Will Our Health Be The Death Of The GOP?

[DeSwiss]

Reports: Passing Universal Healthcare Could Kill The GOP

Huffington Post | Nicholas Graham | November 22, 2008 07:26 PM


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Barack Obama's selection of Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services Secretary, as well as "health reform czar," signals that the incoming president http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=11&year=2008&base_name=tom_daschle_health_czar">is serious about passing comprehensive healthcare reform. Over at the think tank Cato, Michael Cannon warns that blocking any such legislation is vital for the GOP's survival (h/t http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/22/161429/01/957/665196">Kos): Ditto Baucus' health plan. And Kennedy's. And Wyden's.

Why? Norman Markowitz, a contributing editor at PoliticalAffairs.net (motto: "Marxist Thought Online"), makes an interesting point about how making citizens dependent on the government for their medical care can change the fates of political parties:

A "single payer" national health system - known as "socialized medicine" in the rest of the developed world - should be an essential part of the change that the core constituencies which elected Obama desperately need. Britain serves as an important political lesson for strategists. After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party...

James Pethokoukis, at U.S. News and World Report, http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/11/21/how-tom-daschle-might-kill-conservatism.html">draws the same conclusion as Cannon does from Markowitz's analysis of how universal healthcare changed the political dynamic in Britain:

The GOP strategist had been joking about the upcoming presidential election and giving his humorous assessments of the candidates. Then he suddenly cut out the schtick and got scary serious. "Let me tell you something, if Democrats take the White House and pass a big-government healthcare plan, that's it. Game over. Government will dominate the economy like it does in Europe. Conservatives will spend the rest of their lives trying to turn things around and they will fail..."

Recently, I stumbled across this analysis of how nationalized healthcare in Great Britain affected the political environment there. As Norman Markowitz in Political Affairs, a journal of "Marxist thought," puts it: "After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party when health care, social welfare, education and pro-working class policies were enacted by labor-supported governments."

Passing Obamacare would be like performing exactly the opposite function of turning people into investors. Whereas the Investor Class is more conservative than the rest of America, creating the Obamacare Class would pull America to the left. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, who first found that wonderful Markowitz quote, puts it succinctly in a recent blog post: "Blocking Obama's health plan is key to the GOP's survival."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/22/reports-passing-universal_n_145769.html">LINK

- So when this question appears on high school history tests in the future, it'll read something like this:

Healthcare was to the now defunct GOP, as: "_____________________"

a) Sunshine is to Dracula

b) Bleach is to bacteria

c) The Religious-right is to Christianity

d) All of the above


Got it.
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DeSwiss


http://www.atheisttoolbox.com/">The Atheist Toolbox

Quotes: "The Clintons simply drive some people crazy. It's a clinical diagnosis. Obama may be picking Hillary for this purpose. She can absorb all the looney criticism from the right and he can go about his business above the fray. It's actually smart to give them someone else to hate. And if the Clintons are good at anything, it's being hated and successful at the same time. Indeed, they seem to thrive on it." -- http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/redirecting-hate-by-digby-i-was-going.html">Digby

"Prayer is just a way of telling god that his divine plan for
you is flawed -- and shockingly stingy" ~ Betty Bowers

[EconomicLiberal]

1. Look at Social Security and FDR.

Social Security helped FDR build a Democratic Party coalition that dominated American politics for 3 decades.

The GOP's hopes of being a majority party any time in the near future hinge on them blocking President Obama's health caer plan.

[DeSwiss]

2. An excellent example.

And I quite agree with the premise here. Even those "Red States" that went for McCain in this election would be hard-pressed to support the GOPers if they oppose universal healthcare and have to explain why to those without any health insurance in the next one....

[ramapo]

3. GOP killed Clinton healthcare

Bob Dole and Clinton were working out a deal when the GOP leadership realized that if Clinton succeeded at health care, that the GOP would be ensuring Democratic victories, so the GOP put politics before people and scuttled health care reform.

They'll have a more difficult time of it now but no doubt they'll try.

[DeSwiss]

4. Difficult is one word for it....

...impossible would probably be a better one. Because the whole political dynamic has been altered since the previous attempt.

Not to mention 911, two wars, and the travesty that is George W. Bush. The ones who should be concerned right now are the establishment Dems. The ones who didn't sally forth when healtcare reform was attacked in its cradle and dragged through the mud like they did Bill Clinton, but stood idly by whistling.

The Obama campaign's use of the internet, was a major part of this change in dynamic, But also Obama http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/12/obama-staffs-up-web-outre_n_143396.html">isn't so much dismantling his campaign infrastructure, but rather he seems to be altering its focus and keeping its skeletal structure intact. That could prove critical down the stretch. And unlike Bill Clinton, he wasn't dependent upon corporate America's financial donations to get to the WH. So BIG PHARMA can rattle its sword all it wants.

- These are very interesting times....

[Juche]

5. Rebuilding unions will do the same thing

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/10/labor_law_reform_not_just_for_unions.php

Organized labor still has a significant capacity to marshal resources—both money and members—to influence the outcome of elections. Union members are more likely to vote, more likely to vote for Democrats, and more likely to volunteer for campaigns than people with similar demographic and job characteristics who are not unionized. In the November 2004 presidential election, union members represented 12 percent of all workers but union households represented 24 percent of all voters. Despite John Kerry’s tepid campaign and upper-crust demeanor, union members gave him 61 percent of their votes over George W. Bush. In the battleground states, where unions focused their turnout efforts, they did even better. In Ohio, for example, union members favored Kerry by a 67 to 31 percent margin.

When voters' loyalties were divided between their economic interests and other concerns, however, union membership was a crucial determinant of their votes. For example, gun owners favored Bush by a 63 to 36 percent margin, but union members who own guns supported Kerry 55 percent to 43 percent, according to an AFL-CIO survey. Bush carried all weekly church-goers by a 61 to 39 percent margin, but Kerry won among union members who attend church weekly by a 55 to 43 percent split.

Among white males, a group that Democrats have had difficulty attracting in recent Presidential elections, Bush won by a 62 to 37 percent margin. But again, Kerry carried white males who were union members by a 59 to 38 percent difference. Bush won among white women by 55 to 44 percent but Kerry won white women union members by 67 percent to 32 percent.

Had union membership reached even 15 percent of the workforce, Kerry would have won by a significant margin.






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If we get EFCA and universal healthcare, and the millenial generation (everyone under 30) takes their disgust for the GOP with them throughout life the GOP will be a minority party for 50 years.

[DeSwiss]

7. And the most lethal weapon....

...that I remember Barack posing with during the campaign, was a bowling ball.



- Luckily no one was hurt. Well, all except Barack's bowling average.....

[Cleita]

6. K&R

Americans really want health care security. It's a matter of convincing them which system is the best one for us.

[DeSwiss]

8. Thank you!

And agreed. The question becomes: Do the Repukers realize what side of this issue they need to get on?

- Some do, but I don't think its enough to save them....

Quotes: "The Republican idea factory has dried up. And we’ve got to catch up on the key issues of our times -- health care, renewable energy and education." -- http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15357_Page2.html
">Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty

[Joe the Liberal]

9. K&R interesting nt

:kick: & R

[clear eye]

10. Unless what they pass is fouled up like the MA program, making the costs

spiral out of control and generating tens of thousands of phony policies that cover next to nothing. We've really got to get this if not perfect, at least pretty darn good.

[leftstreet]

11. A universal "insurance" program could hand the GOP a victory

...if they ended up being the Party to push for single payer. (Which is essentially a fiscally conservative idea.)

[clear eye]

12. I wish that were a concern

It would mean one of the major parties wasn't intimidated or bought by insurance co. money. If the Dems believed the R's might go ahead with that, we'd have our single-payer. Do you know of any inside discussions like that w/i the Republican Party? If so, please leak them.

The only true fiscal conservative in Congress that I know of is Sen. Chuck Grassley, whom I always think of as "Shut-Up Chuck", after what the rest of the Senators in essence keep saying to him when he tries to get an investigation going on no-bid contracts in Iraq or the FAA or FEMA. If he weren't so God-awful on gay issues, I'd rather like the guy.