(would love to see people putting their money, and their political muscle, behind alternatives like the Green-Rainbow Party that can push single-payer without equivocation. – promoted by eli_beckerman)
“Make a financial pledge to our station in the next hour if you support Single Payer Health Care!,” is a popular line that listeners hear to drum up the number of ringing phones during a fund drive.
A local NPR affiliate is preparing a pledge drive soon. Because voters in the 4th Berkshire District approved the non-binding ‘single payer’ health care question by the second highest margin in the state last year, with well over 70% approval, it’s a sure bet that the affiliate will dedicate several hours of pledging to the issue.
I attempted recently to find out from the station how many additional pledges are generated during the time slots that are devoted to ‘single payer’ health care, but it didn’t seem that any records like that are kept. Without such data to communicate to lawmakers and advocates the pledge drive has little real effect in advancing the legislation which the callers presumably favor. The fundraisers certainly know that support for the issue is strong, though. They will reasonably continue with this tactic as long as it is viewed to bolster fund-raising.
As several of us in the Green-Rainbow Party are planning to participate with MassCare in “Lobby Day” on Beacon Hill, which is devoted to securing legislative co-sponsors for the single payer health care bill, it got me thinking …
I don’t intend to travel to Beacon Hill simply to ask legislators to co-sponsor the bill. My incumbent representative has done so for over 8 years, but this is not enough, as I’ve written before. One never hears the incumbent promoting single payer health care when his constituents complain about the increasing costs and decreasing quality of health insurance for themselves, their communities, and their businesses.
When I am on Beacon Hill for “Lobby Day” I will ask my Green-Rainbow Party colleagues to join me in telling Beacon Hill legislators that we are building our party’s membership and recruiting more candidates to run in 2012. I hope to meet potential new members and candidates while networking with fellow single payer health care supporters. Because our party takes no money from the insurance industry, all levels of our party – from grass-roots, to candidates, to party leaders at local, state, and national levels – are in strong support of single payer legislation.
When party membership grows and when the first Green-Rainbow legislators are elected into the State House, groups like MassCare will find the job of signing on incumbent legislators, who in the past found it easy to ignore grass roots support for the issue, much easier. They will also be able to raise the bar much higher of what is expected of co-sponsors. As I have written previously, this kind of growth is the most effective contribution that the Green-Rainbow Party can make.
When I next hear an hour of a pledge drive devoted to ‘single payer health care,’ I’ll wonder how we in the Green-Rainbow Party can tap into that energy. If even half of the pledgers who respond with their checkbooks to the radio station also registered Green-Rainbow as a demonstration of their support for single payer health care, it would begin a tectonic shift in the foundation of Beacon Hill, which has been too languid for too long. Shouldn’t these kinds of ‘pledges’ be part of the party’s membership drives at the state and local levels?
Joining the party is easy, free, and meaningful. Put on a party button and join us in Beacon Hill for Lobby Day.