The Democratic National Convention was designed to get us all excited about voting in the November 3 election. But the party’s candidate is Joe Biden.
The prospect of voting for Biden makes me feel the same way I imagine I would feel about living off of a diet of rice cakes while recovering from a heart attack. I’d do it, because I’m scared of what will happen if I don’t. But don’t expect me to be thrilled about it.
“We live in the richest country in history, and yet we do not guarantee this most basic human right. Everyone living in America should get the health care they need, regardless of their employment status or ability to pay.”
The convention was also designed to project the old big tent image—a movement powered by all kinds of people in all kinds of shapes and colors who come from all over. But whenever I hear about a big tent, I always wonder how wheelchair accessible it is. It’s not unlike proud liberals to forget about disabled folks when they boast about how inclusive they are.
To show that disabled folks are welcome inside the big tent, activist and wheelchair user Ady Barkan was invited to address the convention, on its second night, via video.
It was a good choice. Barkan is disabled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He uses a ventilator and communicates via one of those Stephen Hawking talking boxes. He used the occasion to eloquently critique the nation’s screwed up health-care system.
“In the midst of a pandemic, nearly 100 million Americans do not have sufficient health insurance,” Barkan said. “Our loved ones are dying in unsafe nursing homes. Our nurses are overwhelmed and unprotected. And our essential workers are treated as dispensable.
“We live in the richest country in history, and yet we do not guarantee this most basic human right. Everyone living in America should get the health care they need, regardless of their employment status or ability to pay.”
It was a short but stirring speech and the fact that it was delivered by a talking box made it all the more engaging. There’s something about that cyborg voice that makes whatever it’s saying sound dramatic and compelling, even if it’s just reading the phone book or telling a knock-knock joke.
And then, of course, Barkan endorsed Biden for President. That’s quite gracious of him, considering that Barkan’s signature issue is the establishment of a single-payer, Medicare for All health-care system, which has little chance of that happening if Biden becomes President.
Barkan said in his speech, “With a compassionate and intelligent President, we must act together and put on his desk a bill that guarantees us all the health care we deserve.”
But I doubt that Biden would sign such a bill. And I think Democrat leaders in Congress would save him the embarrassment by not even allowing such a bill to find its way to his desk.
In an email interview with The New York Times, Barkan was asked if he feared the Democrat Party leadership might tokenize him by embracing him but rejecting his agenda.
Barkan replied: “I definitely don’t want to be co-opted! Obviously, we can’t accomplish anything good with Republicans in control. So I see my role, and the role of the progressive movement, as trying to get more and better Democrats elected to office, and then pushing hard to get them to promote justice and equity when they get there.”
I hope that strategy works. We’ll see. If the Democrats just pat Barkan on the head and send him on his way, we’ll know their big tent isn’t accessible after all.