A Path to Medicare For All

A post I wrote for All in For Warren:

So it finally came out, and of course the flying monkeys have already swarmed. Some of the arguments aren't worth addressing: "See? I told you she was never gonna do it." - as if spending months and utilizing a vast amount of expertise to come up with an incredibly detailed Potemkin plan is somehow easier than just saying you're against MfA (see: Biden, Joe; Pete, Mayor). However, I have been seeing a recurring complaint that seems to be made in good faith, and is worth addressing. This argument is that a bold, sweeping action is better than incrementalism - that it's better to do it all in one fell swoop than piecemeal. I understand the impulse, but America has rarely progressed that way.

In 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation (a fancy word for Executive Order). It freed "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States," except in Louisiana, "the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans," and in Virginia, "the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth." It was widely derided in the north as less than a half measure. It freed slaves in precisely the places where, in that moment, Lincoln wasn't able to enforce it. It left people enslaved in the loyal states of Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia, as well as parts of the rebel states that had been retaken. Lincoln's reasoning was that pro-Union sentiment was fragile. If he took bold, sweeping action- beyond, you know, actually suppressing a rebellion- the loyal states that still retained slavery would leave and fight on the side of the rebellion, and the union would be dissolved. In addition, the south was already making noise about invading Mexico and parts of South and Central America, in order to spread slavery. However, the rebels knew exactly what he was doing. With that proclamation, he took a massive amount of unpaid labor away from the front lines. Enslaved people escaped in droves. He made it morally impossible for Britain- hugely dependent on southern cotton- to influence the war on behalf of the south. It also prepared the way for him to subtly shift from a war for the union, to a war for a nation "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,' with a government "of the people, by the people and for the people." Then, when he had the chance, in 1865, he made sure, by every means at his disposal, legal and extralegal, that the 13th Amendment would be ratified before the rebel states surrendered and had a chance to block it. Even then, after four bloody years, it was very close.

Universal suffrage, civil rights, marriage equality, labor rights... progress in America is a hard, muddy, often bloody slog, with advancements sometimes decades apart. Universal healthcare has been attempted for over seventy years. Each step of the way has been attacked hysterically. In the sixties a washed up "B" actor launched his political career with hysterical pronouncements on the death of freedom because Democrats wanted poor people to have healthcare. Bill Clinton's presidency almost ended before it began when Hillary Clinton tried to achieve universal healthcare - a promise he ran on. Elizabeth Warren has a plan. It's a plan that works. It's a plan that long before we actually reach true universality, alleviates a great deal of suffering, and brings relief to the vast majority of Americans. It's the right plan. It can be done, but not by her alone. We all have to pitch in. https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/m4a-transition