If you're an advocate for keeping a strong public option in the final health bill, chances are you've tried and failed many times to gain the support and assistance of single-payer advocates. These are people who should be some of our strongest and most passionate allies for reform, and yet adamantly refuse to lend any action on the public option support, as it falls short of their ideal.
As a progressive and strong supporter of single-payer, I understand and sympathize with their concerns. But because this fight is too important to leave any of our allies behind, must less create dissension in our own ranks even as the health insurance industry spends $1.4 million a day against us, it is necessary that those of us who would make healthcare reform a reality learn to speak to our would-be allies in a way that makes friends rather than enemies.
This has been an especially difficult battle in my local county (Ventura, CA): Organizing for America sent volunteers to speak to the local Democratic clubs to shore up support and organize phonebanking for key principles in the public option, but did not prepare them adequately for the hostility that they would encounter from fierce single-payer advocates at the progressive grassroots level in nearly every club.
This problem has also been an issue for local media efforts: as a moderator of a public access issues program sponsored by a local Democratic club, I found myself challenging my single-payer-focused guests as they attempted to actively dissuade viewers from activism on the public option, calling it a gift to the insurance industry. On the radio (I co-host a once-a-week program called Reality Check here on KVTA 1520 under the Locals Only banner), the OFA organizer we had on as a guest was having difficulties as she tried to thread the needle between not scaring conservatives about the public option, even as she tried to convince progressives that it would be strong enough to create real reform. Not an easy task.
The usual response of the public option supporter to the single-payer advocate is exasperation and condescension, leading to heated argument. The argument goes something like this:
Single-payer advocate: The public option doesn't mean anything. We don't even know what it will look like yet, and whatever it is will simply be a tool of the insurance companies. We need single payer NOW!
Public option advocate: We're having trouble getting even a public option through Congress. Single-payer will NEVER happen. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Single-payer advocate: It'll only never happen if people don't push for it! And the public option just isn't remotely good enough.
Public option advocate: You don't understand the politics of this. We have to do the best with what we have to work with.
Single-payer advocate: No, you don't understand. If we get enough people angry, it'll happen. We can't afford fake "reform." You do your thing, and I'll do mine.
This is exactly what NOT to do. There are a few rules for talking successfully to single-payer only advocates in an attempt to win their activist support.
DON'T condescend. Chances are, the single-payer advocate with whom you are speaking knows more about the healthcare issue and has been working on it longer than you have. Chances are they know the process pretty well, and have simply become disillusioned with the process itself. And even if the advocate in question is ignorant of political process, the argument about process will always fall on deaf ears. Avoid it.
DON'T use a phrase like "perfect being the enemy of the good." They will see this is a form of condescension, whether you mean it that way or not. They will also see it as cowardice, and antithetical to their end goals.
DON'T insist (as I've seen more than one OFA organizer do) that America "needs its own unique system." This may be a talking point used by President Obama himself, but it will infuriate single-payer advocates who will then recount the wonders of single-payer systems elsewhere--stories also well-known to you, and a waste of both of your valuable time.
DON'T say "this is the best we can do right now." That's an invitation to a screaming match.
DON'T paint it as a battle between Democrats and Republicans. More than likely, the advocate with whom you are arguing is already convinced--probably rightly--that both parties have been bought off. As even Howard Dean acknowledged, this isn't a partisan battle, but rather one between the American people and the insurance and pharmaceutical companies.
What single-payer-only advocates want is an acknowledgment that the political system--the Democratic party included--has failed the American people. They want an acknowledgment of their own rightness, and some sympathy with their frustration. Give it to them.
DO agree with the superiority of single-payer. Flat out. Tell your own stories of single-payer successes. Let them know that you, too, have seen Sicko.
DO apologize for the political ineffectiveness of the Democratic Party in adequately pushing for real reform, while making clear that the Party is the only vehicle we have for legislative results. If they are not currently activists within the Democratic Party, invite them to help us change the party from the inside out.
DO acknowledge that the only reason we're in the predicament we find ourselves in now is inadequate activism on behalf of single-payer in the past. If possible, bring up the Overton Window. Make the point that the only reason the public option seems to so many people as the "liberal" option is because of inadequate attention to single-payer in the past. As I said in my seminal diary on the Overton Window:
When the rightwing attacked the Democrats for promoting "Hillarycare", and the Democrats started to take some heat, we just slinked back into a corner and didn't raise the issue again. To this day, we are afraid to talk about single-payer health coverage, for fear of offending the middle.
Meanwhile, the progressives among us insist that our leaders simply come out swinging in favor single-payer health coverage to rally our base--without priming the moderate voter for the idea in advance.
Both strategies will fail miserably.
DO emphasize the once in a generation opportunity that current legislative action presents. While not arguing that single-payer will never happen, it's a no-brainer to argue that if the current reform fails, it will be years--maybe decades--before we get another shot at reforming the system, whether with single-payer or anything else.
DO turn the point about the lack of clarity about the specifics of the public option against the advocate. In that context, urge your interlocutor to help make sure that the reform we do get is the best reform possible, within the confines of the narrow political debate we have.
DO thank them for their tireless activism, and make sure that they know that their work is appreciated.
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There's no guarantee that these tactics will work. But they have worked for me in the past, and failing to avoid the "don'ts" will ensure a fruitless, hostile, and time-wasting encounter, while making enemies and further dividing our own activist base.