And it doesn’t take long before the glitter and shine of these “reform” measures have worn off and people begin to turn against them — even going so far as wanting them repealed and joining together with reactionary forces to overturn them.

Both of these are essential elements in the method used by the exploiting and oppressing classes toward “reform” measures they don’t want to adopt but are forced to, due to popular pressure, changing material circumstances or economic necessity.

The capitalists and their “middle class” managers have learned two essential “truths” when it comes to adopting “reform” measures: 1) the more that people feel disconnected from the measures, the less they will actually fight for their faithful implementation, and 2) the best way to turn people against a “reform” measure, even one with mass popular support, is to administer in such a way as to make it unpopular.

The prototype for this was the implementation of affirmative action and busing programs in the 1970s. Affirmative action was initially a popular “reform” measure that would begin to reverse centuries of institutionalized racial and gender discrimination by improving opportunities in housing, education and hiring practices.

But the ruling classes administered these programs in such a way as to breed mass resentment and anger. They were able to take a popular impulse to reverse discriminatory practices and turn it on its head, pitting African American and white workers against each other, and men and women against each other, for jobs and education.

They were able to take popular attempts to reduce the use of offensive language in public discourse (“politically correct”) and turn it into an attack on “free speech.”

The end result, as we have seen in recent years, has been to reverse these programs and efforts, and to set back attempts to “reform” institutionalized and cultural/social discrimination out of existence — all with the support of the same “popular opinion” that led to these “reform” measures being proposed and fought for in the first place.

Today, universal health care is a popular “reform” demand, which has prompted the passage of the current Congressional legislation over and against the objections of large sections of the ruling classes. There is little doubt that they will apply this method of “reform” to this new measure, with the goal of achieving similar results.