Introducing Layla Taha

by Matt McManus

Layla Taha | Photo from https://laylataha.com/

Introduction

The best way for socialists to get elected by their fellow citizens is to make life better for their fellow citizens. That goes doubly in a country like the United States. People are less afraid of the “S” word than ever before. But socialism can still be a hard sell for many folks whose hard lives have made them rightly wary of over-promising politicians and spacy idealists (guilty as charged). Democratic socialists who speak to the issues that people experience everyday are more likely to be successful than those who double down on talking points or politically correct bromides.

This is why we need candidates like Layla Taha, who is currently running to be the second DSA member elected as a State Representative in Lansing. Layla is a native of Deaborn and was raised in the city of Wayne by a single mother. Especially passionate about public healthcare, Layla became a health analyst after studying global health at the University of Michigan and receiving her Masters of Public Health at Columbia. After serving as Program Director for Congresswoman Rashida Talib, Layla took the big step of running for public office. Having received endorsements from Talib, DSA and a who’s who of other progressive groups, she is running against Peter Herzberg in District 25.

Confronting DTE

Taha’s campaign centers around a few key issues. One of the most important is holding “DTE accountable.” DTE energy is of course one of the economic and political giants in Michigan. In the past legislative session over 93% of legislators in Lansing accepted donations from DTE at some point in their careers. This obviously gives the company an enormous amount of pull, which it has used to insulate itself from accountability and responsibility. And well it should, given a failure to reinvest in infrastructure has contributed to consistent blackouts during the not-exactly unexpected bad Michigan weather year round. This is in spite of billion dollar profits.

Layla is committed to following fellow Democratic Socialist Dylan Wegela’s precedent by pushing back against the influence of DTE money in Michigan politics. This has included committing to not taking any money from the mega-corp. In the long run she wants to establish public energy utility to provide cheap energy to people in Michigan. But in the short term she wants DTE to compensate residents for food and wages lost during power outages, and to pay them by the hour when the power goes out. These are good, common sense solutions. American politics may be acrimoniously partisan at the moment. But most of us would agree that energy prices are too high, and that the last thing we need is for money to have more of an influence on state politics.

Healthcare for All

In defiance of economic common sense which holds you should only pay more to get more United States has long been an exceptional country in paying far more to support a private health system that provides far less. This kind of mystical thinking about healthcare has long been pushed by politicians in both parties. As a consequence of this approach suffered while insurance countries rake in tens of billions and Americans pay more for health than any other country in the world. The impact has been dire. The Legatum Institute, a free market think tank, recently ranked the US 69 th on a list of worldwide health systems. Right between Armenia and Algeria. No wonder life expectancy has been declining.

As you might expect from someone with an extensive educational and professional background in healthcare, Layla is pissed about this and isn’t taking it lying down. She has proudly and rightly insisted that healthcare is a human right that people should be provided at point of service regardless of income or location. No exceptions. Layla wants to increase funding for hospitals and offer incentives for doctors to accept Medicaid patients. But more importantly she is pushing for the establishment of a single payer system within the state, which would make deductibles extinct and ensure all Michiganders would be able to get the healthcare they need.

This is an ambitious but realistic idea whose time came long ago, and its well past the point where it should be implemented. Across the river from Detroit in Canada all Canadians receive public healthcare provided by the provincial governments and subsidized by Ottawa. Despite many provincial systems experiencing underfunding by conservative governments, Canada’s health system is still ranked far higher than the US’. Not coincidentally life expectancy is also higher and costs are lower. Michiganders deserve quality healthcare as much as Canadians, and we need more candidates like Layla who are willing to push for such commonsense policies.

Conclusion

Martin Luther King once said “call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth in this country for all God’s children.” Dr. King was absolutely right, and it is a great tragedy that 50 years after his death we’ve moved further rather than closer to his dream. The consequence has been declining faith in basic institutions, corroding public trust, and the dark specter of rising authoritarianism and racism threatening once more. People need to believe that something better is not only possible, but necessary.

Democratic socialists running for office like Layla Taha are breaking a glass ceiling by offering the people of Michigan, and Americans everywhere, a better alternative than the centrist condescension of reactionary radicalism that have been par for the course for decades now. She is committed to fighting corporate power to advance democracy while delivering better health outcomes for citizens. If there’s any justice in the world by this time next year she’ll be in Lansing.

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities!

--

--

The Detroit Socialist
The Detroit Socialist

Published in The Detroit Socialist

The newspaper of the Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America

Detroit Democratic Socialists of America
Detroit Democratic Socialists of America

Written by Detroit Democratic Socialists of America

The Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, join us: http://www.metrodetroitdsa.com

No responses yet