The sad stories of Obamacare
It occurs to me that Obamacare is one of the few liberal policies that gives the Republicans the chance to highlight sob stories from ordinary people. Liberals think they own that approach, and so they find it hard to believe that the anti-Obamacare forces have successfully used it. After all, the Republicans are supposed to be the meanies and the Democrats the compassionate ones.
The left keeps trying to find success stories to counter this. I have no doubt there are such stories, and that there will be more of them to come as Obamacare goes forward. But the left may be discovering that a sad story gets more attention than a happy one.
Especially when there are so many sad stories, some of them coming from Democrats.
The Democrats are the party of victims. They tell people that they have been treated unfairly and they deserve better. Vote Democrat and the Democrats will get them what they deserve. That’s going to be hard to pull off with people that are the victims of Obama care.
The Repubs have failed to capitalize on ObamaCare at so many points, and in so many ways, the mind has lost the capacity to be boggled anymore.
/disgust
Hoist on their own petard.
Selling a sob story that you did not get your free stuff is not as compelling as saying you did not get what you paid for or what you had that was taken away.
“The Repubs have failed to capitalize on ObamaCare at so many points, and in so many ways, the mind has lost the capacity to be boggled anymore.”
Its a leadership problem, pure and simple. Cruz in the senate and Trey Gowdy in the house are capable of taking it to the ‘liberals’ but they face stiff resistance from the leadership. The leadership is far more interested in staying in their positions, attending cocktail parties, and wishing and hoping the MSM will portray them as the good republicans.
Still, Ocare does offer a big target. Perhaps even Boehner and Cantor can managed to hit the bullseye.
“Obamacare is one of the few liberal policies that gives the Republicans the chance to highlight sob stories from ordinary people”..disagree. There are all kinds of policies that lend themselves to this kind of treatment. For example: the destruction of children’s futures by the public schools and their supporting “blob” (the unions, the ed schools, etc.) For example: the destruction of small businesspeople by irrational regulations.
“The Repubs have failed to capitalize on ObamaCare at so many points, and in so many ways, the mind has lost the capacity to be boggled anymore.
Which is precisely why I dropped my Republican affliation last summer and now am officially an independent.
The country really anymore is the Democrats, and the token opposition of the Republicans, who more and more seem to exist just to give the appearance of a multiple party system.
To all disgusted with old-time beltway Republicans: stop your whining and DO something.
Get involved in the nation’s PRIMARIES.
Because of Gerrymandering, most Congressional seats are predestined to shunt right back to the same party.
That’s what political databases and preference mapping has done for America. Deal with it.
It’s in the primaries that our co-opted beltway dons can be displaced.
Shockingly few dollars go a L O N G way in primaries. Most of the objectionable RINOs have been facing NO COMPETITION in their primaries for years on end.
So, do you naively expect them to change their stripes?
We have the best Congress that money can buy. You’d better believe it.
It was his insanely huge war chest that made Bush II president in 2000. He ran over all of the other Republican candidates — strictly from a $$$$ point.
(He’d raised $35,000,000 before the game was even afoot. Consequently, it was W who stretched the presidential campaign forward in time. — which see Billary.)
The primaries that count are often states away from home. Contact Leo Lindbeck III to find out who’s who.
http://www.campaign4primaryaccountability.org/
http://www.campaign4primaryaccountability.org/spencer_bachus_in_the_hot_seat
A dollar sent in the primaries has TEN times the impact of a dollar sent in the final election — which is normally totally futile.
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Various cynical stunts used by professional-political con men:
1) Harping on abortion
This angle is a complete and total fraud upon the polity. Regardless if you are pro-life or pro-choice it — the WHOLE ‘campaign’ is a fraud… both of them.
For, the pros know full well that the status quo is locked in STONE. Neither side is going to shift their positions this side of the eternal.
Which suits the professional con artists perfectly well: they can raise countless dollars and never ‘move the ball’ one inch. Their SOLE concern is raising funds — and spending them — mostly on their own advocacy firm. And, it’s totally legal.
Any huckster can set up a lobby group for this issue. It’s like selling musical instruments to River City.
2) Raising funds for the Republican/Democrat National Campaigns.
This siphons off funds from where they could do real damage: the primaries.
The funds are used to support the inside-the-beltway advocacy clan in every instance. It’s madness to send the beltway crowd a slim nickel — Wall Street has them on E-Commerce, speed dial.
The Democrats can absolutely count on the S&P 500:
Goldman Sachs
Wall Street — generally, all of them it’s a Democrat bastion — Liberal Jewish to boot: think Madoff
Apple — Jobs was a die-hard Liberal
Google
Silicon Valley — generally, all of them
GE
MSFT
GM
Hollywood
Big Media — even Fox is left of center
WSJ, Dow-Jones — the staff is die-hard liberal: J School grads
Big Pharma — all of them
Big Insurance — all of them
Big Construction — all of them
Big Unions — all of them
Red China — remember Billary’s scandals
Araby — greases both aisles —
ask Huma Abedin Weiner(D);
ask Samah Alrayyes Norquist(R);
[Both are flaming agents of foreign influence.]
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Left never said: modern America is overrun with Muslim money, OPEC kickbacks. They operate in the same manner as pay-offs to third world politicians: they stuff the wallet and craze the mind.
Samah Alrayyes was the TRUE source of the zany notion that Islam is a religion of peace. Her lover duped W entirely with that by convening a board of liars to spin him utterly — all within mere weeks of 9-11-01.
Grover (beta) Norquist later married her, so that the damage could continue. She absolutely HAD to get permission to marry an infidel… So you know she’s on jihad.
(Getting such permission was the entire reason for the marriage delay. Previously, she’d only been a ‘pillow agent.’ One might note the lack of children, BTW. Adoption doesn’t count. This gambit makes her jihad purer for Allah.)
…
Spread the word: Primaries or Bust.
Primaries: Doesn’t work where I live. CT is so deep blue there’s no hope left. The reason I quit the Republican party was RNC continually asking for money for a bunch of RINOS… sorry, but I’ve had it with them!
If a viable new party came along I might consider that.
Democrats vote in Republican primaries. Isn’t that how they picked McCain to beat in 2008?
Republicans technically don’t need RNC centralized planning committees to move the funding around. Thus I would advise not allowing any centralized party apparatchiks to decide where your money goes. They just might stash it, pocket it, or launder it to Democrats. Not all of them are corrupt, but you never know.
It’s easier and more efficient to start up kickstarters and organize campaigns individually. The Tea Party started doing this, but their funding and organization was shut down by the IRS, and various other government goons.
I was expecting to hear more from the TP movement, in terms of their individual cells mobilizing to take on larger projects, but none of my sources told me anything about it as time went on. Now I know why.
physicsguy Says”Primaries: Doesn’t work where I live. CT is so deep blue there’s no hope left. The reason I quit the Republican party was RNC continually asking for money for a bunch of RINOS… sorry, but I’ve had it with them!”
The problem is that there are no leaders anymore. The left are the only group that seems willing to go against public polls anymore. The Republicans are so worried about losing and looking bad they simply wont go against them anymore.
This is something the media gleefully exploits and ruthlessly enforces. I cant remember the last interview I saw where the interviewer was not pushing them to the left.
The right is not quite as clueless as they sometimes get portrayed. But they are far more gutless than most people think
And thats what i get for writing this over 20 minutes then not proofreading..Sorry for the egregious use of “anymore”
Great comment, blert.
Karl Denninger wrote a great post a couple of years ago about avoiding “wedge issues” like abortion, drug legalization, etc., and focusing on economic issues such as balancing the budget, as well as Constitutional issues. Unfortunately I can’t find it at the moment.
The political establishment of both parties loves issues like those, because they distract the people from substantive issues which would get widespread agreement. Better to keep the proles at each others’ throats.
Also, Grover Norquist is a Muslim mole inside the Republican Party. He is as dangerous as any leftist.
Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was basically an anti-Bush propaganda film, in which he detailed the Saudi influence on the Bush family. I have always maintained that Moore could have done the country a real service if he had explored the Saudi influence on many politicians in both parties, instead of obsessing on the Bush family.
mythx:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious blogpost of forgotten lore…
Quote the mythx: “Anymore!”
Physicsguy …
“Primaries: Doesn’t work where I live. CT is so deep blue there’s no hope left. The reason I quit the Republican party was RNC continually asking for money for a bunch of RINOS… sorry, but I’ve had it with them!”
1) Cross the RNC off your list in any year. Such funds go exclusively to the Beltway crowd.
2) Jump into the Democrat primary and push the Democrats away from the Left.
3) Stop thinking in terms of your own state. It’s ESSENTIAL to get Reid to sit down. That means funding the magic primaries — those coming up in a few months — that decide the Fall election.
For, in most districts, the Fall election is a foregone conclusion: D or R is locked in.
A million dollars in Connecticut is worthless when backing a Conservative. That state is economically coupled to Wall Street and DC spending and unionized manufacturing. So send your political muscle to where in can swing a pivotal election. For such campaigns, even fifty-grand can be colossal.
That might be all that it takes to boot-up a new entrant.
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O/T: As a much younger man, I exposed the fulsome corruption of Hawaii’s Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee – by accident.
She was holding court WRT permitting gambling in the Islands – for revenue raising purposes. I stood up to demand that the Big Boys chip in for the massive real estate improvements (freeways, rapid transit, etc.) that benefited them so hugely while sending the bill on to the rest of society.
She promptly used a secret hand signal to notify all three local TV news crews to cease video recording. All three did so – in unison – and in a flash. With that it became obvious to all assembled that she (Hawaii Kai) was getting graft from Campbell Estate. (Ewa Beach)
They are on opposite sides of the island… No-one had made the connection before.
Sitting right behind me was one vigilant citizen. He took notice!
He went on to become the campaign manager of her successor. For from that moment onwards, he spent all of his energies towards defeating this crook, to include sponsoring her replacement – a guy totally new to politics!
She was the ONLY legislator defeated that fall! She lost the single most powerful chairmanship to be had. (It even beat the speakership – for graft opportunities.)
And, obviously, his tale of that day was at the heart of his crusade.
Once he knew where to look, more dirt was found.
This is republican democracy in action.
Stop thinking in terms of your own state. Think in terms of the swing primaries, nationally!
“Its a leadership problem, pure and simple”
It’s at least as much a media problem. The playing field is not just unlevel, it’s almost vertical. I believe a lot of what we might call the “RINO” problem is a result of this.
FOAF…
RINO ism is due to the Beltway feedback loop.
Other than a very few signature RINOs… most don’t get any media hype at all.
What they do get is grease from the NAM, Chamber of Commerce, Fortune 1000 crowd.
When combined with Gerrymandered districts — they’re home free, cycle after cycle.
Rubio looks to be just another convert. His nostrums on illegals are insane. Indeed, the entire RINO crew is out to lunch on this matter.
Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE#t=356
(six minutes)
It’s an eye opener.
Anecdote – My son’s young family (wife and two kids) just had their medical insurance rate go from ~$180/mo to ~$650/mo. They will probably be forced onto the Oregon health plan because there’s no way they can afford that.
And no, he isn’t getting what he asked for, he voted for Romney.
I have always maintained that Moore could have done the country a real service if he had explored the Saudi influence on many politicians in both parties, instead of obsessing on the Bush family.
That’s not what the Saudi money laundering schemes paid him to do, now is it?
I rarely donate $, but when I do, it’s usually through DeMint’s PAC.