Where The Wonks Are

[zoogs]

From a New Republic article entitled 'Where are the single payer wonks?' -

https://newrepublic.com/article/144180/single-payer-wonks:

 

But its hard to deny that single-payer is an area where progressive politics has outstripped policy. Conyerss bill is largely seen as a symbolic piece of legislation, and not only because Democrats would first have to win back Congress and the White House to even begin passing it. As Joshua Holland wrote on Wednesday in The Nation, the momentum for single-payer is tempered by the fact that the activist left, which has a ton of energy at the moment, has for the most part failed to grapple with the difficulties of transitioning to a single-payer system.

This is an apropos question for our time; New Republic is quite a progressive outlet, and I consider myself likewise a proponent of single-payer. But here's an area where we, regrettably, are lacking on 'policy'. And as they explain, it's not an indictment on idealism but an honest assessment on the lack of infrastructure. Now that the politics has rapidly pushed single payer from a real pipe dream to a legitimate part of the conversation, there needs to be some catch-up.

 

Very good discussion here on the mechanics of policy and how they work on both the left and the right. It's a pitch for re-rigging the policy infrastructure leftward from the 'center-left', and I think I agree with this broadly speaking.