Republicans rolled the dice when it came to killing Health Care Reform. And they lost. My question is where they go from here? Coincidentally, David Frum asked the same question:
No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?
We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.
There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?
Talk about boxing yourself into a corner. Republicans deliberately removed themselves from the process. They marginalized themselves. The question now is how they get back into governing, if they even want to, or… after whipping their base into a frenzy is it even possible? Simply put, they left themselves no Plan B. Their choices were stop HCR or… what?
My fear is that things are about to get crazier and uglier.
Which shouldn’t be too difficult given their base. Watch the video below. This is the Republican base, and the GOP’s greatest liability.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pilG7PCV448[/youtube]
Actually, this is probably all of our greatest liability.