats.
But if a Democratic White House and Congress has meant nothing for the advancement of most progressive issues, surely the party of FDR would find its bearings to change a health-care system that leaves 22,000 dead every year for lack of insurance. Apparently not. Progressive Democrats have allowed the Blue Dogs and Republicans to take control of the debate, an alliance that has slandered the proposed reforms as the work of eugenicists and robotic bureaucrats. Suddenly, the Republicans have found their voice––namely, a shrill and demagogic one––putting up a formidable, formidably obnoxious opposition.
Now, the White House has given hints that it is willing to dump the public option in favor of the pathetic co-operative system, a horrifically weak alternative that probably isn't even worth the cost. It seems the Democrats, as well as our thoroughly corporate-dominated government, have ended up true to form after all. Lo and behold, the system doesn't really work.
It's been hard to discern the motivations behind the tepid behavior of Obama and his cohorts during this ordeal over the last month or two; what I do know is that it has been as shameful as it has been infuriating. Where is their backbone, their willingness to throw a punch on behalf of a just cause? Obama and crew have responded to the opposition by playing their game, gently assuring us that this won't affect the deficit too much and that people will actually be able to still choose their own doctor. Where is the determined condemnation of the current system, one that leaves the sick to rot in the streets and the insurance companies to make gruesome profits by denying honest people coverage? Where is the determined assertion that health care is a human right, at all?
True, the battle may not be over, yet. Obama has not forsaken the public option, only weakened in his commitment. Nevertheless, the recent health-care debate confirms what would have been more apparent if not for the pain-alleviating mechanisms of my subconscious: 1) The Democrats cannot be relied on to make any substantive progressive change, and 2) Only an independent, grassroots movement can overcome powerful monied interests like the insurance lobby.
In absence of strong pressure for reform independent of the Democratic establishment, the most we can hope for is a health-care system only slightly less wretched than the current one.
Kyle Szarzynski is a senior majoring in philosophy and history. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
