text: As he deployed 1199's resources to shore up New York's medical and political establishments, Rivera also burnished his progressive bona fides, championing tenants' rights, gay marriage, universal health care, and the withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. In the modern incarnation of 1199, forged in Rivera's image, the line between politics and ideology becomes increasingly blurry, as does the distinction between power as a means and as an end in itself.