--- On Wed, 6/3/09, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Baucus to Meet with Single-Payer Advocates
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 7:28 PM
> Michael Pollak wrote:
> >
> >
> > This is guy is a study in how little public opinion
> matters on this
> > issue.
>
> Or on any other issue - until the public opinion takes to
> the streets -
> continuously and in not too orderly a fashion.
>
> That is the reason that a _serious_ movement concentrates
> on reaching
> and raising the level of activity of those already on its
> side, rather
> than on fussing around trying to 'persuade' public
> opinion.
>
[WS:] I do not there is a shred of historical evidence that social programs - in this country and elsewhere - were enacted as a result of social movement, let alone street protest. In most cases, they were brought by reformers in the government itself. This is true even of countries that have much stronger labor movement and pro-labor politics, e.g. Sweden (H. Heclo, _Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden_ New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1974.)
The problem in the US is not just the insurance companies, but the entire political system, especially the bipartisan monopoly and the enormous power of the judiciary that is on balance more sympathetic to business interests than to public goods.
I do not think we are going to have any health reform worth its name in our life time for the very same reason we have not had one for the past 605 or so years - the political and judiciary establishment will simply kill any attempt to seriously change the status quo. Baucus is just the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Public opinion or even protest will not change that as it has not done so during the past 65 years. That is a pretty safe bet.
Wojtek