Throughout her career, Senator Amy Klobuchar has always stuck to political “small ball,” refusing to use her carefully hoarded political capital to fight for the proposals that will take patience to enact, but will make the biggest difference for struggling Americans. The Star Tribune explains:
But as Klobuchar pursues the pragmatic politics of constituent service and bipartisan dealmaking, she faces some frustration on the left, particularly among gay activists and environmentalists who see her playing it safe in the middle of the road.
“There are big, fundamental system change issues we have to address,” said Steve Morse of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, which has battled Klobuchar over climate change legislation and her support for a new Stillwater bridge over the St. Croix River. “Dealing with swimming pools is good and important to families, but it doesn’t change the big drivers of our society.”
So, last night it was hardly surprising to see Klobuchar taking cheap shots at Senator Elizabeth Warren over Warren’s championing of for Medicare for All, which will obviously be challenging to pass in the near term.
“The difference between a plan and a pipe dream is whether it can actually get done.”
Bam! Klobuchar is likely high-fiving her (ducking) staffers this morning. She’s in the news! She’s finally relevant!
But from a progressive standpoint, here’s the fatal flaw with Klobuchar’s lifelong approach to leadership. Once upon a time, the following things were all considered by moderates like Klobuchar to be “pipe dreams not plans,” or things that Klobuchar would not deem worthy of a fight because, in their day, they didn’t immediately have the votes to pass: Medicare, civil rights, voting rights, minimum wage increases, and marriage equality, to name just a few.
Those things just happen to be some of the crowning policy achievements of the modern Democratic Party, and they never would have been enacted if progressives with political courage hadn’t fought for them at a stage when the votes weren’t there.
Senator Klobuchar’s biggest problem isn’t that she has a sordid record of being immature and cruel to staff, as disturbing as that is to those of us who believe that character is revealed by how you act when no one is watching. Klobuchar’s even bigger problem is that she will never be the kind of courageous leader who fights the most consequential fights for ordinary families, when the fight is not yet politically advantageous to her in the short-term.
As for Medicare-for-All, 247 independent economists recently are on the record countering Klobuchar’s criticism that Senator Warren’s approach will cost too much. Those economists find that Medicare-for-All will cost Americans less than the current corporate-driven system protected by Klobuchar, not more.
In the letter, the economists underline the savings of the multi-payer insurance system in the United States, especially compared to other countries. “Public financing for health is not a matter of raising new money for health care,” the letter states, “but of reducing total health care outlays and distributing payments more equitably and efficiently.”
Economic analyses by the Mercatus Center and the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, for example, have projected the Medicare for All would reduce total national health care costs by hundreds of billions of dollars each year while simultaneously guaranteeing safe, therapeutic health care for every person in the United States.
Senator Klobuchar is smart and does her homework, so she understands this truth. She also understands that if the votes aren’t immediately there for Medicare-for-All, Democrats will adjust, and try to enact Medicare-for-All-Who-Want-It or Obamacare improvements until the votes for Medicare-for-All do exist. She knows that’s how legislative strategy works.
But Klobuchar, hovering at just 2% in an average of national polls, is obviously desperate. So last evening, she went with a self-serving cheap shot over the truth, and advocated the easy policy path over the more impactful policy path. To Minnesota progressives, that sure sounds familiar, which may explain why she is running in fourth place in her home state.
Yes, I had the same response to the “pipe dream” comment. Recycling Beer Bottles was a pipe dream when I was in college. Amy seems proud of getting small things done, but she doesn’t risk her nose fighting for big things.
Amy, like Joe, and HRC are status quo conservatives. TRump and his minions are regressive, hoping to take everything backwards. Elizabeth and Bernie are “progressives”, those who wan to take us forward. I think that any other “so called” Democrat should just get out of the way already.
Thanks for writing this, Joe. From Day One, Amy has behaved like someone who’s chief value and goal is…….furthering her own political career.
Is this unusual among politicians? Probably not.
Is this inspiring? Definitely not.
She is one of those politicians who only stands up for an issue after it has already achieved safe, consensus status or been carefully calibrated to match her internal polls and focus groups to see whether this issue helps or hurts her future chances to be President, Vice-President or serve on the Supreme Court.
So she wastes an relatively safe Senate seat. No profiles of courage for this girl. She’s cautious, cowardly and canned.
The only good thing for Minnesotans about her national presidential run is that we can finally talk more openly about her. In statewide races, progressives like me are usually told to be quiet, because it’s either vote for Amy Klobuchar or whatever right-wing nut that the GOP has nominated. So we vote for Klobuchar. But it’s never felt good because she’s a mean person and a cowardly politician.
Typically well thought out and said, Lynnell. The last paragraph particularly hits home. When the option is no longer a Kurt Bills or Jim Neuberger, we can no longer afford to gloss over her glaring imperfections.
I well recall Sen. Klobuchar joining the ginned-up, Fox-propagandized-and-orchestrated outcry against Move On.org at a comparatively early stage of the Bush/Cheney Iraq debacle. Amy voted, in sneering contempt towards citizens’ exercise of First Amendment rights, to approve a resolution denouncing the newspaper ad labeling David Petraeus as General Betray-Us. Flag-waving, jingoism, and military arse-kissing —-how could a chicken-shit careerist do otherwise? I’m still waiting for her apologies to Move On and to her constituents, after that same Big Hero Patriotic Role Model of a Modern Major General was charged, arrested, and convicted of a crime for revealing military information to an unauthorized civilian, in this case, to the journalist writing a biography in expectation of Petraeus’ future political prospects. The versatile biographer stroked his pego as well as his ego since as the General’s mistress she added adultery to adulation. Violating the law, and his military oath, and his marriage vows, adds up to a quite conclusive scorecard justifying the epithet “Betray-Us.” Senator Klobuchar enjoys her play-it-safe popularity within the boundaries of Minnesota, but like her political mirror image, Norm Coleman, her ambition has always been her most-favored constituent. And after all, she might well have fared better than she has so far in this contest, except that in the egotism department, Joe Biden’s Godzilla can pulverize any pretender from Gopherville. If Klobuchar lucks through to become nominee despite her lack of luster, it could only mean the nomination’s going to be worthless.