What Obamacare Fables Teach the Republican Party

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It happened in “Impressionism“, “elite politics”, “Baroque” and even “Conservative PartyEveryone is called this by the mocking enemy. Everyone has become mature and confident enough to accept the name. The word “Obamacare” has changed from insulting to boasting faster than most.

More than a decade has passed since the Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) was born, and rival Republicans named the bill after its presidential author. 2010 was followed by a mid-term rout, and Barack Obama never really stabilized. Neither party in that election—the Tea Party’s breakthrough—had not expected that this behavior would become a part of American life. However, it is still here, Not loved but deeply rooted. Long before the Supreme Court supported Obamacare last week, The Democrats use this name to call it.

The legend of Obamacare confirms the iron laws of politics. On the one hand, government growth is easier to stop, rather than retroactively revoked. Once enacted, voters prefer the tangible reality of federal rights to the brisk prospect of tax cuts or “freedom” without it. This is why the so-called neoliberal era-from 1980 to about five minutes ago-almost reversed the situation of the welfare state in the mid-20th century.At some point, the fashion to reduce those 40 years of complexity Free market plunder will stop.

Another revelation is that the Supreme Court is a “conservative” in the old sense. Once the law becomes a national habit, the judge will not wake a sleeping dog. Institutions seek survival first, and a court that often opposes the public will not be able to achieve this goal.People with dreams Major reform to Rowe VS WadeThe half-century ruling on abortion should lower their hopes accordingly.

However, of all the lessons of the Obamacare era, the most important are the least need to be said. As a crusade by a small government, the Republican Party has no future. In fact, they don’t have much past.

Since the end of the Cold War in 2004, the party has won a general election in a presidential election. Widen, Do not cut, public doctor.The Republican threat to the ACA hurt them in mid-2018 (Democrats campaigned as a single issue) and thereafter, until even Conservative media Force them to stop.In the past ten years, the Republicans have tried to fight for Social Security Privatization of shares. Canceling Christmas will win more heated hearings.

Over the years, the only republicanism that can win an absolute majority has been obvious.This is a man who declared a truce with the welfare state, it is best to continue fighting crime, make sure boundary And wake up to sleep. If it avoids the most brutal populism—now an imaginary “if”—the party can win a culture war. It can only lose one class.

The strange thing about American politics is that the sweet spot of elections is so clear but not fully served. Like most wealthy democracies, fringe voters are people who are afraid of the unpredictability of the free market and too much cultural change.In the UK, the Conservative Party has solved these two types of anxiety well. Election riseThe Christian Democratic Party in Germany has always combined redistribution with traditional customs.

This patriarchal style should be adopted by a political party with historical and religious beliefs like the Republican Party. It was under Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and-intermittently-under George W Bush. Under the leadership of any of these leaders, the ten-year pursuit of Obamacare is unimaginable. It’s not even good populism.

It is impossible to change. Sometimes, young Republicans see patriotism as an economic commitment to their fellow citizens, rather than just holding a flag, playing the national anthem, and other free acts. But almost all of these so-called reformers have avoided the policy consequences. “We are now a working class party,” Senator Josh Hawley wrote on Twitter last yearHe then voted against President Joe Biden’s financial relief bill in March.He supported a Federal litigation Oppose Obamacare in 2018.

If the behavior spared him and the other attackers, it was not because it was an intellectual masterpiece. It has failed to curb the luxury of American healthcare, and it absorbs twice as much national output as American healthcare. Wealthy world averageThe Democrats themselves cannot agree on whether to play with Obamacare or go beyond it Provide public services for everyone.

To make matters worse, the Republicans struggled with it to little effect. For ten years, the party has been talking about “abolish and replace.” For ten years, Americans only believed in the first point.

janan.ganesh@ft.com



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