Republicans Increasingly Worried About Obamacare Repeal Without A Ready Replacement
Alan: Republicans value principle over practicality.
And, under aegis of The National Lunacy (which began on 9/11), it is fair to say that most Republicans value principle to the exclusion of practicality.
Often, when formulation of practical policy is so daunting that Republicans cannot even launch open, honest discussion of a particularly knotty political problem (like truly universal healthcare), they double down on "principle alone" -- a kind of political sola fide -- blithely ignoring their inability to make practical headway against the contrarity of Reality.
Ask this question.
Have you heard any Republican discussion of health care beyond dog-and-pony platitudes? "Make the purchase of private health insurance available across state lines." "Enable every citizen to create health savings accounts" whose bottom line is to authorize every citizen who can already afford to set aside money to guarantee their health insurance while those who need help most are left in the cold).
Italian Proverb: "A Full Belly Does Not Believe In Hunger"
The Republican elephant in the room is this: "Conservatives" are unable to devise a viable Obamacare alternative that does not also include the equivalent of an individual mandate or massive transfer payments from government coffers to the "medically indigent" - if indeed universal healthcare is the goal.
"The Hard, Central Truth Of Contemporary Conservatism"
As demonstrated in those states that refused Medicaid expansion under ACA, opposition was grounded in the belief that expansion would be too costly. A moment's reflection on this political dynamic reveals that the GOP has NO intention of providing universal coverage. As Bob Dylan put it in "All Along The Watchtower," "let us stop talking falsely now, the hour's getting late." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY
Instead, pulpit-proclamations of Pure Principle (in this instance manifesting as the irrepressible urge to "Repeal Obamacare!") are designed to inflame blind anger at the Affordable Care Act so that susceptible citizens (routinely motivated by belly passion over rational thought) will "sign off" on "Obamacare repeal" even though the absence of replacement policy will, as night follows day, damage The Common Good and undermine The General Welfare.
Speaking of "principles," I encourage you to research the relative frequency with which Republicans and Democrats refer to The Common Good and The General Welfare, the latter phrase being a central mandate of the Constitution's 52 word-long Preamble. https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/preamble.
During Obama's administration, House Republicans tried to repeal Obamacare more than 50 times without ever proposing a viable (or for that matter non-viable) alternative.
Think about that.
It is a matter-of-fact that Republicans have boundless energy for proclaiming their "principles" but come up empty-handed when it's time to enact those principles through policies promoting The General Welfare.
For Republicans specifically -- and "conservatives" generally -- it is decidedly more important to prove the "Godliness" of conservative principles than to undertake the mucky, morally-compromising hard work of securing The Common Good.
"What Exactly Are Conservatives Conserving?"
The seductive appeal of "pure principles" is that, by nature, they only require verbal proclamation, which - given the cheapness of words - enables conservatives to "feel good" without having to do anything.
Indeed, "pure principles" are often used to prevent "true believers" from doing anything since "the invisible hand" or "divine intervention" will "take care of everything automatically" just the way "God" (or "Nature") truly intended.
Indeed, "pure principles" are often used to prevent "true believers" from doing anything since "the invisible hand" or "divine intervention" will "take care of everything automatically" just the way "God" (or "Nature") truly intended.
"Pope Francis Links"
Pope Francis: Quotations On Finance, Economics, Capitalism And Inequality
The Bottom Line?
For conservatives, Pure Principles are a kind of "comfort food" --- enticing to eat but void of sustenance and often pathogenic.
Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On "Too Pure Principles" And The Collapse Of Conservatism
Compendium Of Best Pax Posts:
What's Wrong With American Conservatism?
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Are Republicans Insane?" Best Pax Posts
The Hard, Central Truth Of Contemporary Conservatism
The hard, central "fact" of contemporary "conservatism" is its insistence on a socio-economic threshold above which people deserve government assistance, and below which people deserve to die.
The sooner the better.
Unless conservatives are showing n'er-do-wells The Door of Doom, they just don't "feel right."
To allay this chthonic anxiety, they resort to Human Sacrifice, hoping that spilled blood will placate "the angry gods," including the one they've made of themselves. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/harvard-study-45000-americans-die.html
Having poked their eyes out, they fail to see that self-generated wrath creates "the gods" who hold them thrall.
The Evangelical Persecution Complex (Projection's Finest Hour?)
http://paxonbothhouses.
Almost "to a man," contemporary "conservatives" have apotheosized themselves and now -- sitting on God's usurped throne -- are rabid to pass Final Judgment.
Self-proclaimed Christians, eager to thrust "the undeserving" through The Gates of Hell, are the very people most likely to cross its threshold.
Remarkably, none of them are tempted to believe this.
No comments:
Post a Comment