The historic vote last night in the House of Representatives for health care reform is incredibly important. We should all celebrate and thank Speaker Pelosi for pulling it off. Yet, as most know, the 220 to 215 majority reminds us that the struggle between strong democracy, majoritarian democracy and weak, anti-majoritarian democracy within the Democratic Party is not over, and will likely continue for some years into the future.
If the Democrats succeed in the Senate and if they make the most of this victory next year by reminding the electorate, time and time over, how historic this shift is, then the future of a stronger, more progressive majority in the U.S. may be in the cards.
The vote will put pressure on the Senate. While the narrowness of the victory will encourage some Blue Dog Democrats in the Senate to risk voting against their entire party, if they support the filibuster against the bill, they also surely must know that the Republican Party is coming after every Democrats in 2010 no matter how they vote today. The Republicans are desperate to bury this victory. And those in the House who voted against their own party know, when and if reform comes will change the politics in their own districts.
Securing health insurance for everyone is a game-changer for both parties.
Still, a very substantial fraction of the Democratic Party is holding tight to the politics that brought them, sectional politics, "red" versus "blue" politics, betting that it will still hold in 2010. But sectional politics may just be beginning to break up.
The next month and the next years will be crucial for all of us who hope for, who wait for, a democracy of days, a democracy that battles to make daily life for ordinary people more secure in the United States, and not just with health care reform.
William Faulkner, in Requiem for a Nun, wrote, "The past is never dead; it is not even past."
But maybe this time the past is beginning to be past.
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