Blue America Has A First Congressional Candidate For 2012-- Meet Nicholas Ruiz (D-FL)

Although Blue Dog honcho Heath Shuler and ex-Blue Dog DCCC honcho Steve Israel are running around Florida looking for conservative Democrats to run for the GOP-held congressional seats that were lost in November-- primarily by conservative Democrats-- Blue America is happy to offer a forum for a progressive Democrat who is already officially in the race against healthcare hypocrite Sandy Adams. This afternoon Digby, John and I will be live blogging with Nicholas Ruiz III, the first congressional candidate endorsed by the Blue America PAC for the 2012 cycle.

The session starts at 2pm (ET/11am on the West Coast). You may be aware that Nicholas ran as a Green Party write-in candidate in 2008. This time he's re-registered as a Democrat, but very much NOT of the conservative variety. If reactionary Republicans seek, for example, to push back the Social Security retirement age to 70 and conservative Democrats want to just slow that down or even keep in where it is, Nicholas has a completely different-- progressive-- approach: encouraging people to retire with dignity even earlier as a way to increase employment opportunities for younger people unable to find jobs. Blue America is very interested in the way he thinks through problems and comes up with out-of-the-box solutions that are not necessarily part of the agendas of either of the national political parties but, instead, benefit ordinary working families.

Yesterday Nicholas helped define the difference bwteen progressives and the transpartisan conservative coalition that's been running the show:

The Democrats used to be leaders on labor. What happened? Now they want to freeze government workers' wages. The Democrats used to be leaders on child welfare. Now Florida ranks 47th in child healthcare. But perhaps we can explain that-- Florida is governed mostly by Republicans and Republicrats. It goes to show you what happens when Democrats stop holding the line and retreat. The time has come for Democrats to live up to their name. FDR once said: "A conservative is a person with two perfectly good legs, who however, has never learned to walk forward." We're not conservatives-- we're Democrats, and by definition, we're progressive.

Last month when I asked him how he differed with the rabid anti-healthcare conservatives Suzanne Kosmas (D), who voted against the healthcare bill and was defeated because Democrats didn't come to the polls, and Sandy Adams (R) who just voted to repeal the bill-- even though she and her family get government-subsidized healthcare through his job as a circuit court judge he sent me this:

We must decide, once and for all, what sort of society defines America. We have already decided that law enforcement (i.e. the police department) is a guaranteed service for all, regardless of social or economic status. We have also decided that the fire department is a guaranteed service. Our society, rightfully so, honors both of these public features. They are freely available to all, regardless of the size of one's wallet.

Why should healthcare be any different?

Social justice in a lawful commonwealth of society demands that when a person is attacked or threatened by crime or fire, the public will come to his or her aid. And when a person is attacked or threatened by disease, should the public not do the same?

We already employ an integral non-profit, for profit and single payer scaffolding to provide healthcare services. There is no reason to believe that all of these systems may not continue to work side by side in a free society. However, it is difficult to imagine that we can continue to allow profiteering to masquerade as uncontrollable healthcare costs that must consume such a large piece of our national income. Costs will have to be controlled through regulation. What is most important now is to take that final step and declare universal access to comprehensive healthcare as a standard public service, in the same way that fire and police services are a social norm everywhere. When will America realize that it is her ethical, logical, common sense and spiritual duty to provide universal healthcare services to her people?

America must no longer accept the false narrative of scarcity and withholding when it comes to healthcare. Social justice demands that all of our people receive universal access to all of these vital basic services. It is no great nation that denies these basic human services to people. In fact, anything less is uncivilized.

By selecting Nicholas as our first endorsee, Blue America is putting the bar very high, much higher than we have ever done before. No more fooling around; let's put progressive Democrats in Congress. Please consider helping here.