Abnormal Politics

The notion of a Governor or a President with no public service experience may seem quaint and charming – until it’s not.

The idea of “throwing the bums out” may be exciting for a moment at election time, until it turns out that the real trouble are the clueless new guys. This is the case in Washington now.

We are also at a delicate point with the State of Tennessee considering an inexperienced team in the front office. With the worst of the COVID-19 hospital demand surge coming, the rest of us hope the administration of Gov. Bill Lee is making smart choices.

Their flip-flops on how much information on the COVID-19 impacts to release publicly has not been a good look for the governor. The delay in giving a firm order to “stay at home” may yet prove deadly.

What kind of ideology is it that keeps a state’s leaders from expanding Medicaid to help so many thousands of Tennesseans facing illness uninsured? The answer is staring the governor and legislature in the face: Expand Medicaid now. Why do they not? People are now at risk in Tennessee communities both urban and rural. And over a billion dollars of Tennessee’s money is just sitting there in Washington.

Lee seems uneasy with his own responsibilities. Yes, he is a good man. Yes, the members of the legislature are good people, by and large, and they too come from good homes and fine families. The problem is they are all still gripped in a hoary, threadbare old political myth – and are fearful of throwing it off even at a time like this. The opposition to Medicaid expansion is a vestige of the old Republican politics of the Obama era.

Let’s at least see the thing clearly: When the former Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, who had lost the governorship to Gov. Bill Haslam, was speaker of the state Senate he made up his mind to defy Gov. Haslam on the issue. Haslam saw Medicaid expansion as the hope for better health management for a quarter-million Tennesseans. But Ramsey, an adroit politician, made it a test of anti-Obama Republicanism, and the legislature fell in line.

But that was then. This is now. And the rank-and-file legislators now serving don’t even talk about it anymore, let alone explain why they remain opposed. It is, in fact, a shameful legacy that lives on – until someone calls a halt to the nonsense. That’s what Gov. Lee could do now. There is no objective reason why this cannot happen and quickly, except for an ugly history of politics that no one will even squarely address now. Our governor who has no such baggage could save the day.

This isn’t about Obama anymore. It’s about your neighbors. It is no longer about political vendettas in Washington. Forget all that. It’s about a test of courage and leadership now at the state capitol. This is about a life-or-death reality that too many Tennessee communities are facing in the current pandemic. 

This crisis is the time to do it, but the window is closing. When the legislature returns on June 1 – unless they are called back sooner – this is the time for an action agenda for human health, welfare and life. The governor ought to lead that conversation, rejecting this abnormal political baggage which had nothing to do with him.

Medicaid expansion is the answer. It’s not complicated for a quarter-million uninsured Tennesseans still trapped in the coverage gap.

A special legislative session ought to be convened this month. We can argue whether anything else ought to be included in the call – for example, how to help people vote safely in a pandemic – but it makes abundant good sense to expand Medicaid now.

In our state Capitol legislators need a dose of reality on health insurance – not more tired anti-Obama rhetoric – and the governor can supply it, if he will. What we need is a new resolve and action to save people.

Tennesseans are already dying in this COVID-19 nightmare. A thousand more of us are staring death in the eye, and too many community hospitals have closed. We are all facing a grim and fearful future. What this moment requires is courage and fresh thinking, and leadership of the type for which you were elected.

The time to make ready grows short.