There was a spiritual dimension
to the victory of health care reform last night.  One that decent people of any religion can celebrate.

A precedent was set that may help
reverse a deep misunderstanding of the nature of democratic government, and
this precedent is a deeply moral and ethical one.

The idea of democratic
self-governance by a community of equals is to enable it to serve its own
interests as well as it is capable. 
In this democratic government is like undemocratic government – but with
one exception.  For kings and
oligarchs and single parties the entire community is supposed to be a resource
through which the leaders serve themselves.  In a democratic one such as ours the community exists to
seek its own good.  This may seem a
small distinction, but it is a pivotal one. 

Oligarchs and worse will always
seek to twist that goal into their own direction, and always will succeed to
some degree.  But rarely have they
done a better job than during the past several decades.  Entirely lost in our public debate has
been any sense that our government should be our servant.  When in power the dominators claimed we
should be subject to it.  When out
of power the same dominators treated it as a alien force planning to enslave
us.  Entirely lost from our public
debate was the Founders’ vision of a free community of self-governing people as
an ideal.

Democratic governance is the
means by which a community can address goods for itself that neither small
scale cooperation nor a free market can address – goods like health care.  Private insurance CAN NOT make medical
insurance available for everyone because its motive – profit – when combined
with ever increasing knowledge of who is likely to get sick and by how much –
combine to guarantee those who need it most will be unable to afford it while
those who need it least will.  The
ONLY solution that makes long-term sense is to create one big pool – the
community as a whole.

In my view single payer makes the
most sense, but our public debate was so distorted by ignorance, power, money,
and corruption that it never got much attention – despite having more public
support than any other option. 

However, by requiring everyone to
join while prohibiting companies from using pre-existing conditions to deny anyone
admittance, “Obamacare” is a rough approximation to it.  It tries to address our needs as a
community of citizens from within the deeply inappropriate private insurance
model that sees us as nothing but a gaggle of consumers.

Flawed as it is, “Obamacare” re-establishes
two essential principles.  First,
as a community we can and should seek to address community wide problems that
inflict great suffering on its weakest embers. 

Second, the avenues through which
we can think about a better life are more numerous than simply capitalism and
small-scale private cooperation. 
Both are part of the options, but there is so much more that is
possible. The world of possibilities is opened wider.

A certain impoverished brand of
spirituality sees all spiritual issues in purely individual terms.  Glen  Beck and his war on “social justice” seems to be one of its
avatars.  But genuine spirituality
enlarges our context of care beyond our narrow selves to embrace a steadily
widening sphere of concern.  Other
people, even strangers, become important. For those who, like ourselves, see
the Sacred as embracing the earth, this wonderful planet we share with so many
other beings is included.  And all
that lives here.

Last night America as a nation
finally opened its eyes to a wider and deeper context of care. One embracing
the insights of every religion worthy of the name.  And it did so as our Founders hoped it would happen – not
through enforcing a religious vision but enabling those of us who are motivated
by our spiritual visions to come together, each in our own way, to serve the
larger good that encompasses us all.

This was the real victory last
night, and this was why the forces of fear and domination, human and otherwise,
worked so incredibly hard against it. 
They lost.  I think a
crucial corner may have been turned.  May they continue to do so.

UPDATE