Republican politicians from the poorer states are already having doubts about Trump and his team. This is from the Guardian:
Bill Cassidy, the Republican US senator, has said his home state of Louisiana’s recent decision to cancel the promotion of mass vaccination against preventable diseases is a disservice to parents who want to keep their children healthy.
Nonetheless, before those remarks, the medical doctor-turned-politician who has clashed with Donald Trump joined 51 of his fellow Republicans in voting to confirm anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary of the US’s health and human services department.
This led me to wonder how Huey Long (1893-1935), the populist governor of, and then senator for, Louisiana, approached vaccination.
The answer is to be found on a website devoted to his memory and career:
Through the Board of Health, Long tripled funding for public healthcare. The state’s free health clinics grew from 10 in 1926 to 31 in 1933, providing free immunizations to 67 per cent of the rural population.
I find Long a fascinating figure and, while I know we're supposed to disapprove of populism, I miss the days when it was part of the varied ideology behind community politics.
Liberals then saw themselves as the people who looked after the run-down end of the borough and who made Town Hall listen to local residents.
But then much of our campaigning at the last election - on the health and on water - had an element of populism. But has the Conservatives had succeeded in uniting pretty much the entire nation against them on these issues, it was hard to accuse us of being divisive.
You are saying here that the LibDems should be the populist party. Allowing communities to develop an identity, to return pride in jobs ie An apprentice passes his tasks and then can be proud he is an ? whatever the apprentice job is.WE need to own that populist ideology and develop it in our rejoins and push in manifesto.
ReplyDeleteAnother example could be get the Aircraft carriers back in full action. That brings life back into our ports and gives engineering/manufacturing jobs. It is time to bring back the old Libdemmery and be THE popular(ist) party.