Reform

The history of western civilization is a story of the struggle by liberals against conservatives for the political liberation of mankind and the expansion of political and civil rights. It is a story of the struggle of common people against aristocracy and wealth for basic rights and freedoms. It is a story that continues today.

In 1832, at the instigation of Lord Grey and the Whig Party (later called the Liberal Party), the English Parliament passed the first great Reform Bill under which it began the process of making Great Britain a true democracy. Up until then, the parliament was controlled by the nobility and wealthy landowners who decided who was going to represent the various counties and boroughs. Big cities often had only one or two representatives while tiny little (rotten) boroughs were able to send two representatives to Parliament. Only men were allowed to vote, and they were required to own a certain amount of land or have a certain amount of wealth. The vast majority of people had no voting rights. The First Reform Bill abolished many rotten boroughs, enfranchised new boroughs, and expanded the qualifications for voters.

In 1867, the English Parliament passed the Second Reform Act which enfranchised the urban working class of England and Wales. Once again the act was pressed by the Liberal Party, although it was allowed to pass by the Conservative Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli. Subsequent reform bills in 1884 and 1885 further expanded the British electorate and set that nation on the course of democracy as it exists today. All of these bills were fiercely opposed by conservatives, particularly the nobility who saw them as diluting their power and influence.

In 1964, at the powerful insistence of President Lyndon Johnson, the United States Senate passed the Civil Rights Act. Here, almost 100 years after the end of the Civil War, the Act extended voting rights of African Americans and outlawed racial segregation in schools, at the workplace, and in public accommodations. The bill was filibustered by the same backward, right-wing forces that filibustered today’s health care reform bill (only today those forces call themselves Republicans, not Democrats as they did back then). The leader of the Southern Senators who filibustered the Civil Rights bill was Senator Richard Russell, who said: "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states."

In 1965, the Democrats under Lyndon Johnson were able to pass the Medicare bill over the opposition of conservative Republicans. Ronald Reagan said: “[I]f you don’t [stop Medicare], and if I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.” George H.W. Bush described Medicare as “Socialized Medicine.” Barry Goldwater said: “Having given our pensioners their medical care in kind, why not food baskets, why not public housing accommodations, why not vacation resorts, why not a ration of cigarettes for those who smoke and of beer for those who drink.” Doesn’t this all sound a little bit like the arguments of Republicans against health care reform today?

On December 24, 2009, the United States Senate took a step in the reform of our health care system. The Democrats in that body based their support for the bill on the belief that decent health care is a right of all people, and not just a privilege. For millions of Americans who have no health insurance, for the over 12,000 who lose their insurance every day, for the 45,000 a year who die from lack of health insurance, that right is a matter of life or death.