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Kennedy killed at least three different attempts at universal healthcare by three different presidents (Nixon, Carter, and Clinton) because he delusionally beli

by _zagj 2y ago

Kennedy killed at least three different attempts at universal healthcare by three different presidents (Nixon, Carter, and Clinton) because he delusionally believed he not only could win the Democratic nomination for President (he never did), but that he could win the general election, Chappaquiddick baggage and all, and that universal healthcare would be his legacy--a kind of new New Deal. This isn't just my interpretation of him and his actions, but Jimmy Carter's himself, who went so far as to express uncharacteristic spite towards Ted for this very reason: https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2010/09/16/129913094/jimmy-carter-blames-ted-kennedy-for-killing-earlier-health-overhaul https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2010/09/16/12991...

christianqchung 2y ago
Every time I've read about an opportunity for universal healthcare to be passed, something apparently insurmountable always crops up. I was too young during the Obama debates to read about this, but I read more about it a decade after. Carter expressing frankly what reads like rage to me makes it feel like the closest chance we had, but I haven't read into the specifics. That aside, when I read about downsides of universal healthcare in America, I still think the tradeoff is worth it. Even if it means wait lines and decades slower drug discovery, if it meant measurably less rage at the system, I would support it. I know this isn't the thread topic, but the public polled reactions to literal assassination being not particularly negative points to how unpopular the current system is, despite other measures showing it as popular. Anyway, screw the (political) Kennedy family. Seriously.
- _zagj 2y ago
  My post wasn't about universal healthcare, but to point out to the progressives who downvoted you that Ted was instrumental in thwarting it three different times, and that he likely did so for purely selfish reasons, and that given all of his other baggage--including the fact that he was the textbook definition of a "nepobaby," born with a silver spoon in his mouth, admitted to Harvard as a legacy, expelled for cheating on a Spanish test and then readmitted for "reasons"--he shouldn't have much posthumous appeal to non-boomer leftists, who obviously don't "remember where you were when JFK was shot."
  - christianqchung 2y ago
    Yep, messaged received. Ted is still vaguely popular with a lot of people in my experience.

by _zagj 2y ago

christianqchung 2y ago

Every time I've read about an opportunity for universal healthcare to be passed, something apparently insurmountable always crops up. I was too young during the Obama debates to read about this, but I read more about it a decade after. Carter expressing frankly what reads like rage to me makes it feel like the closest chance we had, but I haven't read into the specifics. That aside, when I read about downsides of universal healthcare in America, I still think the tradeoff is worth it. Even if it means wait lines and decades slower drug discovery, if it meant measurably less rage at the system, I would support it. I know this isn't the thread topic, but the public polled reactions to literal assassination being not particularly negative points to how unpopular the current system is, despite other measures showing it as popular. Anyway, screw the (political) Kennedy family. Seriously.

_zagj 2y ago
My post wasn't about universal healthcare, but to point out to the progressives who downvoted you that Ted was instrumental in thwarting it three different times, and that he likely did so for purely selfish reasons, and that given all of his other baggage--including the fact that he was the textbook definition of a "nepobaby," born with a silver spoon in his mouth, admitted to Harvard as a legacy, expelled for cheating on a Spanish test and then readmitted for "reasons"--he shouldn't have much posthumous appeal to non-boomer leftists, who obviously don't "remember where you were when JFK was shot."
- christianqchung 2y ago
  Yep, messaged received. Ted is still vaguely popular with a lot of people in my experience.