Hayes began by observing that Kushner's film Lincoln, which focuses on the pragmatic machinations of the Great Emancipator, changed his own progressive purist view of the deal-making that went into passage of the Affordable Care Act. 'I'm a supporter of the Affordable Care Act, 'he said, 'and I think the outcome is really going to increase the net life joy of human beings in the country.'
On the other hand, Hayes added, 'there was something about the way in which that process unfolded that ultimately tainted my judgment of the final product,' but that 'watching the story of how the 13th Amendment was passed, in which there are essentially just a bunch of hacks bribing congressmen, made me think, 'Well, I guess you can sort of separate means from ends.'
Hayes' attitude about the Affordable Care Act was shared by many liberals, myself included, but in hindsight, the front-loading of negotiations with health insurers and pharmaceutical companies may have been what allowed health care reform to get the wind in its sails necessary to push it, by inches, to passage. Leaving things like the Public Option and drug price negotiations on the table might well have acted like chocks on the act's landing gear, preventing it from ever getting rolling.
The allegorical link to Lincoln's portrayal of abolition is solid and crystal clear, but toward the end, Hayes amusingly felt the need to disclaim his segment by saying 'Let me just also say, for the record, that the 13th amendment is a much, much, much bigger deal than the Affordable Care Act. Lest anyone think i'm equating the two.'
It was amusing, first, because Hayes is probably right, there are probably people waiting to jump on any little thing he says in order to twist it into something sensational (where such creatures exist, I cannot begin to say), but also because the incessant ref-working of the internet seems to have made Hayes step a little too far back from what is a rich illustration of health care reform's importance.
Hayes is essentially correct that there is no apples-to-apples comparison to be made between the Affordable Care Act and the end of slavery (although the ACA does address disparities that persist from our racially divided past), especially in terms of not only the fundamental barbarism and injustice involved, but the ways in which they respectively changed, and can be expected to change, the course of history. However, there are ways in which the comparison illustrates the rightness of heath car reform, and the ways in which history will judge its opponents.
Much of the way mainstream America views slavery and racial injustice is filtered through a lens of mainstream (read: white) cultural self-forgiveness that mitigates things like racist cartoons and discriminatory policies, which takes the form of phrases like 'Well, it was the times.'
The truth is that the barbarism and injustice of slavery was obvious to a great many people for a very long time before it was ended, and when we look back on that time, we wonder how any human being could justify enslaving other human beings, even as we pat ourselves on the back for eventually ending the practice. We look back now and wonder how it could not have been obvious to our founders that 'all men are created equal,' not to mention the women. Presumably, we're a more enlightened people.
But it's the 21st century now, and the Affordable Care Act is just the first step (albeit a monumental one) in recognizing the barbarism of letting our fellow citizens die for no better reason than fealty to an unjust status quo that weighs their lives against corporate profits. It goes beyond merely letting people die because they're poor, although that's a big part of it. Even people with reasonable means, under certain circumstances, can find themselves out of luck, and out of life, under the pre-Obamacare system.
To whatever degree we should have advanced in the 150 years since slavery, shouldn't this injustice be more obvious to a presumably less primitive people? To the extent that slavery-era Americans knew better, or should have, aren't present-day Americans more guilty of knowing better, and not acting? Yes, we managed to pass the Affordable Care Act by the skin of our teeth, but in this allegory, it's only a first step, an Affordable Emancipation Proclamation, that will still leave some to fall through the cracks. The 13th Amendment was a much, much biger deal than the Affordable Care Act, but maybe not a much, much, much bigger deal. We should have learned more, since then, than we have.
Here's the clip, from Up With Chris Hayes:
Follow Tommy Christopher (@TommyXtopher) on Twitter.
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i would have to agree that ending slavery is a bigger effing deal
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Yes, because TC would never jump on any little thing and try to sensationalize it'too funny'and true nothing like the government forcing people to do something'great isn't libbies
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Now the doctors will be the slaves.
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This illustrates what I've commented here many, many times, being that the certainly the best, and maybe the ONLY, truly qualified journalist among the Mediaite post provocateurs (a term justified by what we all now know about Mediaite management's expectations of it's employed posters) is Tommy Christopher.
TC here crystallizes some of the same reactions I had to this, well, truly fabulous edition of UP! this morning (from which, if there's justice and sense in this country, Don Berwick should become some of a pop hero on the level of Nate Silver), and tries to resolve others. The fact is that slavery was a huge controversy right from the start of the country, but got parked, and thereafter tolerated, for decades given the prime directive in establishing the republic was simply ensuring it didn't die prematurely. Thus, the 13th Amendment can't be viewed as the product of something that just burbled up in the national consciousness coincident with the rise of Abe Lincoln as a national political figure; instead, it had gone between periods of simmering and periods of furious boiling for the entire 'four score' that preceded that rise ' and indeed that very rise was because without such a truly odd, quirky, impenetrable personality as Lincoln had, it just wasn't going to get done; that is, the TIMES created the opening for 'a Lincoln'.
And TC's implication is that Chris Hayes backed off from carrying on with this analogy, even while carrying on is really inviting. Lincoln was identified with abolition from the start, but his PLATFORM, what got him elected president, was preservation of the union, and the record strongly suggests that was HIS prime directive all along (that is, he saw the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment as fundamentally justified by them being necessary to preserving the union). As for the comparison, Obama didn't start out in 2006 aiming towards national health care reform ' he started out on a PLATFORM of opposition to the continued prosecution of the Iraq War, and only found himself embroiled in committing to the idea of national health care reform simply because he was running for the Democratic party nomination and standing in his path was Hillary Clinton, a candidate whose brand was then SYNONYMOUS with national health care reform.
The second parallel is that it was just as necessary for Lincoln to be re-elected to a second term, short as it was, or else emancipation would die prematurely, as it this year has been necessary for Obama to be re-elected to a second term, else the ACA ' what appears likely to be known to history as Obamacare ' else IT TOO faced an unacceptably high risk of dying prematurely.
And one could keep on going with these parallels quite a lot further, in the same vein as TC has suggested: that a national health care system such as Obamacare will become is a necessary feature of full citizenship and part of the American social contract, along with the 13th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Nonsense: doctors, in and out of hospitals, are going to end up in the short and medium runs at least, as being the main drivers of where Obamacare will end up.
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Who are you agreeing with? Not Tommy, and not the panel on UP!
You appear to be agreeing with a preconceived notion and a pre-fixed set of memes from the Rubepublican side. I actually doubt you bothered to watch the clip, and even more strongly doubt you bothered to watch the full UP! show today. Do your brain a favor: go watch it.
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You got a funny idea of 'force compulsion': the people vote in a president and Congress, that Congress passes a law, the Senate votes in favor of it, that president signs it into law, and the Supreme Court, of which only 2 of the 9 judges were appointed by that president and confirmed by the Senate, upholds all but one piece of it as consistent with the Constitution.
That's the American democratic republic at work, bub.
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You think?
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Chris Hayes has a tendency to say things that are just fatuously crude and infuriating he really needs to stop and have some common sense.
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Obviously the passage of the 13th amendment was more important than the Affordable Care Act. Obama would have never become President if the 13th amendment had not been passed, and given all the trouble previous presidents have had in tackling history over the years, we more than likely would not have health care had it not been for President Obama.
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Obviously the passage of the 13th amendment was more important than the Affordable Care Act. Obama would have never become President if the 13th amendment had not been passed, and given all the trouble previous presidents have had in tackling health care over the years, we more than likely would not have health care had it not been for President Obama.
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Chris Hedges, the Hayes program was less than two hours ago. I am quite impressed, sir.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
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What did he say here that was wrong?
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It's interesting, because the movie takes the position that the ends justify the means. It depicts Lincoln and his lackeys lying, bribing and blackmailing to get the votes necessary to end slavery. Since we now all know that slavery is wrong, it's an easy call to make. The problem is, everyone thinks their particular cause is morally just and can look to this movie as a justification for doing anything in service of their goal.
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