Democrat Annette Hyde has taken a bold stand to support the proposition that healthcare is a human right. Why bold? Doesn’t any decent caring person believe that another human being has not only the right to receive healthcare, but the duty to provide it to the extent that they can? A “duty to care” has been a bedrock ethical principle in our society as a whole and for the medical profession in particular. But in these troublous times, it is actually up for debate.
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Hyde is running to represent Virginia #HD30 in the General Assembly. Her opponent, Nick Freitas, is one of the most extreme right-wingers in the GA and has made a lengthy case against this principle. Freitas touts himself as “100% pro-life,” calling 98% of abortions “abortions of convenience” and asserting that it’s “definitely more difficult” to get pregnant from rape. His allegiance to the Second Amendment is based on the “God-given right” to defend oneself. But if you’re out of the womb and you need to defend yourself against a virus, well...no right of self-defense for you! That’s just gummit intrusion!
The gummit, however, sees it otherwise: while there is nothing in the Constitution that declares that Americans have a right to healthcare, states may declare such rights. The Constitution establishes the minimum standards for the states, but the states may expand upon them. Freitas is a (pseudo-) libertarian who is forever arguing that decisions should be made at the most local level possible with the least federal intrusion, yet he seems unaware of this core principle with regard to the right to healthcare:
A number of state constitutions contain provisions relating to health and the provision of health care services. State constitutions may provide constitutional rights that are more expansive than those found under the federal Constitution since federal rights set the minimum standards for the states.
- Kathleen S. Swendiman, Healthcare: Constitutional Rights and Legislative Powers
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So, Freitas has no principled ground on which to voice his objections to healthcare as a right, as he pretends (and the man is nothing if not pretentious). The reality is that the man is just too much in the pocket of the big business interests that have supported him. Freitas gets frequent rider miles on the Club for Growth gravy train and is endorsed by ALEC and the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity.
Is this a good look? Really?
Last cycle, after Freitas made an idiotic error — he failed to file papers needed to get on the ballot - billionaire Dick Uihlein bailed him out with a $500,000 donation, which Freitas used to mount a write-in campaign. No doubt Uihlein was intent on keeping Freitas in play for his run at Abigail Spanberger’s Congressional seat: it’s hard to imagine he cared that much about a Virginia delegate seat. Freitas lost to Spanberger by around 8000 votes — but claims that it was by half that. And then he whined about the voters.
Annette Hyde has her supporters, too. She is familiar to the DK community as Yogannette and has published several diaries about the race (HERE, HERE, and HERE). Annette’s been endorsed by all the good guys, among them Abigail Spanberger, Jenn McClellan, NARAL, Virginia AFL-CIO, NOW, NORML, Mom’s Demand. Annette’s vigorous campaigning style — Fraidy Freitas can’t hide from Hyde! - has brought her enthusiastic support from people in the district who like how she’s confronted the guy whose values are so at variance with their own and with that of most of humanity. Please support her with a donation if you can, and help amplify her on social media. THANK YOU!
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