by Jonathan Krall
On March 12, 2024, after nearly two years of steady effort by a coalition of Alexandrians, the Alexandria City Council passed a resolution in support of Medicare For All, adding to the national map of Medicare For All support. The coalition consisted of Grassroots Alexandria, the Northern Virginia Branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, Our Revolution Northern Virginia, and Tenants and Workers United. This is how we did it.
This is part 1 of a 4-part story.
What is power?
Power is the ability to get a decision-maker to do the right thing when they would prefer to do otherwise. Even when we ask a decision-maker to support a cause that they already favor, they can be hesitant to take action. They might be busy with the annual cycle of meetings. They might not have confidence in public support for this particular “right thing.” When we asked our city council for a Medicare For All resolution, we were adding to their workload.
Coalition power is temporary. Our coalition came together around a specific goal. We built tools, such as flyers and petitions. We demonstrated our power by showing up in public and in the media. Fortunately, power is attractive. When our coalition becomes attractive enough, decision-makers join us. When enough decision-makers join us, we win.
In old-fashioned coalition politics, they say that today’s enemy can be tomorrow’s ally. More truthfully, it’s today’s friend, who likes us but doesn’t have time to help us, who can be tomorrow’s fierce ally. Either way, we have no permanent allies and no permanent enemies. This is why we always treat people with respect (or at least try; I myself don’t always succeed). We hesitate to “burn bridges.”
The process, part 1: commissions
In Alexandria, we have boards and commissions that advise City Council. Initially, we approached individual City Council members, the Public Health Advisory Commission, and the Commission on Aging. It helped that a volunteer from Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (the parent chapter of NoVA DSA) had already drafted a resolution, based on similar resolutions in DC, Montgomery County, Prince Gorge’s County, and on Alexandria’s 2017 Affordable Care Act resolution.
When we approached members of City Council, we were asked if we had the support of relevant boards and commissions. That City Council encouraged us to reach out to the commissions was a good sign. If they didn’t want us to succeed, they would have simply discouraged us. In fact, when we failed to gain traction with the first two commissions we visited (and visited, and visited…), Councilman Canek Aguirre suggested we might get more traction with the Economic Opportunities Commission.
Ideally, after initially reaching out to both council and the commissions, we would spend time lining up commission support. With that in place, we would circle back to City Council. At every monthly commission meeting, we asked for a letter of support or, failing that, an informative written response. With or without their support, we needed receipts, information that we could share with City Council. In all cases, we showed up with representatives from more than one organization, usually NoVA DSA and Grassroots Alexandria.
At commission meetings, we faced a brick wall of skepticism. The Commission on Aging, expressing concern that Medicare For All might be worse than current Medicare, voted us down. That same month, November 2022, the Economic Opportunities Commission cited “many other high priority needs affecting the community,” and voted down a draft letter of support. My personal best guess is that lack of diversity among our team did not go over well with a commission whose membership clearly valued diversity. Perhaps that’s just the way I personally processed the vibe in the room.
During the long months of Commission on Aging debate over the impact of universal Medicare on the quality-of-life of people on current Medicare, we sought support from other organizations. The Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria was receptive, but not willing to support us without the support of the relevant advisory commissions. Our mission received a more positive response from the Alexandria Democratic Committee, which passed a resolution of support in October, 2022. This was helped along by an Our Revolution Northern Virginia volunteer who was also active in the ADC. In December 2022, Tenants and Workers United supported us with a letter to the Public Health Advisory Commission.
Eventually, in March 2023, the Public Health Advisory Commission voted to send us a letter of non-support: “while the Commission agrees that access to quality healthcare is critical, we have not been able to reach a consensus on any specific recommendations at this time.”
By March 2023, we had begun to visit City Council public hearings (more on that later). In an informal conversation before one of these hearings, Councilmember Sarah Bagley offered to reach out to the Public Health Advisory Commission to get them off the fence. On the advice of Brittany Shannahan of Public Citizen, who was part of our team, we stayed away from commission meetings for a while. Eventually, in May 2023, Ms. Bagley said she thought we should proceed without commission support.
Next, in Part 2: While the Public Health Advisory Commission debates the scope of their public health advisory mission (Medicare For All did not make the cut), we turned to the public.