The Nation
Washington, DC
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/460147/hcan_turns_up_the_heat
In 2007, USAction Executive Director Jeff Blum and Richard Kirsch, then-Director of Citizen Action of New York, were tossing around the idea of how best to advance the fight for quality affordable healthcare for everyone. They reached a simple conclusion.
“If we could bring a wide array of progressive forces together,” Blum says, “progressives would be able to compete with the deep-pockets and insider lobbyists on the right.”
That realization, combined with vast coalition building experience among the key players and a set of principles all could agree on, led to the creation of Health Care for America Now (HCAN)–the largest single-issue progressive coalition in modern American history. This August, with the battle over healthcare reform raging, the success of HCAN will be a determining factor in whether we get a progressive bill–a robust public option and a progressive tax to pay for it–out of Congress.
While the mainstream media is focused on the spectacle/disruption/mob mentality of the right, and also wrongly suggesting that it reflects the will ofthe people, HCAN is waging its fight through a coalition of over 1000, in 46 states, representing 30 million people. Aside from the campaign’s founder, USAction, the coalition includes:
SEIU
AFSCME
MoveOn
NAACP
National Council of La Raza
ACORN
AFL-CIO
and Campaign for America’s Future
And contrary to what we’re getting from most of the cable news reports, progressives are already out-organizing and outnumbering the right in plenty of events across the country. (Examples here and here.)
“We are coast to coast and throughout the Heartland,” says USAction Communications Director David Elliot. “This is hand-to-hand combat, in the trenches, congressional district to congressional district.”
HCAN is targeting Blue Dogs and other swing districts, organizing activists for town meetings, door-to-door canvasses (including this Saturday, August 8), phone banks, rallies, press conferences, and other events. The hope is that when they hold “send-off rallies” before members return to Congress, they will have succeeded in sending a resounding message on exactly what constituents want.
“We’ve got to out-organize [the right],” Blum says. “And we are. They are unloading gazillions of dollars and we’ll never have that kind of money. But we don’t need it if we are actually promoting something that is good for people, and which has been tested through political fights at the state and national level over many years.”
You can find HCAN events by supplying a zip code, or giving a zip code and an e-mail address which will then be forwarded to the lead HCAN organization in that state. This allows HCAN to not only get in touch with you about upcoming events and volunteer needs, but also loops you in with a group that is going to continue waging fights when this healthcare battle is done and HCAN is no more. That is key to strengthening the progressive infrastructure as we move forward on issues at both the state and national level.
“There has never been a campaign that is built so broadly through existing, big community organizations,” Blum says. “So everything we do has a greater chance to leave in place progressive power on the ground –whether in Green Bay, or Fargo, or Bangor–places that are not the normal places of progressive strength.
While many single-payer advocates are disillusioned that the best solution to our shoddy, profiteering healthcare system was never even on the table, Blum agrees with The Nation‘s Washington correspondent John Nichols–and Nation editorials–that these advocates are vital to the August fight for reform.
“To my single-payer friends what I would say is find a way to be in this fight now,” Blum says. “If people can’t bring themselves to [support a House-like bill], then they should take their legitimate anger, and they should go after the insurance companies…[and] members in the pocket of insurance companies, educate the public through their own public forums about what we need, but they should not sit it out. Because this is our chance to transform the healthcare system. We are not getting this chance again in the foreseeable future.” (Nichols suggests single-payer folks track the work of Physicians for a National Health Program and California Nurses Association. He also points out that the push for single-payer heightens the chances for a more progressive–rather than a severely diluted– bill.)
Even the best-case scenario for this bill will leave much to be desired and the fight will continue. Nevertheless, this is a fight we have to win. And clearly the people will have to lead–not follow–President Obama on this. (Witness the White House’s disturbing deal with Big Pharma.)
“American history has brief periods of progressive progress and relatively long periods of stasis or even reaction,” Blum says. “In those brief periods we’ve transformed America–that was the New Deal, that was Reconstruction, that was the Progressive Era, that was the Civil Rights Era. If we win on healthcare, we do two things: we dramatically move millions of Americans over the next few years to believe that their government can work for them. That is huge. That is the essence of what progressives need to do. And, politically, we’re strong enough to then potentially win on many other things.”
Don’t be fooled by the images you see on too many of those cable shows. Progressives are in every district, organized, and in this fight. Get involved now.
