When it comes to off-year elections, Democrats will never face a bigger one than 2014, if you’re going to get American democracy and liberty back on track for this century — and hopefully, beyond. If you let the downbeat spinmeisters of big media keep you home, the GOP and Tea Party win.
You’ve worked with President Obama to score a huge populist triumph in the Affordable Care Act, setting the nation on the road to universal health coverage. This election will be a bloody test of whether you now can give it unbreakable legs.
You can’t quibble. Kingmakers in the cable media are counting on you to do just that. So are the Republicans, who have all their eggs stacked in the basket of lies and falsehoods they count on to force its repeal. Never have they had bigger money on their side.
This makes it a supreme test of liberty itself. In this day of medical miracles, reasonable access to quality care is as meaningful to both workers and families as the Bill of Rights and the pursuit of happiness. Without it, happiness can be no more certain than a game of cards.
Democrats, you hold the winning hand in this election: history is on your side, and so is the Constitution. You must ride both hard. We are dedicated as a nation by the Constitution to Securing the Blessings of Liberty, paramount among them Justice and our general Welfare.
Democrats will never have a better, more resounding slogan than the Preamble of the Constitution. Without universal access to advanced health care, WeThePeople will have neither Justice nor the general Welfare.
Run hard on this focus, and you can win. Don’t be caught in running against Republicans or the Tea Party. You are running against the enemies of liberty, and they’ve never been plainer to see: greed, corporate power, terrorism, racism, and the broken rule of law.
Yes, racism is the card Republican leadership have been playing since President Obama’s first day in office. It’s twin is the war on women. Every Republican candidate must be confronted on these issues. None should stand free of their Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, and his claim from the first day the Obama presidency that his first duty was to defeat anything and everything the first black president pursued, and to defeat his reelection. The Republican Caucus in the House made a similar pledge, before his Inauguration, and why the media have made so little of this House chicanery is a riddle that quite plainly refutes the GOP relentless rant of chronic liberal bias in the media. It may be the oldest joke in American politics since conservatives own the vast majority of media outlets.
The issues likely to decide the 2014 election are turning the Democrats’ way. They’ve put President Obama in the White House twice; their duty now is to stay at his back. Numbers on the Affordable Care Act have exceeded the first big target, more than 8 million already enrolled. We are now in the family of progressive nations that know health care is the cornerstone of economic competitiveness. Any Democrat who is still shy about the ACA is a fool. The numbers guarantee that it’s here to stay, burying the old exceptions for too much cost or preexisting conditions, while making the insurance industry competitive at more than outrageous executive bonuses. It’s a true sweetener of the Bill of Rights.
True Democrats relish this opportunity to back the Commander in Chief to the completion of his historic presidency, and to make it yet more historic. It’s an opportunity to shovel more dirt on the ugliest trait of our national character: racism.
Enduring expansion of health care has already made it historic. Presidents as far back as Truman and Eisenhower openly wished for guaranteed health care for all. All the more remarkable that the first black president should finally open the door.
If Democrats can turn out record off-year numbers, they can brighten his chances of bringing about the equally relished dream of immigration reform — which in a just world would earn him a place on Mount Rushmore.
Women hold the key. So they’ve enjoyed the right to vote for 90 years, they are still sold short on equal protection. Very short. Choice is not the only place. Why is the establishment still getting away with unequal pay for women for the same work men are doing? It’s kin to racism, keeping women and minorities living by the same music and the same organ-grinder, whose identity is all too plain – the One Percent!
They must not be tricked into skipping their duty in November. They are in ascendency on the big issues — minimum wage, equal pay, health insurance, unemployment protection, choice. Clearly the Republicans want none of this. Just take the word of Bill O’Reilly, the old Fox who keeps spreading confusion in the hen-house.
If women get out in November and vote their interests they can brighten the chances that corporate power will not erase liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the middle class for good. If they turn this corner in November, the 21st century may yet become the Century of the Woman. And, in the process, they can settle the debt of keeping the president’s back, for having elected him twice, at the same time ensuring that health insurance is a competitive choice for all, and that the minimum wage is a living wage. If it isn’t, oligarchy will be our future for sure, and the light we see in the Statue of Liberty’s hand will dim, dim, dim.
Indeed, Democrats, 2014 is no ordinary off-year election.
Frank Mensel — May 2014