I am very enthusiastic about supporting Joe
Biden and Kamala Harris to defeat Donald Trump,
but I cannot vote for this platform that does
not have universal healthcare as a right.
I mean, we’ve seen millions of people lose
their jobs.
They should not lose their healthcare.
This, to me, is about basic dignity.
How can you say that a person’s healthcare
should be tied to whether they have a job
or their employment?
This was part of our platform until 1980.
It was stripped during the Reagan revolution.
If we can’t come around and say we are for
Medicare for All in a time of a pandemic,
I don’t know when we will.
And so, I’m very proud that hundreds of
delegates are going to vote against this platform,
while supporting Joe Biden.
And I think that’s a great strength of the
Democratic Party, that you can have intellectual
dissent and yet have a common goal.
There is interesting language on Medicare
for All.
It says, “We are proud our party welcomes
advocates who want to build on and strengthen
the Affordable Care Act and those who support
a Medicare for All approach; all are critical
to ensuring that health care is a human right.”
Do you think that if Biden were to win, although
he has adamantly said he’s opposed to Medicare
for All, the movements for Medicare for All
— I mean, the polls show most people support
this — could change him?
Kamala Harris has gone back and forth on this.
She said — she co-sponsored the Medicare
for All bill.
I do think it can change him, and especially
if people who look at Bernie Sanders’s plan
realize that it’s a four-year transition.
I mean, Bernie Sanders isn’t saying go to
Medicare for All in one year; he’s saying
let’s extend it to 55, then 45, then 35.
There’s a carve-out for unions.
So, I think what is very possible, if we continue
to advocate, that we can get the president,
Biden, on year one, to say let’s extend
it at least to 55 or 50, and then make progress
from there.
And that is why this activism is so important.
