You cut to the nub of the issue
You’re right. We need fundamental change to make our system more fair. And we won’t get that change until we elect someone who’s passionate enough to fight for it.
Right now Bernie Sanders is that someone.
We could have had single-payer healthcare if the White House had held out for it. It didn’t.
The Obama administration might have learned something from ambitious legislative initiatives of the past. Like Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Some Johnson administration programs had ruinous outcomes. Others worked as planned. The thing is that President Johnson believed in his legislative agenda and fought hard for it.
Lyndon Johnson studied the art of arm-twisting under John Nance Garner and Sam Rayburn. Johnson used those tactics himself as Senate Majority leader. As president, Johnson used charm, threats and emotional blackmail and got the legislation he wanted.
Obamacare was different. The White House stayed above the fray and let House Speaker Pelosi get the Affordable Care Act passed.
The Center for Public Integrity says that 4,525 lobbyists worked to override healthcare reforms. That’s eight influence peddlers for each member of Congress.
The GOP made things worse with Sarah Palin’s ravings about death panels.
The Affordable Care Act came out of Congress stuffed with rent-seeking clauses. It made the healthcare industry and insurance companies the collective beneficiaries of its reforms.
Bernie Sanders is likable and candid and fights for the underdog. But the Democratic Party establishment hasn’t warmed to him. It may even sabotage his campaign the way it pulled the plug on Howard Dean in 2004.
It’s too bad Elizabeth Warren decided against running. She’s a fighter. She understands the issues and has a strong sense of right and wrong. She’d be a great President of the United States.
