The Speech Yet To Be Given

Michael Lind writes a proposed speech for President Obama on health care, that might turn this thing around:

"My fellow Americans, we say that healthcare is a right of all citizens.
The other party says that it is a privilege for those who can afford it. If you
agree with them that healthcare is a privilege, not a right, then vote for them.
We would like to persuade you to join us, but if we can't, then we are going to
defeat you.

"Decades ago our opponents tried to block Social Security and Medicare,
using the same bogus arguments that they are using today against healthcare
reform. They said Social Security and Medicare would bankrupt the country. They
were wrong. Once we fix the cost inflation of our broken medical sector, with
some minor tweaks Social Security and Medicare can be made solvent
forever.

"Decades ago, our opponents said that Social Security and Medicare
would turn the United States into a fascist or communist police state. They were
wrong then and they are wrong now. And not only are they wrong, they are
hypocritical. Many of our opponents who claim absurdly that universal healthcare
will bring tyranny to the U.S. have defended some of the greatest assaults on
civil liberties and the rule of law in American history during the previous
administration.

"They can draw a Hitler mustache on me. They can draw a mustache on the
Mona Lisa, for all I care. They are wrong and we are going to defeat them.

"We won the elections and we are the majority. We would like to build
the biggest consensus possible, but progress is more important than consensus.
Our job is to help the American people, not split the difference between right
and wrong by giving a veto to the party that the American people have
rejected.

"In this fight, as in earlier struggles, powerful interests are
opposed to the needs of the people. In the 19th century, we the people defeated
the Southern slave owners, freed the slaves and saved the nation. In the 20th
century, while fighting alongside many other nations to save the world from
militarism and totalitarianism, we the people here at home tamed the
corporations for a generation and fought segregation based on race, gender and,
more recently, sexual orientation.

"Today the campaign for affordable healthcare as a right, not a
privilege, is opposed by powerful interests in the medical and insurance
industries. They seek to deceive and confuse you. And they seek to bribe or
intimidate your elected representatives into serving their will rather than the
needs of the public.

"They may win this battle. They may win the next. But we will never
stop fighting for the needs of the many against the greed of the few. For more
than 200 years, from the time we threw off the tyranny of the British empire and
established our republic, we have worked to realize the spirit of '76 on this
continent and in the world beyond. The enemies of progress have money on their
side. We have history on ours."