Republican Attacks on the ACA Create an Opportunity for Single Payer Activists

The movement for single payer universal health care has demonstrated once again that principled, program-oriented work will net more results for the working class than the facile 'strategic' thinking that paralyzes us with Democratic Party tailism. For the first time ever, a sizable fraction of the House of Representatives, just over 100 legislators in all, supports HR 676, 'Expanded and Improved Medicare for All'. Although this victory is limited in scope, it shows that important struggles can and should be pushed forward even when the Republican Party holds sway in the government, and that building principled movements, not meekly falling in behind the Democrats in a losing 'defensive alliance' with our class adversaries, is the winning strategy.