Branding and message is everything, so believes the Republican Party and certainly Brand King Donald Trump, our new President. But it seems, the more Republicans tell Americas to hate Obamacare, the more Americans like it.
The morning after Mike Pence called Obamacare “America’s nightmare”, support for Obamacare reached its highest point since shortly after it was passed in 2010. Support reached 48%, which is a 5 point increase since December.
That increase is courtesy of the monthly tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which also found the unfavorable opinions to be less than the favorables, at 42%.
Here are the words Republicans do not want to hear, especially because as part of their unity message, Republicans are blaming “liberal activists” for constituents raising concerns over the Republican plan to repeal Obamacare.
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“The increase in the law’s popularity is almost entirely due to a spike in support among independents, whose approval of the law has risen to 50 percent, compared with 39 percent unfavorable,” Kaiser Health News determined (independent from the polling end).
“America’s Obamacare nightmare is about to end,” Pence announced Thursday evening, with that same prideful smirk conservatives wear when they are taking particular pleasure in denying life to others. Pence then went on to blame “liberal activists” for Americans showing up at town halls concerned about their ability to live.
Watch here:
Yes, your nightmare of being able to keep your sick child alive is about to end, thanks to Republicans. Your nightmare of having an insurance company actually live up to their end of the contract you pay for every month is about to end. Your nightmare of having your women’s preventative care made free is over. Your pregnancy is about to become a preexisting condition again, aren’t you glad? That’s freedom, Republican style.
Republicans might note the pig farmer Senator Chuck Grassley “greeted as an old friend” at a town hall. He is now the “angry Obamacare guy.”
What will they replace it with? Well, that haven’t figured that out yet seven years later. But totes have faith in them, because even though former Speaker John Boehner is laughing at them and admitted that there would be no repeal and replace, you should put your life in the hands of these people who show they care by dodging you and your questions, even when you get around their refusal to hold a town hall by attending a lecture related to healthcare. Oh, they care. They just have insurance and don’t know anything about your predicament and don’t care to hear about it. But they will totally make a great replacement that takes your needs into account! Just trust.
And…. That’s a no to Republican ideas for Medicaid. “6 in 10 people said they did not favor current GOP proposals for turning control of Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income residents, over to the states or changing the federal funding method.”
So it is that even as Republicans are unable to come up with an Obamacare replacement, they are determined to repeal the law that not only makes healthcare insurance affordable for all, but protects Americans from being ripped off by insurance companies and protects those with preexisting conditions.
It is the name, of course, which drives the Republican Party mad – but they came up with the name, back in the heyday when they thought for sure Americans would hate being able to keep family members with preexisting conditions alive. It was said with scorn and contempt back then.
But now that people want it, now that they understand the Death Panels aren’t real and they can buy affordable insurance even when they own a small business, now they like it. It is much harder to take something away from people than Republicans banked on.
Certainly Donald Trump remains as clueless about policy as he is about the basic operations of government. But the man who held a national security meeting in open air with cell phones used to read classified documents as waiters came and went and patrons live-streamed the circus on Facebook has a perhaps insurmountable learning curve and probably won’t be getting around to actual policy any time this term.
Ineptitude, chaos and ignorance. That is the modern day Republican Party. Sadly, that’s being generous because it leaves out the strong tinge of traitor coloring all that they do right now, as Republicans circle the Putin wagons in defense of their own power.
Living is not a nightmare. Living is something most people can agree is desirable. Living should not be a privilege of the elite in this country.
Someone better tell the GOP that it’s not just “liberal activists” who are angry, it’s people. The people.
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