In life it is important to concentrate on what is crucial, not just what is desirable. In politics it is important to concentrate on what is essential, not just what is well-intentioned or good.
Today in America we have just lost 600,000 people as a result of a totally incompetently run healthcare system. One of the key reasons that we lost so many people is that alone among the modern states of the world America does not have either national health insurance or national paid sick leave.
In America, we have a philosophy of get rich and get killed. And get killed worked very effectively. It killed hundreds of thousands of American citizens in the past year.
Now in light of this, one might assume that the so-called progressives in America would be up in arms. One might assume that the so-called progressives in America would demand healthcare as a right as it is in every other modern state. One might assume that this would be the number one demand of the progressive community but that is not the case. We are having a series of multi-trillion dollar bills starting with the so-called stimulus of earlier this year that do not provide Health Care As of right. Senator Bernie Sanders has come up with a 3 trillion dollar plan that also does not deal with health care as a right. Instead, it is a confused hodgepodge of programs from Biden's confused American Families Plan. Now some Progressives say vote for this as a down payment. This is totally twisted and ridiculous thinking and really pretty evil thinking. Here's why: if this is passed as a substitute, it will use up the financial energy and the political energy needed for genuine national health insurance. Another aspect of the Biden Sanders plan is that it does not provide a penny of student debt relief and by voting for this thing, you are using up money that could be used for that. Since the Biden Sanders plan is not a solution it should be rejected outright or it should be modified to meet at a minimum the criteria of providing healthcare as a right. This is not only a moral goal. It is a national security goal. Everyone who is an expert on health care knows that national health insurance is essential to prevent future epidemics and so on and so forth.
A vote for the Biden Sanders plan in isolation is going to legitimize killing far more Americans since it will continue the current lethal system, a system no other major country would tolerate for a minute. There's no way to pretty that up and fairy tale statements like "We're going to do it later" just don't cut it.
The main priority should be the main priority: keeping Americans alive. That should be the main priority of the progressive community today.