In the post re-election glow of Obama, the GOP and right-wing set about licking its wounds and wondering what went wrong. How could they have lost to Obama, when the election was theirs to lose! The economy was horrible, absolutely nobody liked Obamacare, and everyone’s taxes were going to go up...all on America’s way to the big slide of fun of socialism!Weeeee!
What was Conservatism to do? According to it’s various members of the pundit class, thinking themselves to still be taste makers, had a wide variety of opinions on the matter. Which essentially went ahead and proved the point that most people were making against the GOP: it’s way too fractured to boil down to a simple fix. A fix that could take place and be implemented in time for the next election cycle at the earliest.
Some fixes: retrench and be more conservative, pander to the Latinos by ginning up their fears (similar to what the GOP/right-wing has been doing to old white men for decades), put their faith back in God and the Evangelical movement, or attempt to culturally influence a need amongst the lower income communities to have stronger marriage thereby having more babies that will eventually become Republicans. Michael Reagan attempted to take his Reagan ball and go Reagan home because the GOP just wasn’t worthy of Ronald Reagan’s majesty.
However, one refrain kept gaining more and more traction. This idea that the problem was not the conservative ideology itself, but that each candidate was failing it spectacularly. Mitt Romney wasn’t just a horrible candidate because he lost the election for the Republicans, he failed to represent the brand in all it’s honest glory, and was summarily sniffed out by the vaunted independents. Disregard the entire clown car rally that was the GOP Presidential Primaries, as you should do with any recent history as a card carrying conservative, and that Romney was honestly their best bet. But the GOP/right-wing accepted Romney because they were supposed to. Romney barely made it out of the primaries if you recall.
What the GOP and right-wing never bothered with really taking seriously was the notion that they spend a goodly amount of time getting high on their own supply. It’s evident everywhere. It even plagued Romney during the Presidential campaign as he attempted to regale us with the tale of Obama not calling the attack on the Benghazi consulate wasn’t an “act of terror” or the fact that he was so sure of his victory he failed to write a concession speech. Now, the latter more could be due to his own much documented hubris, but the fact remains that much of the right-wing spends a fair amount time with their heads in their asses, huffing on their own gases.
It should go without saying that post election, Fox News Channel sending Dick Morris and Karl Rove to the hinterlands to perhaps dial back the ass fumes tinged craze that gripped them as their prophecies and exaltation failed to gain traction, is a good sign that perhaps some much needed fresh air wouldn’t hurt the Conservative brand.
Some would call this adherence to an alternate reality that refuses to be practical about how things really are a “bubble” of sorts. And nothing represented that bubble crashing harder than the failure of Mitt Romney to be elected president, then further as the GOP and right-wing lost their minds as to how they could lose an election they were most assuredly convinced they would win.
All this lengthy preamble is a prologue to Byron York’s recent column where he states that Obamacare is going to ruin America forever, because he and the right-wing media outlets he references says so.
Sadly for the right-wing, Obamacare is here to stay. It didn’t have any real negative impact on Obama’s reelection bid, try as they might to torpedo him with it. This “anxiety” that Mr. York references is only readily apparent to those who would have never voted for Obama to begin with. So why this sudden need to write an umpteenth article about something that’s basically here to stay?
Well, it allows Mr. York to join his pundit class colleagues in not having to write about the “fiscal cliff” at all, or in any real meaningful way. The GOP and right-wing had no real discernable plan aside from making Obama walk back from his policy lines in the sand. Every right-wing stooge can write an “Everyone just HATES Obamacare….here’s how!” article. Mr. York is no different.
What’s most alarming in Mr. York’s article is the liberal usage of “probably”, “maybe” and “likely” to name of few. It’s an extreme hedge feigning as some sort of serious critique on the public’s anxiety over Obamacare that just doesn’t exist in reality. This is even before he references his myriad of sources like Bloomberg News, Washington Post, The Wall Street and Rasmussen polling. Which are all predominantly right-leaning.
According to Rasmussen "Obamacare has never been popular. Indeed, it has been underwater in terms of public approval […] In last month's exit polls, 49 percent said all or part of Obamacare should be repealed, while 44 percent said it should be left as is or expanded.” Not to mention, according to Rasmussen “the beginning, well before the law was passed, public opinion has been remarkably stable and modestly negative.” So using this right-wing thinking since Romney only got 47.2% of the popular vote mean that most American voters had a “modestly negative” view of his bid for President? This also disregards those who would take the time to answer an exit poll that would ask about Obamacare and it’s implementation and it’s effects on the person being asked. It still remains to be seen just exactly what Obamacare’s effect is going to be, and we still have about a year before it’s full implementation.
Not to be undone by the general American’s “anxiety” about Obamacare’s implementation, Mr. York switches focus to state governments. “If Obamacare were popular, there's no doubt more governors would choose to have their states set up insurance exchanges, as the law envisioned. Instead, nearly two dozen Republican governors have refused…” The key thing to note here is that he mentions Republican governors. These governors, coupled with large Republican majorities in State Legislative bodies, have been working overtime to stymie Obamacare at every turn. If it’s not because Obamacare will force businesses to betray their religious beliefs by making employers single-handedly pay for birth control, it's something else that will just absolutely destroy job creators.
They’re not only using straw men arguments, they’re returning money the federal government is giving them to set up these state-run exchanges using tired right-wing talking points like “We can’t keep borrowing from China” and so on and so forth. Mr. York’s assumes that the states fear that the federal government is going to exercise ultimate control over everything. If that’s the case, then why are the states returning the federal funding to establish these exchanges, forcing the federal government to set up the exchanges anyway? Do they really think the federal government is going to back away from a hassle in order to implement Obamacare on the state level? As if Republican obstinacy has somehow established a historic precedent in preventing progressive agendas of any kind to be established.
Finally, according to Mr. York and his sources, Obamacare’s implementation is going to be an unmitigated disaster so why even bother? Due to the severe need to go ahead and establish these insurance exchanges themselves will make the implementation a “train wreck”, which the government will just keep wildly throwing money at. Which, the throwing money at a federal government problem is nothing new, so I don’t see how this one time it’s a complete and utter disaster because it’s a Democrat led initiative.
Not mentioned in this article, at all, whatsoever, is that the majority of Obamacare isn’t going to be in effect until 2014. That all these costs and expansion are leading to healthcare for millions of people. The cost has to come from somewhere, making “corrective” changes to our healthcare system are going to be difficult and won’t be solved with a wave of the hand. If people were so inclined they could educate themselves about how Obamacare is going to effect them. They could actually read the AP article that Mr. York perverts in his article and come to their own conclusions.
The preponderance of completely staying in the right-wing bubble does Mr. York no favors. This article is a right-wing pundit, referencing right-wing media to make a broad stroke argument against Obamacare. Again! Even after right-wing lost their prayers of the Supreme Court booting it to the curb. The argument should be over, yet much like their abortion bugaboo and their inability to respect the separation of church and state this right-wing baloney is far from settled. Especially if there’s always going to be a need to distract and not make a real substantive argument on anything.
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