America Hasn’t Been This United Since 9/11
Let’s capitalize on this moment and ACT
For all of the talk about how divided our nation is, recent events have shown me that there really are still issues we’re completely aligned on here in America. Realizing this, it dawned on me that there’s an opportunity to be seized in this moment.
Something I promise to touch on more later in this piece…
Our healthcare system is a complete joke & no one is satisfied with its current construction.
This week, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan. Bullet casings were found at the scene with the words “deny”, “delay”, and “depose” on them. This has lead many to believe the shooting wasn’t random, but rather an attack on this individual because of his position with the insurance company.
First, when we hear about homicides in America, there’s usually large degrees of sympathy for the recently departed. Condolences for the family are shared, the left is quick to bring up gun violence in America, and the right talks about how we need more “good guys with guns” to stop these attacks.
This time we didn’t hear any of that (or at least, I couldn’t find that discourse anywhere). Instead, to my surprise, we found something that I was convinced only something that existed in the past - consensus.
People across the country not only seemed to lack sympathy for Thompson, but others outright cheered his death & wondered who would be next.
Do I understand these feelings - yes.
Do I share some of these feelings - yes.
At the same time, I was struck by how unanimous the overall sentiment was. In this day and age where you would believe our country could not be more divided, as we once again usher another Donald Trump term into the White House, this event paints a strikingly different story.
We’re united in our common disgust of an industry that profits off of sickness, vulnerability & despair.
As a political content creator, I spend a lot of time online going through the various social media platforms. It’s my way of both trying to consume the news & also taking in how people are reacting to it. It’s important to me that I feel like I’m getting a good representation of how people are feeling about stories.
So let me tell you, it’s not remotely common to see the same sentiment so widespread. Especially throughout multiple platforms, where it feels like they all have different age and political leanings to them anymore.
Let me share with you some of the comments/posts that stood out to me ⬇️
Were there some folks who were trying to say “think about his family” or “violence is never the answer”, sure, but they were few and far between. Even those comments seem to implicitly show they understand what everyone is upset about.
Our for-profit healthcare system is crushing so many people in this country.
I could throw out endless statistics or accounts about how universal healthcare is
How over 70 nations have already adopted it
People in those nations cannot fathom how we don’t have it
Healthcare outcomes are similar if not better
Life expectancy is higher in those countries
Most importantly - it cheaper than the system we already have
One side point - For those who get hung up on “wait times”. Let me say this, as a chronically ill person in America, we have plenty of wait times here too.
I’ve had to wait for months to see specialists, after having to wait months to see the doctor who referred me to the specialist.
Let’s not pretend that this system is actually operating well. It’s expensive, cumbersome & drives people into holes of debt they sometimes can’t get out of…for the crime of getting sick.
So we all know how terrible the American healthcare system is, but this story to me isn’t about how bad the healthcare system is. No, no, no, that much we were all already well aware of.
This is about “mutual knowledge” (you have no idea how much research just went into finding this one phrase 😅) & how best to use this moment going forward.
There’s a profound power that comes from everyone knowing that everyone loathes our healthcare system. Now is the time to utilize this power.
With that being said, let’s talk about the last thing we probably want to discuss right now, the next Presidential Election 🗳️
While taking in this story, I could not get over just how widespread the anger is in America. Simultaneously, what I’m afraid of, is that this story will disappear in a few days time & we’ll lose a precious opportunity.
This is the opportunity I was speaking about at the beginning of the piece…we need to demand that the next representative to challenge the Republican nominee in 2028, be someone who believes healthcare is a human right.
It’s not hard to imagine what the country will look like in 2027, as we begin to think about the next Presidential election. Donald Trump, under no circumstances, is going to challenge corporate or billionaire power in America. So conditions for working people will continue to erode as they have been for years.
It’ll be in that moment, that we’ll see the same things we’ve always seen. A Democratic Party that rushes in to point out the inadequacies of the administration & push forth its pre-approved list of establishment friendly candidates for us to pick from.
The corporate media will run endless pieces about them, saying how great they are, and how they’re the only ones with a chance at victory. Dissent will not be an option, because Trump’s heir apparent will have already been named, and we’ll be told how they will make the country worse. So you have to get on board with one of the pre-approved candidates.
These candidates will be well funded by corporate money, so they will not offer anything substantive in healthcare reform, if anything at all. You’ll be told that it “is what it is” & it’s time to get on board, because that’s how it works in our country.
And after we all gripe and complain about how we wish things were different, a majority of people will begrudgingly pick this lack luster false champion, with a naive belief that they’ll actually bring needed change.
We’ve lived through this story before.
It’s the same playbook again, and again, and again.
It will not change until the people of this country force it to & I believe we have an opportunity to do so.
If we didn’t know before, we should all know now, just how united we are on the issue of healthcare in this country. Instead of letting his moment go by, let’s promise ourselves and each other that we under no circumstances will support a candidate who’s unwilling to push for universal healthcare.
There will be a primary in 2028 & we’ll have the opportunity to coalesce around an individual. I’m hoping we will remember moments like this & just how important it is to pick the RIGHT nominee.
We picked the wrong one in 2016 & 2020. It’s time to stop listening to the voices who want us to accept these corporate candidates like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton.
We know we deserve better, but it’s time to demand better.
In the meantime, let’s not wait until election season to feel like we’re making a difference. Organizations like “undue medical debt” are helping millions of people erase the medical debt completely. There are clinics opening up around the country, that are offering extremely cheap or free healthcare. State and Local politics are constantly voting on healthcare access in our individual states.
Let’s get involved and stay involved in these processes.
More importantly, let’s continue to say everywhere that - healthcare is a human right.
Let’s us not compromise as we continue to push for and demand universal healthcare.
Let’s not forget how we were all feeling when this story broke & fight for what we all know we deserve.
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