Healthcare Reform & The Radicalization of Betsy & Robby

[Calabrio]

March 22, 2010 12:33 AM
Healthcare Reform & The Radicalization of Betsy & Robby
Mark Joseph @ The Huffington Post


Tonight the House of Representatives passed historic legislation with President Obama's health care package and some pundits are saying the battle for health care is over. But far from being over, I'm afraid a deeply partisan battle-dare I say it-a war is only just beginning because of the manner in which this victory was won.

I say this because of two friends of mine: Betsy and Robby, my formerly apolitical friends who have been radicalized by the experience of the last 15 months and if they are any indication of the mood of the country, and I believe they are, the Democratic party is in for a political wake-up call of historic proportions in November.

Robby has been my neighbor for nearly seven years. He's a solid family man with a wife and two daughters who looks after his neighbors and is the guy you turn to when you need some help in the neighborhood. Until very recently he expressed almost no interest in politics. In fact I never knew exactly what party he supported and the subject of politics rarely came up. But today, if you visit his Facebook page you will see that he has been completely radicalized in a manner that would make Glenn Beck proud. His online profile features taunts of Al Gore and global warming, shout outs to the man whom he hopes will be his next Senator, Chuck DeVore and this tribute to Sarah Palin: "Go girl, let 'em keep talking s*** while you keep kicking their a**."

If Robby was formerly apolitical, my friend Betsy was uber-apolitical. Her uncle is a prominent judge and I used to marvel at how in spite of that she had absolutely no interest in politics or current affairs. But Betsy too has been radicalized. The last time I spoke to her a year ago she was her same apolitical self: a recently married mother-to-be anxiously awaiting the arrival of her first child, but yesterday she left me a voicemail telling me she now adores the Fox News Channel and watches Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly all the time and really, really loves Beck's show.

Something is happening in America: the radicalization of people like Robby and Betsy that President Obama and this administration ignore at their own political peril and the passage of this health care legislation without a single Republican vote portends serious trouble for his party with voters like these.

I've previously written about the possibility of Democrats being in serious danger of losing between 75-100 seats in the House and maybe as many as 10 in the Senate. Crazy, I know, but no more crazy than a Tea Party candidate winning Ted Kennedy's seat. After this vote, I think I may have underestimated. And if Betsy and Robby are any indication, even Senators like Russ Feingold and Barbara Boxer, their representatives in the Senate, are in for the political fights of their lives from these radicalized voters.

Republicans hope for and Democrats dread a repeat of the 1994 elections in which the GOP gained 52 seats in the House, but, if these two are any indication, 2010 may be '94 on steroids, led this time not by outraged Conservatives, but rather by independent, formerly apolitical, non-voting Americans like Robby and Betsy who have been radicalized by the likes of Beck into voting in numbers that may create majorities in both houses that could very well be capable not only of rolling back this health care bill, but overriding a likely Presidential veto.


Follow Mark Joseph on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markmjm

 

[fossten]

I would say 'yay' but it takes 67 votes in the Senate to do this. There are only about 30 Dem seats up for election, and you'd have to turn virtually all of them to do it.

 

[shagdrum]

As it stands now, the "good" parts of the bill don't go into effect until 213 or 2014 IIRC.
We have a window...

 

[fossten]

Campaign ad:

"Those eeeevil Rethuglikkkans want to take away your healthcare and throw your children and grandma out onto the street..."

 

[shagdrum]

Campaign ad:

"Those eeeevil Rethuglikkkans want to take away your healthcare and throw your children and grandma out onto the street..."

Dems have no credibility after this.

This process of passing this bill has proven a number of things:

• Democrats have no credibility
• There is no such thing as a moderate Democrat
• modern liberalism is socialism
• Democrats have utter contempt for the American people
• Democrats are the party of tyranny

The one benefit of this process is that it has removed the mask from the left and exposed them for what they are. People who have formerly been apolitical are fighting mad and getting involved in politics. The tea parties will grow.

Now we are seeing the attempts by the left to de-legitimize people who keep pounding that point. Look at the attempt to marginalize Beck over his comments on the Church and social justice. They will double down on the nastiness and lies. However, that will mostly re-enforce the negative perceptions about them in the population's minds. Hubris always kills the left. That pendulum will swing back strong. The only question is weather this will be enough to get that repealed. Ed Morrissey wrote a great piece on this.

Can this law actually get repealed? The answer is yes, but it’s difficult — and it gets more difficult as time goes on. In fact, while Kristol’s correct in noting that the subsidies and large parts of the benefits don’t go into effect until 2014, the pricing signals will be felt starting today.

First, let’s look at the legislative process. Unless the GOP seizes two-thirds of both chambers of Congress in the mid-term elections, which is mathematically impossible for the Senate, Republicans cannot override a veto on a repeal bill. They probably could pass it in the Senate if they manage to get a small majority this fall using the same reconciliation process Democrats will attempt this week to pass the sidebar fixes to the bill that will get signed into law today, but Barack Obama will veto any such bill outright.

We may defeat Obama in the 2012 elections and hold a larger majority in 2013, although it’s worth noting that few Presidents have been defeated in their bid for a second term in a general election. But by that time, a number of things will have already happened. Insurers will have already passed along higher premium costs to businesses, creating resentment towards Democrats, but also towards the insurers, which will generate sympathy towards greater regulation of the industry. It will also disrupt the existing insurance for all of those added to Medicaid, which means any repeal would necessarily throw people back into uninsured status. Some insurers will probably have left the market, making it more difficult to use market-based reforms. Put simply, a repeal in 2013 will be even more desirable than now, but it won’t be a return to status quo ante, at least not politically.​