Republican strategist Rick Wilson appeared on MSNBC’s The Last Word to explain why Trumpcare, the American Health Care Act, failed. According to Wilson, Trumpcare was a “hot mess from the get-go” and failed because Trump tried to sell what he always tries to sell, “a flatulent mass of his own fantasy.”
Watch courtesy of MSNBC:
GOP strategist @TheRickWilson explains why everyone hated the Republican health care bill (and why Trump was the reason it failed): pic.twitter.com/AAJq536QC4
— The Last Word (@TheLastWord) April 1, 2017
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
“Free market Republicans hated the bill because it was basically just a different set of giveaways to the insurance companies and to pharma. And the Freedom Caucus guys hated it because it didn’t look bold enough, it was too gutless. And the rest of the Republican caucus hated it because it looked too heartless.
“The thing was a hot mess from the get-go but Trump was trying to sell what Trump always sells, which is sort of a flatulent mass of his own fantasy about what the product is. So he got out there, he talked fast. He said things like ‘Oh, don’t pay attention to the details, we’re just gonna do something great together.’
“Well, this guy is entirely contingent, he is entirely compulsive, and at the end of the day the voters weren’t buying it and the members of Congress on the Republican side said, ‘No, we’re not gonna set ourselves on fire for a bad bill that has bad outcomes both politically and policy-wise for this guy, who is a snake who will turn and bite us in the ass in a hot second, which he did.”
Wilson’s words are about as damning a pronouncement on Trumpcare as any that can be found. He nails the problems on the head: Trump himself. Trump, who cares nothing for details (or his own promises we might add) but just wanted to get something done so he would look good, forgetting that if the product isn’t good, he won’t look good either.
In a nutshell, as Wilson said, Trump’s entire campaign and his first 10 weeks as president, have been a “flatulent mass of his own fantasy about what the product is.”
The only thing that changes is the product Trump is selling. But whatever he might be championing from day to day be it healthcare or tax breaks, it will never be more than a flatulent mass of his own fantasy.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
