What the average Republican doesn't know about how terrible this week is for future elections.

[grantcart]

President Obama wisely, and as it turns out much wiser than we could have ever anticipated, realized that to get the federal government to take over health care as part of the normal function of governing he would have to get a couple of votes from the Republicans in the Senate and would have to get a Supreme Court with a Republican majority to keep it intact and consider it constitutional.

So instead of using any number of workable, sensible, effective Democratic approaches he took the only workable Republican plan, Romney care, added huge subsidies and taxes to make it equitable and a whole range of other key long term features (including the most important long term change - moving from fee for service to value based incentives - rather than paying for each activity incentivize doctors to keep people healthy) so that we actually have a workable system with the federal government as a key partner. Obviously it will need continual fine tuning.

Having raised opposition to the ACA to iconic status and running against it in every election for the last 10 years the Republicans failed to realize that they were checkmated by President Obama's masterful strategy. Either they would have to join in support of this, the only Republican plan, or they would have nothing.

They doubled down on nothing and doubled again and again. Now they have nothing to use that will unite all the disparate wings of the Party. Raising insane opposition to the Iranian deal would have been the next big unifier but at the exact time that the ACA repeal was going through Trump was forced by Tillerson to certify that Iran was in compliance with the agreement because of this technicality: The Iranians are in compliance and if they created some fiction that they weren't the USA would not only be isolated by the West but also by Russia. What was the main object of discussion at the second meeting with Putin? My guess that Trump was only focused on what was on his immediate short term - he had a fanciful day dream that he would get Putin to oppose the Iranian deal and he would use that to show how responsible Russia was and smack Iran at the same time. I am guessing that Putin told him that he would love to but there was that technicality that Iran was in compliance and everyone knows it.

So at the next election and the next several elections the Republicans will have a whole bunch of issues that they don't agree with each other on but the unifying issues of ACA and Iran were defeated on the same day.

That really only leaves taxes. Instead of working with the Democrats on reasonable redistribution of tax load to the people who enjoyed an $ 11 trillion increased valuation of their stocks under President Obama they will try and bankrupt the US government by cutting taxes, mostly on the rich. There will be enough Republican deficit hawks that they won't even get it passed by the House, let alone by the Senate.

What we are seeing this week is the elimination of all of the arguments that the Republicans had to scare folks into voting for them. In the next election they simply aren't going to have any of their iconic themes to play tricks with.

[ALBliberal]

1. Masterful summary clearly written precise true. Thanks. NT

[Girard442]

2. Unfortunately, they still have one hole card -- major terrorist attack.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Interesting summary...but...

Repub voters have long been divorced from any fact based reality.

We're hoping there are enough swing voters paying attention and willing to take on the herculean task of actually, you know, voting for something. Hopefully, we can get some messaging out that we're fighting for them and need their help.

It will be difficult to impossible to penetrate the cultists that have taken over the Repub Party. Our real hope is to motivate the uncaring.