This is the year, and it begins with the calling out the opposition
Posted on March 9th, 2009 by Jason Rosenbaum in Take Action!
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Last week, Richard Kirsch sat down with movement progressive, former Clinton White House aide, historian, and author Mike Lux for a conversation about his new book, The Progressive Revolution:
I've read Mike's book (and reviewed it here), and I agree with his analysis. We have the infrastructure, the money, and the momentum behind real health care reform, more than we've had for a generation. The time is ripe for a big change moment, and if we can build this movement for health care, we can make it and many other progressive reforms happen.
Of course, the opposition will be fierce, as Mike writes:
Momentum is building again on health care reform after being set back by the Daschle blow-up. But everyone should be really clear about this: this is going to be a major fight. All those health care industry types professing their support of Obama's agenda did the same thing at this stage of the Clinton fight in 1993-94, and they turned on us viciously. There will be blood in the streets on this issue before we're through, but hopefully we can still fight our way to the finish line.
The battle lines are indeed being drawn, but as Mike points out, the insurance industry is still paying lip service to reform. Tomorrow in Washington, DC, we're calling them out.
Followers of this blog know Health Care for America Now has been bird-dogging America's Health Insurance Plans, the main insurance industry lobby and front group, as they traveled around the country on their sham "listening tour" promoting the lie that they are for real health care reform. Tomorrow, AHIP is having a conference on "health care reform" in Washington, DC. Health Care for America Now's national office, which rarely gets to do fun stuff like this, will be out in force.
So, if you're in DC, come by the Ritz-Carlton tomorrow at 11 am and help us (along with a broad coalition of supporters, from unions to MoveOn.org to grassroots single-payer advocates) send the message that we can't trust the insurance industry with health care reform.
And then head over to Facebook and invite your DC-based friends.
We'll see you tomorrow! And I'll have tons of pictures and video from the event to post here afterwards.