Why I’m voting "No" on the Democratic Party platform

 

I just announced that I will be voting “No” on the Democratic Party platform because it does not include Medicare for All.

I just announced that I will be voting “No” on the Democratic Party platform that has been put in front of Democratic National Convention delegates for our approval.

Let me be clear: I will do everything possible to help end the disastrous presidency of Donald Trump, and that means emphatically supporting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

But, I will be voting “No” on the platform because when we say that healthcare is a human right, we must truly mean it — and fight for it.

I believe that moving away from a profit-based health care system is the moral issue of our time. Because of that belief, I cannot vote for a platform that lacks a clear statement supporting Medicare for All.

We have to continue to transform the Democratic Party so that it fights to guarantee healthcare as a human right. That’s why I am proud to be a Justice Democrat — every single Justice Democrat supports Medicare for All and JD is helping to build progressive power in the halls of Congress.

Some may ask: "Why does the left have such a hard time understanding that you don't get 100 percent of what you want, that the truly great gains are made incrementally?"

To this I say, nobody understands the realities of incrementalism better than progressives. Harry Truman ran and won on universal healthcare in 1948, and it was part of Democratic Party platforms until 1980. Thirty-six years later, the 2016 platform merely called for lowering the eligibility age for Medicare to 55.

The 2020 platform proposes raising the goal to 60. That is not incrementalism; that is moving backwards.

• I will be voting "No" on the platform because when we say that healthcare is a human right, we must truly mean it—and fight for it. I believe if we remain stuck on such concepts as "affordable" when talking about solutions to healthcare accessibility, we are badly constrained inside a limited debate.
  
  
• I will cast my one vote of "No" for every person who has had to ration medication to afford food, or who has lost a loved one because a procedure that a doctor said was needed was not covered in an insurance plan.
  
  
• I will cast a "No" vote because, in the words of our great Democratic National Committee member from Iowa, Jodi Clemens, "Our friends are dying"— and I want my party, the Democratic Party, to address this moral problem with clarity of moral purpose.

The status quo is literally killing people. Folks aren’t able to afford insulin and are having to choose between feeding themselves or being able to purchase their medication. This is happening while CEOs and for-profit corporations are making huge profits.

Thank you for your support and for joining me in the fight to guarantee healthcare as a human right.

In solidarity,

Ro Khanna

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