On The Ten Year War by Jonathan Cohn

The overarching theme of The Ten Year War is that, for at least a few more years, any major legislation will follow a political process similar to that of the Affordable Care Act. One must grasp “the true nature of the opposition..secure at least some buy-in” from the opposition (p.398). But, policy making today is changed by the ongoing political polarization across America as well as the need for social media-friendly soundbites that neglect any nuance of meaningful widespread public understanding. The ultimate issue any ambitious policy maker will face is taking a good idea and figuring out what can actually survive the political process. The healthcare system we see today is a product of such compromises. 

In describing the history of healthcare legislation in America, the author reminds me of Stayin Alive, a book I read about union political power in the 1960s and 70s. The author describes the effort by politically potent unions to “pressure Democrats to hold off, figuring the extra leverage would lead to a better overall [healthcare] package. It didn’t,” (p24). Furthermore, trust in government declined in the midst of major civil rights legislation, which led a “large swath of white voters [to be] angry over federal interventions on behalf of African Americans,” (p25). It didn’t help that Reagan fostered a distrust by American voters in the government he ran, which led Americans to be fairly suspicious of any major social legislation for decades to come. 

Demonstrating a significant indicator of the political shift over the last 25 years even with the same people, the author cites internal Republican conflict: “McConnell was primarily focused on gaining and keeping power for his party. DeMint was trying to change the party itself,” (p189). As McConnell caught on that voters liked the shift rightward, Republicans who were passionate about health policy and engaged in negotiations could not vote to approve the ACA if they wanted election support. This (largely successful) effort to shift the Republican party further right has now been taken up by an increasingly powerful Freedom Caucus with the likes of Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert. Conversely, an ideological comparison (though less harmful) is that of the Progressive Caucus. I want to be careful to note here that Progressive Caucus is generally not inciting violence and is an ideological counterpart, not equally bad or good. 

The book documents the long term shift Republicans have focused on. People today wonder how Florida, for example, has become so right-wing fascist. The answer is that the effort began almost 50 years ago. One example can be found in right-leaning courts across the country. Another example can be found in the Federalist Society, which began in the 1970s as a law student organization and grew into an association for conservatives who believed there was a “liberal hegemony over both academia and the courts” (p255). Overall, I found this book to be a fascinating inside look into one of the most significant pieces of legislation since FDR. This book has far-reaching insightful political analysis related to both health policy and partisanship in America. 

Many thanks, Jeremy, for this recommendation. 

Miscellaneous quotes:

“‘The work goes on, the cause endured, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die,’” from Ted Kennedy (p104)

 “There is common strength in common vulnerability,” (p396).  

On Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King

Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King was a gripping true story of disturbing injustice to black residents of Florida. The book places heavy focus on then-civil rights lawyer, now-known-as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in his role as special counsel to the NAACP. I’ll note that, while these events took place in the late 1940s/early 1950s, a posthumous acquittal was issued as recently as 2021.  

This story is made all the more haunting by its verity. It’s also a scary reminder of the descent towards hate our state has come to and is spiraling towards. 70+ years ago, Florida had a record high of lynchings nationwide: “Florida recorded more lynchings of black people (266) than any other state, and from 1900 to 1930, a per capita lynching rate twice that of Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana….a black man had more risk of being lynched in Florida than any other place in the country,” (p127). It makes you wonder why most Floridians don't know this shocking truth.

An important note here is that the racism we talk about today is discussed as isolated racism, not white supremacy. But it is. It is not just about color, it’s a grotesque idea of genetic superiority by white Christians above anyone who is not both of those. Furthermore, today’s political pundits on the far right/those who use dog whistles to normalize white supremacies rhetoric use similar language the murderer and eight term Sheriff Willis McCall used when describing civil rights advocates: “part of the Communistic element trying to tear down racial relations; trying to separate the races instead of bringing them together,” (p219) going so far as to say the “Grand Dragon of the Southern Knights of the KKK had declared a war on ‘hate groups’, most notably the NAACP and B’nai B’rith,” (p315); no families in Orlando were willing to risk a Jewish lawyer spotted at its address (p269). It was 1951 when the FL Governor received letters from KKK leaders who were also officers, electeds, etc., saying “The Jew wishes to invade the South” (p315). To contextualize this time period, just after World War II and as Holocaust survivors needed a safe place to live, many found Florida.  As we look back into history and think about the civil rights movement and its martyrs, we often think of Martin Luther King Jr. However, it was the NAACP Florida Secretary, Harry T Moore to be the first civil rights leader to be assassinated in the US, murdered in a bombing at his own home in Mims, FL (p329). Additionally, church leaders who worked with Thurgood Marshall in desperate appeals to save the life of Walter Irvin, by mid 1950s the only living and still-on-trial alleged criminal, actually mentored Martin Luther King Jr. while he was in school. All of the segregation and intergenerational trauma associated with vitriolic racism, white supremacy, and violence, is recent. A raw wound must be addressed to heal. This book is essential reading.

Miscellaneous quotes: 

Referring to a photo of a lynched man, it wasn’t the man…”it was the virtually angelic faces of the white children, all of them dressed in their Sunday clothes, as their posed, grinning and smiling, in a semicircle around Rubin Stacy’s dangling corpse. In that horrid indifference to human suffering lay the legacy of yet another generation of white children, who, in turn, would without conscience prolong the agony of an entire other race,” (p6) 

“Black farmers [like the father of one of the murdered victims, Samuel Shepherd] threatened by their example, the whole system of servitude and force labor which is the base of the local economy.” (p115)

 

I posted this one a few weeks after I finished the book. 

Thank you Commissioner Wilson for this incredible recommendation.