"Health Care Reform", a letter to a comrade

By Hamadi Walls

At Town Hall meetings across the country democrats are reeling from a concerted, well organized and increasingly militant attack by republican partisans and other right wing malcontents who are targeting the Obama Administration’s so called “Health Care Reform” legislation pending before Congress. These Town Hall meeting were Initially organized by the democrats to help push their version of a Health Care plan though Congress, but were hijacked by republicans who encouraged right wing extremists to sabotage those efforts. The Obama administration is now calling for their supporters who originally included single payer health insurance advocates, who they marginalized and excluded from the Health Care Reform debate,.to come to their defense in combating this latest opposition to their legislative agenda on Health Care Reform.

In this context, I wrote a letter to Glen Ford, Executive Director, of The Black Agenda Report, a very progressive internet magazine. Mr. Ford has aggressively taken Obama and his administration to task for their broken promises, distortions and misrepresentations since the election last Fall. This letter is in response to an interview on KPFA on friday, August 7 , in which Glen Ford commented on the situation now facing Obama and his “Health Care Reform” initiatives.

The letter reads as follows:
I listened to you this afternoon on KPFA, listener supported radio in Oakland California and I must say I was a bit surprised and somewhat disappointed at your narrow interpretation of the events surrounding the behavior of Republican supporters and an assortment of hooligans and anarchists who have besieged the so called, “Town Hall Meetings” and exploited the media‘s unquenchable taste for sensationalism. While I heard your critique of the Republican Party and its reactionary history in support of right wing extremists and white supremacist, I did not hear a critique of the Democratic Party which shares a common history and ultimately a common bond with these obstructionists, as part of the oppressive arm of imperialism. While the democrat’s complicity is not as clear in this particular instance, they should not be allowed to escape scrutiny for their role in formulating a flawed strategic plan on Health Care Reform in the first place.

I believe that our critique of bourgeois Democratic politics, under whatever circumstances must always include a critique of the major players who make up the heartbeat of an oppressive and reactionary social and political system, and that includes both democrats and republicans, or any other formation which operates under the umbrella of finance capital, period.

Some on the left or so called “progressives” are acting as if they have some sort of obligation to come to the aid of the Obama administration in their attempt to salvage the ill conceived and aberrant “Health Care reform” legislation that restricts coverage, rather than extends it, and further subsidizes the Insurance industry, despite the democrats proclamations to the contrary. By taking this position. progressives are in danger of abrogating their responsibility to speak out on the need to push for true Health Care reform legislation, like a single payer system. This is not to say we should not oppose those who want no plan at all, and leave the Health Care of the American people to the shenanigans of Private Insurers. However, if the right kind of plan does not emerge, it might be just as well that we have no plan at all, and come back to fight another day.

If we allow the public to view our response to these incendiary tactics by a group of goons, and misguided rebel rousers as supporting Obama and his administration’s Health care legislation, then we may have set back the cause of real and meaningful Health care reform for many decades. Our response to the mobs that have hijacked these meetings must include our own Health Reform agenda and not a submission to the agenda of the Obama administration. We can’t let these events obscure what the real debate around health care reform is all about , and that is a fully funded affordable health care system for every American, universal coverage for all medical conditions, and the access to the most technologically advanced and life saving procedures availabable, and unfettered protection against abuse, through a single payer system. Our support or accommodation of anything less is a total negation of our responsibility as a progressive and revolutionary alternative to the status quo

I was also disappointed that you did not mention the hypocrisy of the Obama Administration in their present attitude toward the insurance industry as the villain in the Health care debate, when they so assiduously courted the favor of the industry and succumbed too many of its demands in writing the present version of the Health care reform legislation, like scaling back the public option from 130 million Americans to less than 10 million. I am convinced that our opposition to the Obama plan and the obstructionists is a very important position for the political left to undertake and for the public to understand , if we are to command any kind of legitimacy among those whose support and solidarity we seek. However, I did not hear anything on this broadcast from the so called left or “progressives” forces that injected this crucial perspective into the conversation.

Again, why should we come to the aid of the Obama administration now that they need us, when they have rejected and excluded single payer advocates from the Health Reform debate from the very start?

Just as with the election of Obama, black people and others appear to be prepared to place our own agenda on hold to support someone who has never really championed the causes for which we portend to espouse, and which are in our best interest. It also seems we are poised once again to take the position of supporting the lesser of two evils, a bankrupt strategy which has retarded the growth, influence and advancement of a truly progressive agenda for fundamental change for a very long time. Instead of acting as if the Obama administration are victims in this debacle, we should seize the opportunity to expose the system for what it is, and rekindle our efforts to push for a single payer Health care solution.

We must remain clear and focused. I am a frequent visitor to your website and a strong supporter of the fresh perspectives from many of my comrades of a “progressive “or political left persuasion. I have been greatly inspired by your commentary. I consider your site as a beacon of hope for those who are about fundamental change and unwilling to compromise the ideas and values which represent that change. I call upon you to be resolute and not deviate from what you know is the truth and not submit to expediency or opportunism, which I have faith you will not.
Peace
In solidarity
Your brother
hamadi

You can access the Black Agenda Report Website, by placing the address
http://www.blackagendareport.com,
In your browser.