Our moral values inform and provide the foundation for our political choices. My political choices have changed over the decades as I’ve evolved my moral foundation.
As I’ve stated many times, including in my email signature, “The morally right option is the one that maximizes equality by equally protecting and empowering the greatest number of citizens.” That means I have moral qualms when politicians compromise on social programs that exempt any number of citizens from these programs. Here are some historical examples that I consider immoral compromises. The compromise got the programs implemented, but their impact was minimized on a racial/wealth basis and that was morally wrong.
Social Security Compromised:
Two groups of employees were exempted from Social Security as a compromise to get it past the bigots in Congress: farm workers and domestic workers, which were both large groups of people of color.
Union Organizing Compromised:
A similar exclusion exempted farm workers from union protection of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.
Building of Hospitals Compromised:
In 1946, the Hospital Survey and Construction Act passed by including a rule that allowed states to allocate resources locally, so that they could drive new hospital construction away from African American communities.
GI Bill Benefits Compromised:
Then there were the Jim Crow policies that limited accessing benefits from the WWII GI Bill difficult for black GIs.
Affordable Care Act Compromised:
There are still tens of millions of Americans without healthcare coverage or high co-pays and deductibles. The ACA left health insurance tied to your job. If you’re unemployed, you can’t afford coverage. It left some coverage up to the states and their uneven application of healthcare through insurance exchanges – “state-level recalcitrance will leave two-thirds of poor blacks, two-thirds of single mothers, and half of all uninsured low-wage workers ineligible for Medicaid and therefore unable to afford coverage offered by the insurance exchanges.” ACA is still beholding to private insurance and private insurance profits from reducing coverage.
Medicaid Expansion Compromised:
When right-wing authoritarians can’t force a compromise to limit social program coverage from the start, they work to dismantle and limit the social program. For example, with the Affordable Care Act they won a SCOTUS ruling that made expanding Medicaid a state option. This ruling is limiting healthcare coverage and forcing the closing of rural hospitals.
Incrementalism, extending social programs little-by-little is a form of compromise that is just as immoral as outright exemption from policies meant to equally protect and empower all citizens. Letting those who already have protection and power decide who cannot have the same protection and power until later is immoral.
Therefore, I favor a national commitment to stopping the Sixth Great Extinction, healthcare for all, student debt forgiveness for all, publicly and fairly funded, lower (mandatory) and higher (optional) education, including civics, for all, new legislation to advance democracy at work, and progressive taxation similar to before President Reagan including property taxes on ownership of corporations.
Andy Hailey