As a political science teacher for twenty five years, I argued that the mainstream media was not systematically biased against progressives.
I was wrong. But I’m still not sure what the problem is.. I don’t know if it is the economic interests of publishers—which I still kind of doubt is important; or the fact that political reporters have a vested interest in making politicians and citizens seem even more divided than they really; are or whether the habitual skepticism of reporters makes them focus more on the likelihood of failure than the possibility of success. And maybe all of these factors are exacerbated because political reporters really only have the time to understand the gross politics of issues rather than the details of politics or policy.
But for one or another of these reasons, most of the news reports about health care reform in the mainstream media, and certainly in the Philadelphia Inquirer, have been unwarrantedly negative or selectively misleading about the prospects for health care reform. .
The latest examples in the Washington press is the utter inability of the mainstream media to understand the difference between doing health care reform through reconciliation and fixing the Senate bill through reconciliation.
At the Inquirer, things have been a little better, but not much. The paper has consistently given the misleading impression that there is a national uprising against the Obama plan.
When the tea baggers came out to the Constitution Center, last summer, the Inquirer reported that the audience was split between supporters and opponents of health care reform. In fact, three quarter of the people the room supported health care reform, only we were so surprised by the nastiness of the opponents that we were quieter.
When the tea baggers came out to Senator Specter’s first two town halls, the Inquirer reported that there was an uprising against health care reform. When supporters of health care outnumbered opponents in 35 of 40 Congressional or Senatorial town halls in August and September, the Inquirer was silent about all but one, and the report on Congressman Sestak’s event in Philadelphia gave the impression that there was significant opposition to reform when only about 10 out of 800 people stood with the tea baggers.
And, of course, of the five big rallies we have done on health care reform with over 400 people in Philadelphia, the Inquirer covered only two, and then with small reports and a picture buried in the B section.
Today, Tom Fitzgerald reports that President Obama is in Montgomery County because “the latest polls suggest many independents are skeptical of a health-care overhaul.”
This is factually true but, nonetheless misleading.
For, the latest poll, the only one take after the health care summit on the 25th, shows that Independents favor the legislation 43-41. (http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm). Moreover, these numbers poll and others one taken on the issue conflate opponents from the right and from the left.
And when you dig a little deeper into the numbers, it turns out that of all of those who oppose it the legislation, 37% say it does not go far enough, which certainly means that a much larger plurality of independents want this plan or something stronger to pass. And that’s the relevant number both in terms of the politics of Congress and the politics of the 2010 election.
Senator McConnell keeps saying that Democrats are going to pay a price for supporting health care reform. But if a lot of the opposition to the President’s plan comes from the left, as it does, then McConnell is blowing smoke. No one who wants the President’s proposal to be stronger than it is will vote for a Republican.
The real worry is that Democratic progressives won’t vote at all if we don’t pass health care reform. But in the Inquirer’s best analysis of health care date, Dick Polman pointed out yesterday that this is exactly why Democrats have to pass the bill and then spend the time between March and November pointing out all the good things in the bill, including the good things that start this year, such as regulations on insurance companies that prohibit them from denying people coverage or charging them more if they have pre-existing conditions.
Of course, let’s give the Inquirer some credit. Their report on the event was better than that of the York Daily News which in an AP article reports that 200 tea baggers were protesting health care reform outside the event. No mention of the fifty of so supporters of the legislation outside—or the 2000 supporters inside.
Addendum: Maybe I spoke too soon. The updated article says that 200 tea baggers turned out to oppose the health care bill but “a smaller group” turned out to support the President. Smaller group? What about the 1800 or 2000 in the hall who chanted before the event for health care reform and applauded the President repeatedly during it?
Addendum 2: And now the same AP story that appeared on the York Daily News is appearing on the Inky site. We have had 200 people out at events in the greater Philadelphia area eight or ten times during the campaign and most of the time those events weren’t newsworthy according to the Inquirer. Don’t the editors know that it’s harder to get people to come to an event when the President isn’t there than when he is?
Mon, March 8 2010 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Sun, March 7 2010 » About me » No Comments
Sun, February 28 2010 » About me » No Comments
There has never been a time in the fifty four years of my life when political action is more important and can have a greater impact on our future. That’s why I’m marching to Washington today and urging you to take join Melanie’s March To the Finish Line.
Before I became a full time political organizer three years ago, I taught political philosophy and American politics for twenty five years.
Like most people trained in philosophy and the political and social sciences, I’ve always been somewhat dubious about the ability of people to bend history. Most of the time, I believe, the forces that shape history overwhelm what we do as individuals. That’s true for Presidents and Congressional leaders. And it’s even more true for citizens.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t act politically. Historical forces act through us But, for most of my life, as someone who was an activist in the interstices of my intellectual work, I have not believed that I have helped shape events. Rather, I believe I have played my part in a drama that I did write. And for much of my life, since the late 1970s, I’ve not been happy about who or what forces wrote the political drama of our collective life in America. While we have made progress in some areas in the last thirty years—in moving toward sexual equality, in expanding opportunities for racial minorities, and in the growing acceptance of people in the LGBT community. But in most respects, and certainly with regard to growing inequality of economic opportunity in America, the last thirty years have been a time of retreat and disappointment.
In the last few years it has seemed that new historical forces had arisen and that a new dramatist would write the script for the next ten or twenty years of our common life.
I believe that still to be true. But even more importantly, I believe that what you and I do in the next few days and weeks will determine who and what forces will write the political drama of the next era in American history.
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Mon, February 22 2010 » Health Care, National, Progressive Politics » No Comments
I’m not getting as much time on Melanie’s March, our march from Philadelphia to Washington, DC for health care as I would like. I’m driving back to Philadelphia in the evening so that I can spend late nights and early mornings with a fast computer and internet connection that enables me to edit video, update this website and stay in contact with all the wonderful people who are organizing events down the line for us. I’m getting back to the March mid-day or sometimes later and only getting a few miles in.
But I’m there enough to know how hard the march is physically both because of the mileage and, especially on the first three days, because sidewalks were so often snow covered.
So, last night, as I had dinner with the marchers I kept thinking about how important they are to the health care campaign and how heroic they are for taking this task on. And I wondered about the source of their heroism.
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Sun, February 21 2010 » A political memoir, Health Care, Uncategorized » No Comments
Sun, February 21 2010 » About me » No Comments
Sun, February 14 2010 » About me » No Comments
A group of Pennsylvanians are Marching from Philadelphia to Washington, DC between February 17 and 24 in honor of Melanie Shouse. This is why.
Recently, our friend, Melanie Shouse lost a long battle with breast cancer after missing out on critical treatment because she, like thousands of others, could not find affordable health insurance.
Melanie did everything she could to fight for health care, not just for herself, but for all of us. President Obama, who knew Melanie as a volunteer on his campaign, said: “She was fighting that whole time not just to get me elected, not even to get herself health insurance, but because she understood that there were others coming behind her who were going to find themselves in the same situation and she didn’t want somebody else going through that same thing.” It was a long road for Melanie, but she never gave up.
A lot of us are frustrated that, after mobilizing for over a year to reform health care, rein in Wall Street, create good jobs, win workers’ rights, and combat global warming, we are still waiting for the change we voted for. But we’re not giving up either. A group of Pennsylvanians, some with health care issues of their own, decided to march 135 miles from Philadelphia to Washington in honor of Melanie, carrying her message to the Members of Congress who need to hear it the most.
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Sat, February 13 2010 » Health Care » No Comments
The fight for health care reform is continuing. Join us at two events as we ratchet up our campaign to enact health care reform in the next two months.
A major rally in Philadelphia at a place still to be determined in Center City on Wednesday, February 17 at 12:00 noon. Click here to RSVP.
March to the Finish Line, a march of health care activists from Philadelphia to Washington beginning at the rally and ending up in at the Capitol on Wednesday, February 24th right before President Obama’s health care summit. Click here to sign up for any part of the march.
Why are we marching to Washington? To show our leaders that they have lost touch with us.
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Mon, February 8 2010 » Health Care » No Comments
Sun, February 7 2010 » About me » No Comments
Sun, January 31 2010 » About me » No Comments
Last night you heard President Obama say that we have to pass health care reform this year. Reports today that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid are working on a plan to move the reform legislation through Congress.
I know that many of you are disappointed and angry that we have not yet succeeded. I am, too.
But I taught and studied American politics for many years before I became an activist, and I know that what we have seen in the 19 month long fight for health care reform is the usual course our politics takes on the most important questions.
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Thu, January 28 2010 » Health Care, National, Progressive Politics » No Comments
To the woman who has me looped.
Brown Penny
I whispered, ‘I am too young,’
And then, ‘I am old enough’;
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
‘Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.’
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.
W. B. Yeats
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made.”
Immanuel Kant
I’ve loved this poem for a long time. But it was only a few years ago that I think I got it, when I noticed that the first line of the second stanza is probably a reference to the famous line of Immanuel Kant.
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Thu, January 28 2010 » Language, Love, Philosophy » 1 Comment
Sun, January 24 2010 » About me » No Comments
The National Moment
In my previous post, I said that there is still a way forward to health care reform that is good if not great.
Having said all that, there is no question that after Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey statewide elections, after a decline in Obama’s popular support and in the Congressional poll numbers (where the Democrats are in a dead heat with Republicans, ten points below where they were a year ago), we Democrats are not doing as well right now as we were a year ago.
Why not?
There are two leading theories, which lead to two radically different conclusions about what Obama should do now.
The right is saying that Obama overreached and is trying to force major changes, and especially health care reform, on a country that did not elect him for that purpose.
The left is saying that Obama has compromise too much and has allowed the right to capture the anger against big business and insurance companies by not supporting tougher regulations against securities companies and single payer health care.
There is something correct about both arguments. But, by and large, I think the conclusions their proponents come to are mistaken.
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Tue, January 19 2010 » Health Care » 6 Comments