The Democrats are Craven Opportunists, and Too Spineless to Even Be Good At It
Why We Must, Once and For All, Abandon the Party Which Has Discarded Us
The American Health Care Act was passed in the House of Representatives today — the 4th of May, 2017 — by a congressional right-wing still freshly galvanized by its victory in November. This plan, otherwise known as the AHCA, seeks to be a replacement for the Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare,” as Rush Limbaugh popularized) which was passed early in President Obama’s first term and fought constantly by obstructionist Republicans into the present day.
Today, those Republicans got their wish.
While a few ACA provisions are supposed to stay — perhaps most notably the portion which allows children and adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26 — many more, like the section regarding people not being turned away for pre-existing conditions, will now be long gone. Millions of people will now potentially be without care.
What is almost more infuriating is that no one is reported to have read the bill. But more irksome still was the smug, limp, self-satisfied response from the Democrats which has been reported just about everywhere as of this evening.
This, to the Democrats, is what passes for a victory these days. The alleged justification behind the song-and-dance was a celebration of the possibility of the Republicans now being replaced in congress in 2018 due to the unpopularity of the bill. What strikes me about this gesture is how unbelievably tone-deaf it is.
Because while the House Democrats are content to joke and sing their pitiful refrains about “Dangerous Donny Drumpf,” to talk endlessly about missing tax returns, to invent imagined Russian subterfuge, or whatever the fuck — people are going to be losing vital coverage. People are going to be losing access to care, and those who can get it will at-best be forced into making GoFundMe pages; praying that their personality and popularity can keep them alive. Women’s health services — which were already under attack in multiple states — look to be in more danger than ever.
But the Democrats? Hey, they’re sending a message!
House Democrats made it abundantly clear today that their seats, their positions, and their “strategy” is more important than the actual lives and livelihoods of their constituents. Adding further insult to this, after the vote, when a reporter asked Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) whether single-payer healthcare should be a Democratic priority for 2018, she flatly said “No, I don’t [think so].”
Even with all of the performative outrage, the Democrats have chosen to do what they do best — nothing. If it weren’t obvious to you before today, I don’t know what clearer sign there could’ve been. The Democrats won’t help you, they do not care about you. The Democrats Do Not Care About Anything Other Than Optics.
So where to go now for anyone left of a “center” that remains drifting ever-further right to “reach across the aisle” to the immovable object that is the GOP? Some might suggest PSL, many more yet the ever-growing DSA, and others still may suggest — perhaps correctly — just running into the street and smashing every bank window. Were I a Progressive Democrat who was (correctly) feeling neglected by the party that I thought was mine, I would absolutely look into the DSA. There are new chapters popping up all the time, across the entire country. It all seems so hopeful, like something might finally happen.
But then I think to myself, “if DSA are serious about affecting the kind of change that many on the left truly want, they ought to be running a candidate from every single branch for 2018!” I think of the beauty of the novelty of only just a few DSA-affiliated candidates winning congressional seats, to the consternation of the GOP and derision of the Democrats. Anything is worth trying to turn back the tide, and any person thinking of themselves as “progressive” or “left” needs to leave these centrist ghouls in the dust. And, right now, the DSA is the best bet for 2018.
Then again, I don’t know if we have that much time.
— Marvin Kuzia is a freelance producer in Cleveland, Ohio. They can be found on twitter @zupzles
