Subject: [big campaign] New Huff Post from Creamer- Vote Transforms Political Landscape
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:01:59 EDT
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House Health Care Vote Transforms the Political  Landscape 

We wake up this morning  surrounded by a new political world. 
The House vote approving health care reform was without doubt the most  
significant congressional vote in the last four decades.  That’s because it 
completely transformed  the American political landscape. It certainly changed 
America’s health  care system.  But it altered the  balance of political 
power in America as well. 
* Fundamental Reform. The  House vote, together with the work the Senate 
will finish this week, will  provide health insurance to 32 million Americans, 
rein in the power of the  private insurance industry and end the terror 
that if you lose your job and get  a serious illness you will no longer be able 
to get insurance. It will  ultimately help stop tens of thousands of 
preventable deaths each year that are  caused by the condition known as “no 
insurance.”  
* It brought us into the company  of every other industrial nation by 
establishing that from this day forward in  America – health care is no longer a 
privilege or a commodity but a  right. 
* In the two-century-long battle  between progressive and conservative 
values in our country, last night’s victory  was momentous.  Progressive values  
now define the fundamental frame of reference for a massive new sector of 
our  economy: health care.  After  President Bush’s victory in 2004, the 
forces advocating conservative, social  Darwinist values tried to take back the 
territory they had lost in the 1930’s by  attempting to privatize Social 
Security.  Progressives defeated their efforts – and began to push them back.   
Barack Obama’s  victory in 2008 was like the Normandy invasion – the 
beginning of a  forceful progressive counter-offensive.  Today we have secured a 
whole new massive chunk of real estate.  
I do not mean “government control” – far from it.  I mean that the terms 
defining the  distribution of health care in America will no longer be 
exclusively  based on the interests of huge private insurance companies.  Instead 
they will be defined by the  fundamental understanding that health care is a 
human right.  
As the late Senator Kennedy wrote to President Obama before he died, what  
was at stake in the health care battle was not “the details of policy, but 
the  character of our country.” 
The exact structures of the health care reform bill may be modified – and  
I hope expanded -- to include a robust public option.  But the progressive 
value premise has  been established and I do not believe it can be rolled 
back. 
Before the Republicans execute their plan to run this fall on a “repeal  
the bill” platform, they should take a look at the fate of Alf Landon and the  
Republicans who, in 1936, ran on the platform of repealing Social Security. 
They  lost big.  In fact by the time the  Republicans finally retook the 
White House (16 years later) with Dwight  Eisenhower no Republican candidate 
uttered a word about “repealing” a program  that had long sense become 
massively popular.  
* This victory has validated  President Obama’s commitment to making 
serious change.  He came into office promising real,  transformative change and he 
has delivered it. He proved that he – and  America – can make big change – 
 address truly fundamental issues.  
Many pundits had  argued that he bit off more than he could chew.  They had 
said that he should be  satisfied with “small change” – shouldn’t tackle 
so many things at once –  shouldn’t challenge the interests of so many 
powerful sectors of the American  economy. Suddenly his Administration, and the 
forces that surround it, look a  lot smarter than it did two days ago, when 
the dominant media chatter was about  who was to blame for allowing the 
Obama Presidency to be stuck in the mud.  Obama accomplished something that had  
eluded Presidents for a century – not bad. 
* With this victory the entire  narrative of the Obama presidency has 
changed.  Health care reform has repeatedly been  declared moribund – completely 
dead after the Scott Brown election in Massachusetts.  Obama has brought 
health care back –  like a phoenix -- from the dead.  He  did it through 
absolute persistence and clear, unflappable leadership – the same  kind of 
leadership he and his organization exhibited when they were repeatedly  counted out 
during the Presidential race.   
He also demonstrated nerves of steel.  He bet the political ranch on health 
 care reform and won.  
* Last night’s vote demonstrated  to the American voters that government 
can work.  It has been a central Republican goal  for years to show that 
government doesn’t work.  Of course the incompetence of the Bush  Administration 
helped validate their premise.  But since the election of a Democrat to  the 
White House they have had one key goal: gridlock.  The lock has been  
broken. 
* Our victory demonstrated that a special  interest as wealthy as the 
private insurance industry can in fact be  defeated.  The insurance  companies 
and Chamber of Commerce have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to  stop 
health care reform cold. They lied, they distorted the facts, they  
threatened.   They have failed.  That will embolden Democrats – and  average Americans 
– to challenge the power of Wall Street and the Oil Companies,  to 
challenge the power of every other special interest that seeks to promote  their 
private interest at the expense of the public interest. 
* The House vote shows that hope  can defeat fear.  The entire  campaign of 
the health insurance industry and the Right has been built on a  foundation 
of fear – from death panels, to “government takeover,” to “socialized  
medicine,” to bogus “cuts” in Medicare.  Hope won. That has enormous 
implications  for issues like immigration reform. 
* The health care victory was a  tribute to political courage – the courage 
of Barack Obama who bet his  Presidency on the outcome – and the courage of 
many House Democrats who took,  what they feared would be an unpopular 
vote.   
In fact, I would argue, that by Election Day, there will be very few  
districts where a vote for health care reform is unpopular.  But I would also 
argue, that this fall  we will see clear evidence that courage  itself is very 
popular.  
Willingness to stand up for what you believe – and unwillingness to be  
swayed by political winds – is good politics. People love candidates who are 
not  what they conceive as “typical politicians”  that always have their 
fingers in the air  or decide what they believe based on the latest poll.  
The fact that  many Members stood up tall – took on the insurance industry –
 and refused to be  intimidated – is itself a great political narrative for 
Democratic candidates  this fall.  
And I predict that we will also  learn the opposite is also true.  The 
Democrats who decided to oppose health care reform because of  political 
pressure – particularly those that voted yes the first time health  care reform was 
considered by the House  – will be in deep political trouble.  
The flip-floppers will find that they will gain nothing with the hard  core 
opponents of reform, their base will be demobilized, and the flip-flop  
charge itself will move independent voters to oppose them. Very  dumb. 
* Last night’s victory shows that  great organizing works.  Credit  goes to 
the millions of members of Organize for America (OFA), MoveOn.org, the  
major health care reform coalition, Health Care for America Now (HCAN), U.S.  
Action, the Center for Community Change, the American Federation of State 
County  and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), The Service Employees International 
Union  (SEIU), the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association, the Center 
for  Community Change, Americans United for Change, The Communications Workers 
of  America (CWA), AARP, the Alliance of Retired Americans, the NAACP, the 
National  Council of La Raza, the National Women’s Law Center, Planned 
Parenthood, the  Center for American Progress, Progress Now, Families USA – and 
scores of other  grassroots organizations.  
These are real organizations – not the creations of “astro-turf” lobby  
firms like Dick Armey’s “Freedom Works.”   
Credit especially goes to organized labor – the bedrock of the  progressive 
forces in America – without which victory was  not even remotely possible –
 as well as progressive funders like Atlantic  Philanthropies.  
The campaign conducted by the pro-reform forces included everything from  
phone calls, to grassroots action, to earned media, to lobby visits to 
Congress,  to TV commercials.  In many respects  it was a model – to be built and 
improved upon in the future. Though we were  outgunned financially by the 
infinitely deep pockets of insurance industry, we  won. 
And ultimately victory also depended entirely on a tough, eloquent  
President to provide the leadership necessary to win. 
The end game was particularly masterful.  One commentator noted that the 
President  had the Republicans for lunch when he spoke at their own retreat – 
and he had a  seven hour banquet at the “bi-partisan” summit.  He used the 
power of the Presidency to  enormous effect to place the Republicans on the 
defense. 
The rallies, the self confidence, and the sense of inevitability that he  
and Speaker Pelosi brought to the last several weeks – coupled with brilliant 
 one-on-one work with Members of Congress and co-ordination with 
Administration  allies sealed the deal.  
* Perhaps the biggest political  winner of last night’s victory was House 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  She showed once again that she is the  best political 
organizer in America.  She aggregated the self-interests of  hundreds of 
individual members.  She  navigated the dangerous shoals of dozens of 
contentious, divisive issues.  She hammered together the votes to win  largely out of 
her own force of will.  For her, failure was not an  option. 
Her organizing skill was  complemented by the enormous but understated 
talents of Senate Majority Leader  Harry Reid who convinced his caucus that a 
reconciliation bill to  incorporate the negotiated agreement with the House 
was the only way to get  health care moved.  Reid delivered  what the House 
needed – the agreement of 51 Senators to pass the reconciliation  bill.   Reid 
will finish his  part of the drama this week and – as a by-product -- 
massively improve his own  prospects for re-election this fall. 
* Finally, this victory will  invigorate the base of the Democratic Party 
and greatly improve the chances of  victory for all Democrats this fall.  Let’
s remember that Democrats lost control of the House in 1994 because  
Democrats didn’t come out and vote after the failure of health care reform  
earlier that year.  Last night’s  victory will have precisely the opposite effect. 
   
Not only that, but voters like to  support winners.  Last night the  
Democrats in Congress, President Obama and the progressive forces in  America won 
big.  The Progressive band wagon has been  freed from the mud and is moving 
once again. It will attract more and more  followers as we get closer to the 
Election Day.   
There was another big loser last  night -- the “chattering class” of 
pundits.  Turned out that health care, the Obama  Presidency, and the progressive 
movement weren’t so dead after  all. 

Robert Creamer is a long-time  political organizer and strategist, and 
author of the recent book:  Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can  Win, 
available on _Amazon.com._ 
(http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Your-Mother-Straight-Progressives/dp/0979585295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213241439&sr=8-1)

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