The Four Major Questions Facing the Democratic Party
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One of the most important issues on the minds of American voters, according to polling, is still health care. This reflects the mixed legacy of the Affordable Care Act, whose positive impacts on access to health care have been undermined by design flaws and efforts by Republicans to dismantle the law’s key provisions. Obamacare embodies the difficulties of centrist policymaking, which tends to depend on Rube Goldberg mechanisms crafted as alternatives to the government taking a more simple, direct role in addressing problems. These solutions are tricky to design; given to complex, unanticipated design failures; and are often difficult for their intended beneficiaries to understand and take advantage of. Nearly a decade after its passage, Americans are still confused by the ACA’s subsidies and many are overpaying for insurance as a result, as a study covered by Jordan Weissmann reported last year:
Using the data from the National Health Interview Survey, the Michigan State and Urban Institute team estimated that 6.3 million nonelderly adults bought their insurance coverage outside Obamacare’s marketplaces in 2015. Almost 41 percent of them reported incomes between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty line—meaning they should have been tax credit eligible. Almost 19 percent earned less than 250 percent of the poverty line, meaning they would have qualified for special subsidized plans that lowered their out-of-pocket costs like deductibles and co-pays. But for some reason, they said no thanks. … It seems fairly obvious that some people are simply overpaying for coverage because they don’t know any better.
While having the government insure all or most of the population in a single-payer system would be costly and pose challenges in implementation, it’s conceptually a much simpler solution that might create fewer headaches for consumers and lower health care costs once in place, and there are successful and popular models abroad that the United States could draw from. Similarly, having the government simply give people jobs or send people cash are conceptually rather simple ways to address poverty and unemployment. These might seem like pie-in-the-sky ideas, but it’s well past time to consider whether it’s any less quixotic to believe that the deep problems of the American economy—rising inequality, stagnant wages, long-impoverished communities, a vast racial wealth gap, and more—can be solved by the same package of tax credits, job training, and cheapskate safety net policies the Democratic Party has been offering for more than a quarter-century now. It is moreover a certainty that the most urgent problem facing America and the world today—climate change—can only be addressed by significant and unprecedented state intervention in the economy.
In sum, Democratic leaders are probably right to believe that they can eke out marginal victories with moderate candidates in the near term. But the threat of a 2010 will follow every attempt to recreate 2006 and 2008, and an electoral strategy dependent on moderate and conservative candidates will undermine efforts to pass the policies Democrats will ostensibly want to win elections for in the first place, as was the case with the ACA and other fights early in the Obama administration. As it stands, the Democratic Party is likely to do well in November whether it adopts a long-term vision for itself and the country or not. Winning the midterms will be relatively easy. Winning the century will be harder.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/democrats-might-win-the-midterms-will-they-lose-the-future.html
I believe this is a good analysis, well worth the read.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Pundits gotta pundit!
Seems the barrage of speculation, naysaying that we've heard for 2 yrs now, & finger wagging hasn't won "them" much so far.
Dems will continue moving forward & take one important battle as it comes.
2018 is the current focus & its looking like Dems, again, will emerge the Party that pulls America out of the sh**hole created by those very naysayers beating that anti-Dem drum.
Meanwhile the Party of All people, proudly walks forward to salvage & rebuild what's been damaged in this country.
There really are only 2 choices in the end.
True & smart & those who wish to assist can join in or stay on the fringe.
But come hell or high water, be assured that the Great Strong Democratic Party will be the one standing solid for this country & its people in the end. Just like we always have.
in large part because Toxic Trump has positioned himself somewhere between Benedict Arnold and the Anti-Christ and he is most likely to drag the Republicans down in November.
The analysis is based more on the long term and big picture implications beginning with the electoral strategy used in 2018 and beyond.
