One View (on the state of the Union)

This is a guest post by Gene Bocknek.

Jackie Robinson was the greatest base runner I’ve seen in 70 years of watching major league teams. But mention his name and the first thing you will hear is that he was the first black man to play in the majors. Yet he made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame, not because he was black, but because of his incredible ability, honed amidst an atmosphere of the vilest racial prejudice; continual death threats; players and fans who cursed at him; and hotels who refused to admit him. Human progress can be painfully slow.

Worldwide, Barak Obama’s election to the presidency has elevated America’s status immeasurably. But in his own country uncountable numbers of citizens, many of them in positions of political influence and power, have sworn themselves to his defeat. In their eyes he has committed two unthinkable crimes. He convincingly won election against two daunting opponents, first Hillary Clinton and then John McCain. But that triumph of American democracy cannot mitigate his great sins. He is the only black President in American history. And he seeks a better distribution of the benefits of American citizenship among those whose work creates the wealth of the country - our ordinary citizens.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the target of scathing attacks for trying to do what Obama is attempting. Today historians credit FDR with saving the country from Communism, with preventing a Communist takeover by offering hope to a desperate people, hope and ideas for a democratic solution to the same kind of economic disaster we face today. Then as now, the rapacious greed of the few was unregulated; there were no governmental restraints on the “free market”. Under FDR regulations were imposed and for 40 years there were no major recessions.

Thanks to Presidents Reagan and Bush removing those regulations, we can now curse the rapacious greed of another unregulated “free market”. And now the greedy ones mobilize the old racial hatreds, fueled by economic distress, hoping to stifle the needed changes to our system. They tell us we cannot afford to change; what they mean is that money matters more than people. They say it’s not the responsibility of government to care about the health and education of 40 million American children, or the financial well-being of hundreds of millions of American adults.

What matters, say the greedy ones, are corporate profits, which are distributed among public shareholders. They neglect to mention that the largest of these public shareholders are officers of these same corporations, who get millions in options to buy stocks low and sell high. And that’s the game they want us to keep playing .

I began writing this column a few days before Obama’s speech on health care reform. This is what I heard him say and do in that speech. He incorporated a key element of John McCain’s own program (and McCain responded with a warm thumbs up and smile). He adopted Olympia Snow’s (R-ME) advice to delay the public option. He acknowledged the validity of capping medical malpractice suits, a major concern of most physicians. He put a clear halt to the outright lies and distortions being publicized and threatened to name names if any further bogus claims were made. By putting off some of his own most liberal allies and reaching out to responsible members of the GOP, he put his own position into the political center, where most of America traditionally stands. Finally, he repeated his vow to produce a health reform package that would not change anything for those who are currently insured.

But he will make it illegal for health insurance providers to drop people who require expensive medical treatment, or who refuse to insure people with previous illnesses. Obama also challenged the GOP and/or individual members of Congress to come to him with serious alternatives. So far the only “plan” being offered by the GOP as of last night is to wait another year and then begin from scratch, an obvious delaying tactic. Health care reform has been urged since Theodore Roosevelt’s time; the issues and solutions are well understood. The time to act is now.

The Republican Party has mired itself into the party of NO. That is a discredit to America, and to its own mission of being a responsible, loyal opposition. But Obama will also have to contend with Democrats like Max Baucus (D-MO), who accepts 8 million dollars from lobbyists to undermine and obstruct real progress in health care reform. Will Obama have the toughness to enforce what he has asked for? The next few months will let us know.

It may be that the voice of the public, the people who insist on genuine health reform now, will be what's needed to break the 60-year-old deadlock and force the reforms that meet the common good.