Rosenberg, Paul (2017, September 17). Salon.

Those who claim we have to stick with incremental, “common-sense” measures are living in the political past

“Medicare for All” is an idea whose time has finally come — at least conceptually, which is more than half the battle. When Sen. Bernie Sanders announced his “Medicare for All” plan last week, he had 16 Senate co-sponsors, compared to exactly none when he proposed a similar bill in 2011. That’s a third of the Senate Democrats, and more importantly, it included several perceived contenders for the 2020 nomination, such as Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

…Yet there was immediate pushback, and not just from Republicans, as might be expected. The story headlines alone tell the tale of peril — “How Single-Payer Health Care Could Trip Up Democrats,” by Margot Sanger-Katz at the New York Times, “‘Medicare for All’ will be a trap for Democrats if they’re not careful,” by Josh Barro at Business Insider — or folly — “The Single-Payer Insanity,” by Bill Scher at Politico, “Bernie Sanders’s Bill Gets America Zero Percent Closer to Single Payer,” by Jonathan Chait at New York magazine. These knee-jerk responses are all in the name of realism, of course, but it’s more like the “crackpot realism” derided decades ago by C. Wright Mills. The reality it refers to is falling apart all around them, as the underlying assumptions have simply ceased to hold.

What’s now emerging is a clearer-than-ever divide between those still buying into existing politics — even those with undeniable progressive instincts and values — and those who want and demand fundamental change.

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