Senator Elizabeth Warren has had her fair share of progressive accolades and criticisms; she is amazing when it comes to standing up to banking giants and wall street, but when it comes to standing up for social issues like Standing Rocks, she has been disappointingly silent.
But on Tuesday, Warren went on-record with a slam dunk of a progressive stance: Democrats must campaign heavily in 2018 and 2020 for single-payer, medicare-for-all healthcare.
Warren made her stance clear during an interview with the Wall Street Journal. In the piece, Warren said that President Obama constructed his strategy for the ACA from a conservative model, but that if Democrats hope to win in upcoming elections, they should focus on the healthcare golden goose of single payer.
“President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts.”
Unlike her more progressive and prickly colleague Senator Sanders, Warren praised the first step of the ACA, but said that America is now ready for the real deal.
“Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer.”
Of course, while Warren’s support for a strong single-payer platform is welcome, critics can assume she is speaking in favor of it now because it is so popular. Ever since Senator Sanders came out strongly for medicare-for-all, national support for a nationalized system of healthcare has grown.
In a new poll, 33 percent of respondents said that they supported a single payer system, an increase of five percentage points since just January. With more education about the system and how well it has done globally, that number is sure to rise.
Republicans are so threatened by the growth in interest that they have begun attacking it as a negative alternative of not passing the AHCA. On Monday, Sean Spicer even posited single payer as a boogeyman of sorts, the consequence of not supporting the GOP plan.
With the support of more mainline Democrats, the Democratic party can turn its focus on the biggest issue in American politics today – if we can achieve single payer in America, it will be the single biggest progressive triumph in the 21st century.
