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[From remarks at a town hall meeting]
Now, why not do a full-emancipation system? (Applause.) Got the little emancipation advocates up here. (Applause.) All right. For those of you who don’t know, a full-emancipation system is like — Frederick Douglass is sort of an example of full emancipation, but it’s only for ex-slaves in places like Massachusetts, and the way it works is, the idea is that you don’t have owners. The government sees to it directly — (applause).
If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a full-emancipation system could very well make sense. That’s the kind of system that you have in most industrialized countries around the world.
The only problem is that we’re not starting from scratch. We have historically a tradition of slavery. And although there are a lot of people who are not satisfied with it, the truth is, you’ve got this system that’s already in place. We don’t want a huge disruption as we go into freedom reform where suddenly we’re trying to completely reinvent one-sixth of the economy.
So what I’ve said is, let’s set up a system where if you’re happy with your master, you don’t have to change anything — nothing changes. If you’re highly unsatisfied with your master, then let’s give you choices, let’s give you options, including a freedom plan that you could enroll in and sign up for. That’s been my proposal. (Applause.)
[From an address to a physician group]
Let me address an illegitimate concern that’s being put forward by those who are claiming that an emancipation option is somehow a Trojan horse for full emancipation. I’ll be honest; there are countries where full emancipation works pretty well. But I believe — and I’ve taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief — that it’s important for our reform efforts to build on our traditions here in the United States. So when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about a complete end to slavery, know this: They’re not telling the truth. (Applause.)
What I am trying to do — and what an emancipation option will help do — is put affordable freedom within reach for millions of slaves.
18 Comments
Links to originals here and here.
He’s no Jack Kennedy either
Struggles for National Health Care: John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden
youtube at link
http://www.care2.com/news/member/434996229/648183
Thanks, John, I’ll check that out. Been meaning also to listen to this debate from the same period, between union leader Walter Reuther and an AMA representative.
Ralphbon, tks. for this; Obama is continually bringing up this ‘historical’ crap and what you wrote is exactly what I have been trying to point out about his speeches on healthcare. It’s just like his re-writing of history about Lincoln building the transcontinental rail system during the civil war.
Rec’d.
WOW.
wow is right. brilliant ralphbon. thank you.
ralphbon, pure fucking brilliant.
Pretty funny in exposing the vacillations of Barak “sudden admirer of Republican policies” Obama.
However, I read Sandburg’s biography of Lincoln over the previous winter, and the beginnings of his policy also looked fairly weak and conservative to ardent abolitionists — and again similar to Barack, Abraham campaigned on just such a centrist, go-slow platform in gaining the Republican nomination and the Presidency. I forget all the details, yet Lincoln was definitely not an abolitionist and resisted abolitionist efforts through ‘61 and ‘62, and his conversion to the policy that resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation in May ‘63 was driven by perceived events, and came a surprise to most people. Even in the Proclamation, there was some special issue with certain parishes in Northern Louisiana where there was some pro-Union constituency that had to be appeased.
We have to be the events that drive Barack to real reform and single payer !! For example, call your Senator and ask him or her to introduce Conyers’ HR 676 single payer bill in the Senate! My senator’s staffer the other day on the phone gave me some boilerplate that “Merkeley (D-OR) has said he supports single-payer” and I asked if Merkeley would introduce 676 in the Senate. The staffer audibly gulped and said it was being discussed, giving me a great chance to dive in (following Ed Schultz’s great presentation) and say “we found the votes for you when you needed them last October and November, you had better find the votes to support the people who need and want real change, like the 28 Oregon unions that have endorsed single payer.” Those of you with ties to the Beaver state, please press Merkeley on this !!
ralphbon, I enjoyed this and your other posts and couldn’t agree more that we need a serious change.
That said, Lincoln’s approach could fairly be said to be gradualist.
Emancipation was to liberate people.
Single-payer taxes everyone.
No similarity at all.
“Emancipation” in this current health reform debate would be more like enacting a tax on the health care/insurance industry and forcing them to pay for all the uninsured to Liberate them from being locked out of having care.
Your rhetoric is symbolic and attractive, but backwards.
Agreed with Ron. When Lincoln entered office, the last thing he wanted to do was free the slaves. His presidency is actually a textbook exhibit in how a president can be pushed into doing what he doesn’t want to do by external pressures or events.
Thanks, PCR and others who raise the point that Lincoln was in fact reluctant and gradualist. I was wondering whether anyone would bring that up.
My intention was to create a stark, shaming polemic, but in fact there’s a deeper, and possibly heartening, concordance between Lincoln’s initial stance on slavery and Obama’s current position on health care financing. Abolitionists started off as the DFHs of their day; Lincoln initially hoped they could be contained but ultimately couldn’t escape the nagging fact that they were right, on the merits. Emancipation was inevitable, even if it was off the table at the start and even though — with a historical twist or two — Lincoln might not have been the one to implement it.
The necessity and rectitude of purging profit from health care financing has a comparable force of merit. All the rest (including MarkH’s excessive parsing) is commentary.
ralphbon, are you still planning on writing the diary you mentioned a few days ago? don’t mean to pressure you, but am very interested in knowing your thoughts re the political situation.
Thanks for asking. Yes, I’ve started it, although the chaos and disarray in mainstream Democratic efforts, which have blindsided even this cynic, are coloring my thoughts in ways I haven’t fully sorted out. I’m hoping a long bike ride, during a break in the rain, will help clear my head.
excellent, i’m so glad to know you are cogitating.
i really thought we were going to get offered a crappy designed-to-fail public option from obama and the dem leadership, which would then be sold to us as a wonderful reform (see massachusetts) with hcan et al cheering them on. i suppose that could still happen, but the mess coming out of the finance committee makes me think it’s even worse than that.
color me confused.
p.s. really really like the comment you left at the end of eli’s thread last week. thank you for that.
It’s getting more difficult to distinguish this administration from the last one.
The current president is taller.
Very enlightening post, thanks.
Happy Juneteenth everyone!