‘Repeal and replace’ is likely to be the slogan for the fall elections.
What do they mean by replace? Free market reforms? Getting government out of medicine?
Or do they mean some compromise plan that redistributes wealth to give the uninsured health care insurance?
Remember, the Republicans are the party that just a few months ago thought the way to fight ObamaCare was to stress that Republicans will protect Medicare. Like the Democrats, most Republicans believe there is a right to health care. They are terrified that stating there is no right to health care will lose them votes.
Remember also, this is the party that collapsed during the government shut down of 1995 when the media ran sob stories of government workers not getting paid, and the Democrats called the Republicans mean.
What do you think the media will do if the Republicans try to take away ObamaCare? Can you imagine the nonstop parade of hard luck stories meant to sway the emotions? They will drag out Tiny Tim, who will look at the camera with his big Bambi eyes and ask, “Why do the Republicans want to take away my crutches?”
And the Republicans will sputter and fold.
Fuggedaboutit. It’s still too early. I would love to be wrong, but I suspect the outrage of the Tea Parties will die. If the anger over September 11, 2001 can fade, do you think the American people can stay angry about socialized medicine?
The Republicans need to maintain their will to repeal until we get a Republican president who will not veto their repeal bill. This means 2013 at the soonest. People will likely be used to ObamaCare by then. I could be wrong. We’ll see.
UPDATE: Senator Cornyn has announced that the Republicans won’t try to repeal all of the bill. Two days after the passage of ObamaCare and the Republicans are already wilting as they always do. What a joke.
Opposition at the state level might be all we can really hope for at this point.
Nullification, for example: link (a blog post by a 2010 congressional candidate)
It’s a start. It’s a long way from an objective epistemology of reason, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Perhaps the outrage over the passage of Obamacare will fade before the 2010 elections. However, the current Democrat-controlled Congress now feels empowered to ram through all kinds of additional legislation that the people vehemently oppose. High on the list is amnesty for illegal aliens, along with other provisions for immigration reform that the American people defeated twice during the Bush administration. Should the Democrats proceed to pass more unpopular legislation, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t, then outrage won’t be limited to Obamacare, fading or otherwise.
“High on the list is amnesty for illegal aliens”
The Right will fight amnesty far harder than socialized medicine IMO. Immigration is far more important an issue to Conservatives than health care. The Right Wing commentators WILL make a huge stink over this. Sadly all the Right Wing racists are going to come out of the woodwork. You can rest assured the MSM will use this to discredit the Tea Party movement. This could get even uglier than what we just went through.
Madmax, I think you’ve hit on something that is bigger than most people realize. Billy Beck recently quoted Milton Friedman to the effect that you can have free immigration or you can have a welfare state, but you can’t have both. When you have people coming to America not to work but to get on the welfare state gravy train, you’ve got a problem. The Democrats think they can produce millions of Democrat voters with amnesty, and they’re probably right.
The media will play Republican opposition to amnesty as racism. Minorities will further think of themselves as a pressure group protected by the Democrats.
Underneath it all is the ideology of multiculturalism, which teaches everyone to think of himself as a member of a tribal collective. This can only lead to ill will and eventually violence.
“This can only lead to ill will and eventually violence.”
So true. I can see it coming. Hate filled little altruists who have been taught that human sacrifice is moral will not hesitate to kill their fellow countrymen for not sacrificing for them.
Multiculturalism is tribalism. It fosters an us-against-them mindset in all of them. Americans should make sure they are well armed.
“you can have free immigration or you can have a welfare state, but you can’t have both.”
Haha, guess what my country has unprecedented levels of? Could it be precisely those two things? Good Lord, if there’d been one.
I heard it as: [Financial stability] [Open immigration] [A welfare state] — pick any two.
The disappointing thing with immigration debates among Objectivists is that many top Oists advocate mass open immigration NOW. Binswanger just did this again last night and Craig Biddle does this constantly.
I can’t see how they can think that open immigration (coupled with voting rights!!) now is a good thing. The Left injects anti-white racism into EVERYTHING. The Demoncrats want total power and they don’t care if they turn America into Mexico to get it. Open immigration should be one of the last things Objectivists should be fighting for. On this issue, I am sympathetic with conservatives and I know how our open immigration talk turns them off to Objectivism.