>"if they had not stirred up the hornet's nest of populism from the right through the healthcare act fiasco"
To blame the President for this is ridiculous.
Our centrist President promoted a conservative think-tank idea battle tested in the laboratory of a large state, and was ridiculed as a marxist and a communist who was on the level of stalin. No hyperbole, these very attacks and words have become so common in conservative media that I am being very literal here.
The healthcare fiasco you point out was a manufactured fiasco.
The compromises made: conservative ideas, preservation of the private market, total lack of centralization are wholly anti-left anti-social ideas, and yet the opposition to him was as if he was an actual communist.
>"we would not be having Trump running for office today."
I consider this supremely naive.
The leaders of the national Republican party met before Obama was inaugurated and created the now-infamous obstructionist plan.
They promised each other: NO COMPROMISE, no assistance, no crossing the aisle. The only answer to ANY Democrat in the White House was simple: TOTAL uncompromising obstruction with the only valid and acceptable outcome being ideologically pure conservative policy.
The depth of the manufactured fiasco is proven by the simple history. A conservative idea to preserve the private market in the healthcare industry was hilariously tainted as socialist and the GOP successfully dragged their voters through another round of the Red Scare. This is indisputable: the renowned conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation is the genesis of the individual mandate which was battle tested by a Republican state administration. And yet, the second a centrist Democrat touches the plan, it's immediately the worst form of communism ever conceived...
>we would not be having Trump running for office today.
Trump is running today because the Republican Party promised their voters the Blood of any America-Destroying Commie-Democrat and failed to deliver what they could never deliver.
Republican leaders and Republican media stoked a fire for eight years and now they cannot control the four alarm blaze they've transformed their party into.
This is not Obama's fault. This is purely cause and effect. When you stoke a fire irresponsibly you get an irresponsibly large fire. Obama is a bystander. Republicans could have and would have stoked this fire for anyone who does not pledge fealty to their ideology. Look at how the #NeverTrump movement stokes this fire for Trump who they believe does not pledge true fealty to their conservative ideology. This is now how their party operates: Pledge fealty or you the problem that must be fixed, a RINO, an anti-Christ, a Muslim, a Marxist, a Leftist. Pledge fealty or you're the enemy. Obama was just a convenient target.
Well written, thanks. There was a time when the ACA was about a single payer healthcare system. Wouldn't that better explain the red scare accusations of socialism?
> There was a time when the ACA was about a single payer healthcare system.
I don't think there was ever a time when the ACA was about single payer.
I think you're confusing it with a separate alternative bill progressives championed during the healthcare reform period that we called the Medicare for All Act (H.R.676 - United States National Health Insurance Act (or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act.
We pushed hard for our vision of a national health care system and just about all progressives in Congress agreed with nearly 100 co-sponsors, but ultimately the centrist democrats and their new centrist President chose a path of "compromise" with conservatives who did not have any interest in compromise.
It makes me sad. If conservatives were going to wage a scorched earth red scare propaganda war against any health care reform, why not ACTUALLY achieve a national health care system and give their red scare complaints merit?
? The Medicare for All bill from 2008 and its current iteration in 2015, the primary and most prominent push for national healthcare, explicitly bans all private institutions from participating unless they are non-profits. Only public and non-profits are allowed to participate.
To blame the President for this is ridiculous.
Our centrist President promoted a conservative think-tank idea battle tested in the laboratory of a large state, and was ridiculed as a marxist and a communist who was on the level of stalin. No hyperbole, these very attacks and words have become so common in conservative media that I am being very literal here.
The healthcare fiasco you point out was a manufactured fiasco.
The compromises made: conservative ideas, preservation of the private market, total lack of centralization are wholly anti-left anti-social ideas, and yet the opposition to him was as if he was an actual communist.
>"we would not be having Trump running for office today."
I consider this supremely naive.
The leaders of the national Republican party met before Obama was inaugurated and created the now-infamous obstructionist plan.
They promised each other: NO COMPROMISE, no assistance, no crossing the aisle. The only answer to ANY Democrat in the White House was simple: TOTAL uncompromising obstruction with the only valid and acceptable outcome being ideologically pure conservative policy.
The depth of the manufactured fiasco is proven by the simple history. A conservative idea to preserve the private market in the healthcare industry was hilariously tainted as socialist and the GOP successfully dragged their voters through another round of the Red Scare. This is indisputable: the renowned conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation is the genesis of the individual mandate which was battle tested by a Republican state administration. And yet, the second a centrist Democrat touches the plan, it's immediately the worst form of communism ever conceived...
>we would not be having Trump running for office today.
Trump is running today because the Republican Party promised their voters the Blood of any America-Destroying Commie-Democrat and failed to deliver what they could never deliver.
Republican leaders and Republican media stoked a fire for eight years and now they cannot control the four alarm blaze they've transformed their party into.
This is not Obama's fault. This is purely cause and effect. When you stoke a fire irresponsibly you get an irresponsibly large fire. Obama is a bystander. Republicans could have and would have stoked this fire for anyone who does not pledge fealty to their ideology. Look at how the #NeverTrump movement stokes this fire for Trump who they believe does not pledge true fealty to their conservative ideology. This is now how their party operates: Pledge fealty or you the problem that must be fixed, a RINO, an anti-Christ, a Muslim, a Marxist, a Leftist. Pledge fealty or you're the enemy. Obama was just a convenient target.