Where is the movement? Notes on the PA HCAN campaign.
Pretty much every day for the last few weeks, I talk to a health care activist last week who is freaking out about the ups and downs in Congressional consideration of health care. “Relax” I said. “There are always ups and downs whenever Congress is considering any important legislation. There is always a great deal of tension and division and dispute—some of it is real and some of it is posturing. We are going to win, because we are building a real movement for historic reform.” “But where is that movement?” he said. It’s a good question. And I have to say that, despite my spending twenty five years as a political scientist who sometimes taught and wrote about political and social movements, I don’t think I ever understood what a political movement was until this moment. I understand what one is now because at this moment I’m kind of… Continue reading