The New Americans

From this side of the Atlantic it is difficult to understand why so many Americans, including members of the Republican Party, refuse to accept a public health system. Any European policy that would adopt a similar position, equivalent to dismantling state-run medicine, would be doomed to marginalization. To categorize them as in the extreme right position, as sometimes is done, does not explain anything, because it is evident that the Republican Party is not on the extreme right, nor are more than half the Americans: Thinking like this, we must accept that many Americans accuse us Europeans (and not just the socialists … ) of being extreme leftists. The new law has also radically confronted Republicans and Democrats alike. There has been no consensus, nor an effort to reach one, as there was when Johnson promoted his great social reform legislation. The clash was frontal and historic, which partly explains the situation. In order to meet all the expectations he had set for himself, Obama had to pass health care reform. And conversely, the Republicans could not pass up the opportunity to try to undermine the prestige of the Democratic administration.

It is also true that the approved reform does not meet the ambitious expectations that the Democratic sector, including Obama, had placed within it. They wanted to do what Johnson did in the ‘60s and Roosevelt in the ‘30s: establish universal health care coverage (the famous “public choice”) that would generate a new social majority, which in turn would guarantee a Democratic majority for decades. From this perspective, Obama’s calculation came crashing down when he had to take out the “public choice” option. In the narrow Democratic victory these days, despite all the smiles, is a chill of frustration that helps explain the vigor with which Republicans have opposed it. Moreover, in the November elections, Democrats may pay dearly for his victory today.

Meanwhile, however, the situation may change. The new law introduces substantial changes in an area that demanded reforms. Those currently insured will become holders of a right, the right to health care supported by public funds and managed by the government. It’s probable that they will end up voting for whoever assured them health care coverage, and so the others end up wondering why they do not enjoy those same rights. Although not as quickly as intended, Democrats have begun to change American society and new demands have emerged to which they must respond … From another perspective, it is yet to be seen how they will achieve all of this at a time when the economy in which we live is challenging the size of government. Nor is it known whether the Europeans, happy with the trans-Atlantic reconciliation, will agree that the great democratic potential follows the European example of engaging in taking care of one’s own, instead of caring about the freedom of others.