Gore: Progressive ideas 'gaining ground' among Democrats

[Trial_By_Fire]

TheHill:

Former Vice President Al Gore believes Democrats are becoming more willing to embrace progressive ideas on issues such as climate change and healthcare.

"I do think progressive viewpoints are gaining ground in the Democratic Party — I’ve supported single-payer for 15 years now, and we are seeing a big change across the board," Gore said Thursday during a SiriusXM/Variety Magazine town hall.

"If you look at state government and state politics and local politics, the change is more pronounced there.”
Gore doubled down this week on the need for single-payer healthcare amid the Senate Republicans' trouble coalescing around a plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare. He had previously signaled support for the policy in 2002 but didn't include it in his 2000 presidential platform.

Over the past few months, Democrats have been more open to the single-payer approach that’s long been pushed by the more progressive pockets of the party. Single-payer healthcare was one of the main campaign platforms for Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) Democratic presidential bid in 2016, and his allies continue to tout it.


<more> http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/342970-gore-progressive-ideas-gaining-ground-among-democrats

I hope that this is the direction of the Dem Party. We will win more and more local/state/federal seats if we adopted and promote progressive/liberal FDR-like policies.

Time to embrace our heritage of being 'the party of the people'.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. And if Gore had not had his election stolen by W and team , as it was,

the odds are very likely he would NOT have gotten single payer.

Might not have even tried, because Al knows how the system works and how long it takes to get there.

Most democrats I know support single payer, which has little to do with whether or not it is politically feasible right now.

Oh wait, right there in the copy/paste

He had previously signaled support for the policy in 2002 but didn't include it in his 2000 presidential platform.

And yet the argument I heard a lot was how a certain someone didnt support this, oh wait, I cant talk about that.

Shit. I dont know what to do anymore.

I know, demand your candidate support this or threaten to not vote or vote 3rd party, lets see if that works THIS TIME.

[Trial_By_Fire]

2. I believe Gore's message is "time to get on board with progressive solutions'...

...now and not later.

[Kathy M]

22. +1

[Kathy M]

3. Have to disagreee a bit ...... Healthcare whether you cal it universal or

single payer or medicare , medicaid is not a progressive issue nor is it a left or right or if some want to refer hard right issue . This conversation has been around for over 70 years ......... How do you think Medicare and Medicaid came about ? It is the result of a compromise when congress would not agree to universal , Yes Johnson signed medicare / medicaid into law with Truman at the table .

"This past July 30, we celebrated the 49th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid. Readers of this column will recall it was on that date in 1965 when President Lyndon Baines Johnson formally signed these two programs into law in Independence, Missouri, as former president Harry S. Truman and his steadfast wife, Bess, looked on with pride. As LBJ handed “Give ‘Em Hell Harry” and Bess the pens he used to affix his signature to the document, the President proclaimed Mr. Truman as “the real daddy of Medicare.”

"Harry S Truman, bw half-length photo portrait, facing front, 1945" by Edmonston Studio - The Library of Congress, http://loc.gov. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons -

President Harry S. Truman proposed a universal health care program in 1945. Photo by Edmonston Studio — The Library of Congress
Today marks the reason why LBJ bestowed such presidential credit to Harry Truman.

Back in 1945 — a mere seven months into a presidency he inherited from Franklin D. Roosevelt — Truman proposed a “universal” national health insurance program. In his remarks to Congress, he declared, “Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection.”

"69 years ago, President Truman outlined five critical goals of national health. "

"His measured and careful description of the plan merits quoting:

“Under the plan I suggest, our people would continue to get medical and hospital services just as they do now — on the basis of their own voluntary decisions and choices. Our doctors and hospitals would continue to deal with disease with the same professional freedom as now. There would, however, be this all-important difference: whether or not patients get the services they need would not depend on how much they can afford to pay at the time…None of this is really new. The American people are the most insurance-minded people in the world. They will not be frightened off from health insurance because some people have misnamed it ‘socialized medicine.’ I repeat — what I am recommending is not socialized medicine. Socialized medicine means that all doctors work as employees of government. The American people want no such system. No such system is here proposed.”

The rest of article http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/november-19-1945-harry-truman-calls-national-health-insurance-program/

so yeah I am glad Sanders is kept this subject alive ..... Yes I voted Gore in 2000, if anyone is going to try a second run at presidency he may be in god position

[leftstreet]

4. Good points

Even Nixon wanted a Guaranteed Basic Income

[Kathy M]

23. Thats right ..... thanks for reminding

[Trial_By_Fire]

6. Good to know history. But today...

...it appears that today only progressives/liberals embrace single-payer/Medicare for All...

[Kathy M]

15. Agree .... Guess I should have written this topic should not be one party or another.....

All parties should be for it . I like the last part I copied its Trumans own words especially the part about doctors and government .

Wonder what special interests have held this back over the years ........

Yes , you are correct it seems today only progressives are for medicare for all or universal . If I remember correctly the start of bringing up and talking about universal healthcare did start with FDR and Truman continued .

[Me.]

20. Excellent Post

And a very relevant history lesson.

[WoonTars]

5. I hope so. Clearly the centrist appeasement approach hasn't worked.

...

[Trial_By_Fire]

19. Agreed.

"The middle of the road (centrists) is for yellow lines and dead armadillos" - Jim Hightower

And, just because I think it is a great quote:
"The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow". Jim Hightower

[La Lioness Priyanka]

7. it's really funny to see the so called left bring up Gore to bolster their argument

when they killed him with the same arguments that they used against Hillary and all other democrats.

[workinclasszero]

8. Ironic huh?

[Trial_By_Fire]

9. 'it's really funny to see the so called left bring up Gore to bolster their argument'

Seems you are making a baseless claim and a personal attack against me.

I am a progressive/liberal/FDR Dem - not 'so called left'.


Not cool...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. i dont know you, it wasn't a personal attack.

i have been seeing a strange resurgence of Gore threads, in a way i find ironic.

not cool to be so sensitive either.

[WoonTars]

25. You have to know someone to make a personal attack?

Perhaps you're the one being 'so sensitive'....

[H2O Man]

14. Correct.

I've posted information from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s "Journals" here several times over the years. It wasn't the "so-called left" that did harm to Gore in 2000. It was the establishment Democrats, who believed that four years of Bush would be no big thing.

[Kathy M]

24. +1

[WoonTars]

26. Thank you...Gore's problem was that he ran away from the Clinton record...

....and picked Joe Fucking Lieberman as his running mate.

It had fuck all to with the "left"...

[leftstreet]

11. Gore lost because he ran as a centrist

He pivoted left (where he probably always wanted to run) too, too late

You're right tho. His choice to do that meant he endured the same scorn from the leftier side of the party

Goes around...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. They lied about him in 2000 and they lied about her in 2016

I'd trust them more if they weren't such liars

[R B Garr]

16. Exactly, it was the lies. Vile lies, and now

that he might be useful to a Senator who ran 16 years behind him, he's all of a sudden a super credible source and no longer has Corporations/Establishment same-as-the-Republicans cooties.

[betsuni]

18. +1

[ismnotwasm]

32. Yup

Pathetic really

[WoonTars]

27. What lies did "they" make about Gore?

...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

29. That he was in any way equivalent to bush

That there wasn't oceans of difference between them

[WoonTars]

30. Who on "the left" said that?

I know Nader and his nutcase followers said something similar, but he's not "on the left"..

[Trial_By_Fire]

34. Don't expect an answer...

Some here have only one thing to talk about and cannot back up
posts with citations...

[R B Garr]

37. Absurd. A whole election campaign was run.

An Independent is a known spoiler. This is just common knowledge. Nader ran against Gore and Bush. And Nader lied about Gore.

No need to pat yourself on the back because people aren't going to run down "quotes" about an entire election.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

40. You want me to find quotes from 17 years ago?

When all of us knew that's what the Nader campaign was doing?

[BannonsLiver]

33. That's exactly what happened

I lived it and remember vividly having conversations with people during that campaign about it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

39. Yup. People denying it now are also lying

[JI7]

36. The other result of this was believing Bush isn't so bad if he is like Gore

So the non partisan types who can go either way thought it would be ok to vote bush since it's time for a change in party while getting someone who isn't so different.

[R B Garr]

17. Agreed. And now labeling people is bad, except for corporatists

neoliberal third way names .

This irony is really really thick!

[WoonTars]

28. Like calling people 'Bernie bros'? Cute little labels like that?

[R B Garr]

35. Sigh. The post I responded to expressed offense,

which works both ways. It seems to be okay to label but not okay the other way.

[pirateshipdude]

21. Talking about the two issues, Healthcare (Clinton), Climate change (Gore).

I think this whole Op to prove some point is odd.

[H2O Man]

13. Recommended.

[ornotna]

31. Al Gore is a rock solid Democrat

I can get behind what he's saying.

[Trial_By_Fire]

38. It's very telling how this thread was hijacked and degraded to Gore's 2000 election...

Gore spoke of how 'progressive viewpoints are gaining ground in the Democratic Party'.

Just a reminder - progressive values and issues are backed by a majority of Americans... do your own internet search...

[George II]

41. Just about everyone I know, progressives or Democrats, even some republicans....

...feels that "single payer" is best but most admit that it's impractical to implement at this time.

As to your last point, if the Democratic Party candidates have been losing to opposing candidates who to the right of them, how can we win more local/state/federal seats if we adopt policies that are even further left?

FDR won the Presidency 85 years ago in completely different times and under unprecedented economic and global conditions. As much as I consider him one of the greatest presidents we ever had, I seriously doubt that he'd be able to get elected today.