Why do the “fiscally conservative” Repubs who swept back into power last week want to foil implementation of the health reform law when it cuts the deficit and creates jobs – the very things they convinced the voting public that they stand for?
Oh, yeah. That’s why. Fear, lies and populist pandering protects their corporate and military interests.
Was the public duped, or do we really have a populist movement in the United States for continued economic inequalities that make the Gilded Age look like fun?
To answer that, we must first answer this: How strong will liberals, progressives and other equity-loving patriots fight for implementation of the health reform law? Flaws and all?
It takes a village and then some to fight the U.S. free-market, health-care, pig-trough system of unequal illness creation. President Obama was able to open the steel door for change after 14 months of slogging through blue dog Dems and shameless lying Repubs to produce the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act. Progress from here is up to us. Again.
At least, after this Tuesday, we know what we’re up against, and it’s not just corporate power. It’s worse: It’s a public indifferent and hostile to the very concept of equality, hell-bent on fighting for unbridled corporate power that segregates our society in a way that only the government used to be able to do.
What will progressives do this year to try to keep the door open for more health care regulation, more governmental accountability, and more centralized control of our gluttonous health care non-system?
An equitable society depends on keeping that door ajar for more humane structural changes to come – but we’ll only get there if New Mexico and the country realize what we voted for last week and plan accordingly.
Terry Schleder is an Albuquerque health policy agitator and organizer. He’s worked in health equity and community epidemiology movements in New Mexico for more than 10 years and holds a masters degree in public health from UNM.