Dear Progressive Reader,

As of this writing, police have still not identified the assailant who shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Although the incident has raised concerns over security and some calls for better gun regulation, but the main response so far has been an outpouring of complaints against insurance companies on social media, UnitedHealthcare appears to be among the worst of the worst—denying one third of all claims in 2023, more than any other health insurance company. There is a possibility that this targeted killing, horrific as was, may stimulate a national awakening around the issue of private health insurance coverage in the United States—which is currently the most expensive in the world. As KFF, the health policy research organization reports, “even among higher-income countries, the U.S. spends far more per person on health.” and, the report continues, “Over the past five decades, the health spending gap between the U.S. and peer nations has widened.” 

In 1989, the discovery of cyanide on two Chilean grapes (and a few other incidents that same year) led to a series of increased protocols nationwide to protect our food system, and a national awareness of the importance (and increased benefits) of organic food. As Heidi Tinsman notes in her 2014 book about the grape scandal, Buying into the Regime, “At the same time, the United Farm Workers and Chilean solidarity activists [in the United States] led parallel boycotts highlighting the use of pesticides and exploitation of labor in grape production.” The awareness raised about grape safety, ultimately also led to the modern organic foods movement, and the awakening of concerns among consumers of the conditions of the workers who grew their food. Perhaps this sudden outpouring of anger by consumers of the ways they are being treated by their insurance providers will bring about a restructuring of an industry that could be so much better. As U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has said, “We say to the private health insurance companies: whether you like it or not, the United States will join every other major country on earth and guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. All Americans are entitled to go to the doctor when they're sick and not go bankrupt after staying in the hospital.”

The latest issue of The Progressive is out and on its way to the mailboxes of our subscribers. This issue includes lots of great articles and columns, including a piece by John Nichols that looks at how Wisconsin bucked the trend in many other states and held the margin of victory for Donald Trump to a small percentage, while keeping Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin in office. “Baldwin ran a campaign that borrowed heavily from a progressive populist tradition that extended back to La Follette, he writes. Elsewhere on our website this week, Ruth Conniff looks at the Wisconsin court decision that may finally overturn the anti-union Act 10 after more than a decade; Mindy Isser reviews the new film Union that chronicles the struggle of workers to organize at Amazon; and Mike Ervin alerts us to protections instituted for wheelchair users on airplanes that could be abandoned by an incoming Trump Administration.

In addition, Navin Kariyawasam and Eric Zhao report on this week’s oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court over the State of Tennessee’s ban on transgender medical care; Stephen Zunes looks at the recent ruling by the International Criminal Court that holds Israeli leaders liable for war crimes; and Arvind Diliwar describes the ways in which complaints of antisemitism are being used to quash dissent on campuses. Plus, Eleanor Bader interviews psychologist Howard Gardner; Anthony Pahnke pens an op-ed on the real threat to food security; and Thomas Avant opines on what Democrats need to do in the wake of November’s significant losses.

Finally this week was bookended by two significant birthdays. On November 30, Shirley Chisholm would have turned 100 years old. As I noted in an earlier newsletter, “this year a number of exhibits, publications, and a new film are commemorating her life, her work, and her 1972 campaign. In New York City through next July, the first major museum exhibition on Chisholm and her career is on view to the public. A new book from the University of California Press that presents the first compendium of Chisholm’s speeches and writings comes out . . . . And, currently screening on Netflix, a biopic simply titled Shirley and starring Regina King, tells the story of her groundbreaking political career. As Ed Rampell wrote in his review on our website last March, “As today’s . . . presidential race unfolds, Shirley provides a stark contrast by dramatizing a campaign for the Oval Office more than half a century ago, when idealism was on the ballot.” Today, December 7, marks the ninety-sixth birthday of scholar, linguist, and activist Noam Chomsky. The current issue of The Progressive features a listing of a number of his publications available from Haymarket Books. In October 2019, Chomsky spoke at an event for The Progressive in Tucson, Arizona, which is available to view on our YouTube channel. Happy Birthday Professor Chomsky!

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

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