The bill’s failure to get a vote in the Legislature was a blow to the party’s left wing.
SACRAMENTO — The unceremonious collapse of California’s single-payer health care legislation — without so much as a vote — has the left desperate for answers.
Instead of serving as a liberal model for national Democrats, Sacramento ended up this week in the same place as Washington: with a single-payer bill that galvanized the party’s left flank but gained little traction as moderates balked and powerful opponents closed ranks.
The result has demoralized progressives and demonstrated the boundaries of their influence, even in a state like California, where Democrats control more than two-thirds of the Legislature.
The bill’s failure “illustrates what an uphill battle we have ahead of us,” said David Campos, a California Democratic Party official and single-payer advocate who is running for state Assembly. “I think we need to figure out where we go from here as a progressive movement,” he added.
The health care defeat is just the latest setback for the progressive movement amid signs the party is recalibrating its stances on policing and criminal justice. Elected officials from San Francisco to New York City have ramped up their tough-on-crime rhetoric in response to an uptick in violent incidents and a rash of organized property crimes that have left Democrats vulnerable to political attacks from the right.
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Single-payer health care legislation collapsed in Sacramento much like it has in Washington https://t.co/vk3PQ1xOP7
— POLITICO (@politico) February 5, 2022
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