“With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.” –Abraham Lincoln
Going into the 2012 elections, the President was around his lowest in approval ratings ever according to Gallup’s “Barack Obama’s Presidential Job Approval Ratings,” that list the President’s all-time low popularity at 38 percent in October of 2011. (Today the President’s approval is at 45 percent.) Yet Republicans lost.
I’m not a supporter of the President because of what has happened to the middle class as a result of his policies, but I believe my objections are becoming irrelevant as the US becomes a one party system with Republicans a private party of limited and extreme membership.
The losing recipe? The Republican Party has become a flaky, niche party completely oblivious to the world and the population of the US and the only battles they are willing to fight over are narrow issues that cater to extreme elements within their own party.
Let’s take the issue of Obamacare, which is here, and this benefits season will leave many citizens in a worse position than they’ve ever been before regarding the purchase of health insurance coverage that will help them afford needed medical care.
In July, Kaiser Permanente unveiled healthcare premium increases that have California reeling. In defense of modifying Obamacare, responsible Republicans would be discussing the inevitability of such increases, after all, it’s right there in Obamacare, insurance companies cannot charge more for preexisting conditions, (unless it’s age or smoking) so where will the extra money come from? OBVIOUSLY by covering less and charging more in premiums overall. But the echoing silence from Republicans is only broken by the last gasps of hoarse chants of, “Repeal Obamacare.”
On August 4, 2013, “The New York Times,” rehashed the topic of medical tourism on their front page, discussing the unaffordability of needed medical treatment here in the US versus abroad. Instead of exploring the idea that OBVIOUSLY in a marketplace with no limits on what can be charged by physicians, and in a marketplace with no requirement that physicians accept at least one insurance plan, charging more for needed medical treatment was a predictable result.
What are Republicans addressing instead? They’re whining about CNN’s plan to make a Hillary Clinton movie, with threats coming out that they won’t have debates on CNN. Psst. Guess what? Nobody cares, because the party of immaturity, the party of nastiness and the party of no idea of the public they serve is likely to lose anyway.
