WSJ: It's Time to Give Voters the Liberalism They Want

[Omaha Steve]

I can't believe this is in the Jounal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122705706314639537.html

* NOVEMBER 18, 2008, 11:30 P.M. ET

It's Time to Give Voters the Liberalism They Want
Don't believe pundits who say there's a centrist mandate.

It is possible, I suppose, that the pundits are right and the public didn't really mean it when it elected a liberal Democrat president and gave Democrats even larger majorities in both houses of Congress. Maybe America really wants the same nice, reassuring, centrist thing as always.

But it is also possible that, for once, the public weighed the big issues and gave a clear verdict on the great economic questions of the last few decades. It is likely that we really do want universal health care and some measure of wealth-spreading, and even would like to see it become easier to organize a union in the workplace, however misguided such ideas may seem to the nation's institutions of higher carping.

That was the sense I got when I met last week with officers of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Their mood was optimistic -- as well it should be, since labor unions spent some $450 million during the 2008 races, orchestrated massive voter outreach, and saw their candidates triumph.

What is coming, they believe, is not triangulation redux. This was, SEIU President Andy Stern told me, "a clear election not on small things." Mr. Obama "talked about what people wanted to hear about," as opposed to the culture wars. "We've redefined the center," Mr. Stern said. "Universal health care is now centrist."

Near the top of labor's agenda is the Employee Free Choice Act, a.k.a. "card check," the legislation that will make it easier for workers to form a union by signing cards instead of by secret ballot in the workplace. Mr. Obama was a co-sponsor of last year's version of the card-check bill and has vowed to sign it when it is finally passed by the incoming Congress.

Business interests, on the other hand, spent many millions in 2008 trying to make card check a liability for Democratic senate candidates. The strategy failed, and now they are gearing up in Washington for the coming confrontation, which one Chamber of Commerce official has already dubbed "Armageddon."

FULL article at link.

[Demeter]

1. Did the WSJ Wear a Black Border?

Or discreetly post a going-out-of-business advertisement?

[Cleita]

2. Seems like one of their editors slipped that in while

Rupert Murdoch was having a nap.

[tblue]

3. Come on! This was published by The Onion, right?

I hope Obama reads this.

[Skwmom]

4. Is the Universal health care going to have clinics in Walmart so the

have-nots get substandard care? What's the catch?

Unless it's structured right, universal health care could end up a big give away to the insurance companies like the prescription drug program was to the drug companies.

[pokercat999]

6. Universal health care does not have to mean or be implemented

through insurance. We have a perfect model in the US Army.

[walktall7]

7. Indeed

Have the federal government take it over from the insurance companies and run it more efficiently with more complete coverage.

[elleng]

5. By THOMAS FRANK

.

[liberalla]

9. Thomas Frank!

is GREAT! Thanks for posting.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. K&R

[robinlynne]

10. I wish Obama knew that. I don't think he does.

[dkofos]

11. Looks like somebody at the WSJ woke up.

[Raksha]

12. "Universal health care is now centrist."

WOW!!! I didn't know how long I've been waiting to hear those words, until I saw them in this excerpt just now.

Universal health care is now centrist.

Did you hear that, DLC? Can you wrap your tiny triangulating brains around it? Better get used to the idea, because IT'S TRUE!!!