"54% of the country either supports Obamacare, or say it’s not liberal enough."
Posted with permission.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-nature-the-aca-opposition
The nature of the ACA opposition
11/27/13 08:33 AM
By Steve Benen
Its easy and accurate to say the Affordable Care Act isnt yet popular with the public, but its important to take the next step and ask why.
A CNN/ORC International poll also indicates nearly six in 10 Americans oppose the national health care law, but some give the Affordable Care Act a thumbs down because it isnt liberal enough.
According to the survey released on Wednesday, four in 10 say they support the law, with 58% opposed. Those figures are little changed from a CNN poll a month ago
. But 41% say they oppose the law because they think its too liberal, with 14% saying the measure doesnt go far enough.
This has always been the inconvenient detail for the right. Conservatives look at the top-line poll results and say, See? 58% of Americans oppose Obamacare. Therefore, Democrats should listen to Republicans and gut the law.
But its the nuances of Americans attitudes that matter. In this CNN poll, 40% of the public backs the Affordable Care Act and another 14% want the law to go even further and be more ambitious.
In other words, as the CNN analysis explained,
54% of the country either supports Obamacare, or say its not liberal enough.
The same poll, by the way, also found that most Americans (53%) believe its too soon to say whether the law is a success or a failure, and most Americans (54%) also expect problems plaguing the ACA rollout to be solved.
The larger takeaway from this isnt just to boast or score ideological points. Rather, the significance of poll results like these is their practical implications Republicans, especially in Congress, believe the public is on their side when it comes to health care reform, which leads them to hold several dozen repeal votes, a series of theatrical hearings, and stick to an ongoing crusade against the law. Indeed, GOP lawmakers expect their anti-Obamacare position to pay enormous dividends at the ballot box.
But even now,
theirs is a minority position most Americans oppose repeal, most Americans expect the current problems to get fixed, and most Americans either support the law or want it to be more progressive.
Thats not a recipe for conservative success; thats the opposite.