On Health Care, Youth Willing and Able, But White House Never Called
Quiet Agitators
New America Media, News Report, Annette Fuentes, Posted: Sep 04, 2009
But on support for Obama’s plan to protect people with pre-existing conditions and raise taxes on the wealthy to fund health care for the uninsured, young and older were on opposite sides of the issue. Among those 18 to 34, 60 percent were in favor, while just 41 percent of those 65 and older favor Obama’s proposals.
Not incidentally, the survey also found that 20 percent of those 18 to 34 have no health insurance, compared to 3 percent of those 65 and older. That high rate doesn’t surprise Matt Singer, 26, CEO and founder of Forward Montana, a youth-based group in Missoula.
“One in three young voters is not insured now,” Singer says. “This is a personal issue for young people. So why are we seeing town halls full of angry, older white people? I don’t know. But one of my theories from talking with young people is they tend not to be interested in the protest practice of, ‘Lets go yell at people.’ Angry politics doesn’t speak to young people. The positive message of hope and change that Obama had, spoke to them. Young people are also in class or they are working. They don’t have the luxury of senior citizens who can go out during in the day.”
Forward Montana, which in 2006 helped send Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, to Washington, has been quietly but steadily organizing support for health care reform for almost two years. After Tester’s victory, Singer said, the group’s 100 members overwhelmingly chose health care as the next issue to address. With their senator Max Baucus as chair of the Senate Finance Committee—a key player in health care, the groups “saw the stars aligning,” as Singer puts it. Their first campaign in 2007 was to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and that led into their current efforts on national reform.
“Our volunteers have knocked on 10,000 doors,” Singer said. “We gathered post cards and hundreds of stories on health care in cities, in rural areas, on the reservation. We are talking to Montanans of every shape, size, color and age. This summer we worked, talking to labor unions and small business.”
Obama’s organizing on health care should have followed the same strategies as his campaign and engaged young people, Singer said.
“Obama invested more in voter registration and helped young to engage in the political process in a deeper way,” he said. “If we had taken that model, there would have been a giant mobilized force.”
As it is, Organize for America has finally begun to counter the conservative assault on health care reform, but Singer thinks it might be too late to pass meaningful legislation.
“OFA folks had a problem getting back up, going from zero to 60 in two seconds,” he said. “They’ve only had boots on the ground in the past two weeks. If we don’t get it passed, one of the reasons will be the failure to mobilize youth.”
Erica L. Williams, deputy director of Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C., think tank, also thinks the administration’s failure to organize young people early on was “a tactical error.”
“This was base ready to go and fired up after the election,” Williams says. “There were mechanisms in every state, and that could not be sustained only by nonprofits. The administration did not speak directly to young people.”
While the administration tried to channel youth activism into its service initiative, United We Serve, it didn’t work, she said.
Campus Progress has tried to keep its constituents connected over the summer, mostly by messaging and blogging to get its base ready to go.
“Now that school is back in session,” Williams said, “we’re partnering with groups in key states to get young people out—whether online or in forums, especially in the next few months. With the media wondering, ‘Where are young people? Well, we‘ll show you where we are.”
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User Comments
hsr0601 on Sep 04, 2009 at 01:31:38 said:
Theme : Today is the time to boost health mileage just like Nissan Leaf and GM Volt.
-->Time doesn't fix the ceaseless greed and energy exhaustion for certain. Faced with these challenges, current generation is to build a bridge for generations to come, and it will be for both, too. By converting Incredible waste in health care system into funding for the uninsured young adults, both generations are better off after all, otherwise, Medicare and Medicaid system are also facing insolvency.
Similarly, by weaning off fossil-fuel dependence as part of trimming the trade deficit (over 2/3 of which is caused by importing oil), all generations are enjoying the benefits of long-lasting peace and job generation together, as Nissan Leaf and GM Volt that made a long-awaited innovation are coming to marketplace soon, the other developers that come in a range of 200 to 300 miles between charges are on fast-tract toward mass-market, as well.
With this promising health reform combined with a balancing function for price inflation in operation, Chevy Volt, too, is earning competitive edge in price along the way, together with Nissan Leaf. I think it's of great importance to note that world-wide overpopulation that keeps surging and energy shortfall thereof doesn't allow inefficiency and waste.
When some part of our body is ailing seriously, we are losing competitiveness, equally, when some part of a nation is ailing servery, it is losing competitiveness, too