BONUS: Should we be nostalgic for machine politics?
The Big Dig Season 4: Mitt & Ted, a healthcare storyShow Notes
There’s a lot of talk lately about patronage politics returning to Washington – a system based on loyalty, relationships, favors and transactions – but this kind of system is not new. Patronage was once the beating heart of the Democratic Party, and of course, the Massachusetts state lottery. So what changed? How did the party of patronage become the party of technocrats? In this second interview episode, host Ian Coss speaks with historian Lily Geismer, co-editor of a new book about the evolution of the Democratic Party: “Mastery and Drift: Professional Class Liberals Since 1960.”
More from The Big Dig Season 4: Mitt & Ted, a healthcare story
Time is running out for Massachusetts to pass healthcare reform. The bill’s fate now rests with the two old friends who run the state legislature and control everything that happens there. Unfortunately, these old friends have stopped talking.
The controversial centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act – the requirement for all Americans to purchase health insurance – began its strange political journey at the conservative Heritage Foundation. In deep blue Massachusetts the mandate was considered a fringe idea, until it lands on Governor Romney’s desk.
After their bruising senate campaign, Kennedy and Romney reunite for a mission to lobby the Bush administration. At stake: more than a billion dollars of federal money that is propping up the state’s entire healthcare system.
In the midst of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon reaches out to his rival Ted Kennedy and offers him a deal – a one time chance to reshape American healthcare, which might also save Nixon’s doomed presidency. Will the young senator take the deal?
Mitt Romney’s first political campaign was not for president or governor; it was for the U.S. Senate, and it was against Ted Kennedy. Early on the challenger looks unstoppable – handsome, eloquent, moderate – then the Kennedy camp starts digging into Romney’s past. --- Special thanks to FRONTLINE for archival sound from The Long March of Newt Gingrich & The Health Care Gamble.