Maybe Not Tomorrow, But..
Via Greg Sargent, Ezra Klein highlights a bit of polling on Medicare right after it passed:
After Lyndon Johnson was elected, a Harris poll found only a minority, 46%, supported a Federal plan to extend health care to the aged. Today, of course, Medicare is overwhelmingly popular.
What matters less, I think, is when that 46% grew to the vastly larger amount of support the program enjoys 55 years later, when it paid off politically. And the fact is you cannot know when it will (could anyone have predicted the political circumstances that would allow the party opposing universal healthcare to invoke Medicare?) What matters is that the reforming party ruled by conviction despite the polling. As Sargent noted, the health agenda of Johnson’s predecessor was shot down, and opinion held the proposal in low regard (sound familiar?). But leadership drove it through anyway, and their party still reaps the benefit of being favored by the public on economic and domestic issues.
What that means for Democrats, then, is if you hold Democratic values, passing the bill is the right thing to do and ultimately the best thing to do. Because the political climate tomorrow is uncertain anyway, because the long-term outlook favors reformers, and because hell, if you’re won’t do what you were elected to do, there’s no sense in electing you anyway.
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