BROOKLYN — After the historic vote this weekend by the House on healthcare reform, President Obama told those who voted for it that they will realize, “This was my finest moment in politics.�

And he’s right. It is unlikely any of the members will be called on again to vote for any single issue that will contribute so much to the general welfare of the nation as this bill.

Other votes on the same legislation will really not mean as much as this past vote. They will be confirmation votes of what they already put into motion.

It is uncommonly difficult to balance an act in November 2009 with what that act will have led to by 2029. But a student of national history will have no difficulty comparing the vote a few days ago with the passage of Social Security in 1936 and subsequent votes on Medicare and Medicaid, unemployment compensation and the minimum wage.

Also included in this lineup are the various civil rights acts and “one man one vote.� These measures are part of our political history and went far to make us what we are today.

I have lived long enough to have witnessed the historic votes of the 1960s as well as this current one, and have suggested to my son and daughter that they pay attention to what’s happening now. They are witnesses to history and may not have the same chance again. (They were insulted by such a didactic command.)

I was alive in 1936, but because I was so young, I have no memory of that period. This has given me pause to reflect how many profound acts have taken place in 75 years to “promote the general welfare� of this country and its people.

And I confess that even I am astonished by the hideous and repugnant public acts opposing healthcare reform. We first experienced this raw intensity during the public meetings held in August. These backfired, but not enough.

The reports, again noted by columnist Paul Krugman this week, of signs at last week’s anti-bill rally in Washington showing piles of bodies at a concentration camp labeled “National Socialist Healthcare� are the kinds of madness employed to fight healthcare reform. (The Nazis in Germany were officially known as the National Socialist Party.)

Ironically, stooping to such tactics this year is a carbon copy of the tactics the Nazis used in the early 1930s to gain power in Germany.

I have pondered why the Republican opposition to almost everything Obama has proposed has been so frantic and panic-stricken. One can conclude, as I have occasionally, that these tactics are like suicide missions, and a steady drumbeat of them has to be self-defeating.

It is almost as if they realize that if Obama’s proposals get accepted, it will prove that so much of what they have stood for is proved wrong. So, they are adopting a scorched-earth approach, regardless of the cost to them and their party.

History was made this weekend and Senate members will earn their place in the pages soon enough.

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