Senator Edward Kennedy: What More Fitting Memorial Than Passing Healtchare Reform

For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.

Education and Healthcare Reform were two issues Senator Edward Kennedy felt and fought strongly about. Had his health not prevented him from adding his booming voice to this campaign, I wonder if it might not be going differently at this point. Some people are just too venerable to shout down.

Senator Kennedy could be the last vestige of an era in this country that will never return. The era ushered in by Franklin Roosevelt when it was taken for granted that those with money and power had a reponsibility toward those who had neither. Ending poverty was so entrenched in the American psyche that even Republican presidents like Richard Nixon accepted it as part of their legacy. That, of course, came to an abrupt end with Ronald Reagan and every president––Republican or Democrat––since. (Clinton presided over Welfare Reform that created a new class in our country, the working poor.)

Senator Kennedy summoned all his strength to appear at the last Democratic Convention. Though terminally ill, he was obviously energized by the Obama campaign as were other formerly prosaic speakers like John Kerry. Sadly, that energy seems to be waning, replaced by the old "appease the enemies of big government so I can get re-elected" strategy.

Senator Kennedy's death doesn't need to be an end. It can be a beginning. What could be a more fitting memorial to the man than reviving the moral argument for Healthcare Reform and putting behind it all the energy then candidate Obama used to raise the hopes of minorities, young people, and us Progressive Democrats who never thought our party would rise to its former glory. Or the President and Congress could pay the usual lip service then stop mentioning Senator Kennedy's name lest it push the Conservatives (for whom Kennedy was a huge pain in the you-know-what) farther away.

Kennedy believed Obama could usher in a new era, or more correctly, revive an older, better one. Maybe we should change that campaign cry to "I hope he can."