For the last four years, conservatives have so obsessed on a single issue that it implies a serious mental deficiency. They find themselves shutting down the government, threatening to default on debt payments and using the one word that defines the issue so much, that they find themselves jokingly saying it as a response to other questions. That issue, is the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
Well expect more of t
hat! Dana Millbank of the Washington Post has written a great article on how the GOP really doesn’t have another issue. RNC Chairman Rhince Preibus, who at one point headed a post 2012 Republican “autopsy” that declared being more open to issues that Latinos, African-Americans and homosexuals find important, now finds himself summing up the entire 2014 strategy in one brief line: “The answer is Obamacare!”
Which was actually a joking response when asked if “Obamacare is going to be the Johnny-one-note campaign for Republicans” in which “every issue that comes up, you’re going to respond with Obamacare.” Rhince laughed it off and then reaffirmed the “joke” by saying “it’s not possible for this not to be the No. 1 issue going into the 2014 elections. It’s just not.. . . So the answer to your question is, it is going to be the No. 1 issue in 2014.”
I don’t think I can roll my eyes any harder, though I must admit it gives me hope. You see, in politics, when your moves can be telegraphed so far in advance, you are in for long summer, though when your strategy basically relies on your opponent screwing up? You’re in for a long hard fall (both the season and the collapse).
You can’t win elections by hoping your opponent loses them for you, and if Obamacare proves to be a success, which seemed like a long-shot a month ago, though far more likely today with almost 7 million people being added to health care in three months (mostly through Medicaid, though 2 million to through the Federal exchanges) and likely much more as the numbers from the better functioning state exchanges like California, New York and Kentucky start to come in. It is below the White House’s self-inflicted pace, though the rebound in December was so swift that it has all but silenced the media attention to the ‘imminent collapse of Obamacare’ and they moved on to pointless stories like that Duck Dynasty distraction. Point is, that poll numbers have mostly rebounded on Obamacare, there is no support for its repeal and in one months time the GOP’s wet dream turned into something they have to sleep till November. Be careful what you wish for.
Harping on one issue, especially one that ranks out of the top 3 top issues for most Americans is not a way to show the American people, who are reeling from income inequality, unemployment and a corporate sector that is as rich as it is heartless. They are no longer concerned with starting wars abroad, or even finishing the ones we did start. They are interested in improving our failing bridges, making society more fair and doing it in a way that is fair. A fair deal.
That is why most voters stay home, especially during midterms, so expect the GOP to also hope for African-Americans, Latinos and those under 30 to stay home. They will pound the air waves with billions in expensive ads paid for by cynical old billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Aidelson and Art Pope, the last of which bought North Carolina through expensive elections and turned a purple state into a safe haven for nutso conservative, far-right lunatics.
In 2010, the Tea Party used Obamacare to “take their country back”, or well, the House and many state legislatures (which they used to redistrict US congressional seats to make them Republican safe seats that split Latino and Black districts). Then they were trampled in 2012 with the same message.
Will the message find resonance again? It could, if people stay home. It could, if Democrats fail to educate voters about the truly positive effects of the Affordable Care Act. It could if everything breaks their way and the ACA is an utter failure. Though my money is against this. The truth is, the Republican Party has become the laziest political party in US History. They don’t stand for any real issue, more against everything Democrats and Obama propose. They don’t have any solutions to any of the problems our country faces, and the ones they have offered up are so laughable that anyone with a college degree laughs in their face. They represent only the interests of billionaires and multi-national corporations.
This is why billionaires and multi-national corporations are going to spend half a trillion dollars this election cycle to keep Republicans dividing and distracting Americans from the issues at hand. This is why they talk about Climate Change being a hoax, to prevent any laws that force these corporations to stop polluting and instead keep the debate on whether or not the sky is blue. That is why they talk about Duck Dynasty, because it’s an affront to their Christian beliefs or something (funny, not in the Bible I read) to not be allowed to single out homosexuals as if they were the only type of sinner the Bible said bad things about (I will save this for another day though). That is why everything the Democrats want to do is an affront to liberty and justice and the Founding Fathers and America blah blah blah that the Betty Crocker utopia that never existed, because anything that keeps people distracted allows the billionaires to keep getting away with what they are getting away with, robbing and pillaging the US treasury for corporate welfare projects and passing laws that allow them to be first class citizens while we all get stuck in the baggage compartment.
That is why, Republicans will throw all their chips into Obamacare. They really don’t have anything else to offer but division, hate and stubborn resistance to the changing world. So get ready, because it’s going to be another annoying year.