Quote for the Day: "This Is a Replay of the Civil Rights Drama That Gripped the Nation More Than Half a Century Ago"

Robert Scheer at Truthdig on the racism and cruelty driving the GOP's healthcare agenda:

In the end, this is a replay of the civil rights drama that gripped the nation more than half a century ago, but back then the Republican Party, following the enlightened leadership of Dwight Eisenhower, was on the humanitarian side of the equation. Now the elected leaders of a party that has been on the side of emancipation since the presidency of Abraham Lincoln acts to deny the basic human right to life-sustaining health care to the Southern progeny of slaves. As the Times study noted: "In all, 6 out of 10 blacks live in the states not expanding Medicaid. In Mississippi, 56 percent of all poor and uninsured adults are black, though they account for just 38 percent of the population."

The New York Times article to which Scheer refers here is discussed earlier in his article. It's by Sabrina Tavernise and Robert Gebelhof and is here.

The photograph of a former slave whose back was severely scarred from beatings is from the National Archives, by way of Time.