The Pre-Existing Condition of Republicans

The House GOP just passed an Obamacare repeal that 1) most have not read 2) has not been scored by the CBO for fear of the catastrophic estimates on the damage the bill will have on America 3) had less than 48 hrs of debate and 4) excludes politicians and their families from the effects of the bill. They did it all to say they got back at Obama via 24 million Americans who will lose insurance and 200 million who will suffer a rise in premiums. The Republican party has become radioactively intolerant of women, the poor, middle-class families, urban voters, rural voters, basic facts, experts, science, and 99% of humanity... while sheltering their own families from the nuclear fallout of their disasters. So what are we going to do about it? While Dem activism has surged, conservatives and libertarians need to join in if we're going to have a real debate about the health of our citizens.

Unfortunately all of my conservative and Republican friends have been -as the kids say- quiet AF. Quieter than an "All Lives Matter" rally for a person of color. Quieter than a "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" at Fox News. Quieter than Melania Trump's tears. Quieter than Dick Cheney when he had the epiphany that he helped build the conservative media bubble of lies and now he's on the outside of the bubble banging on the soundproof glass as Trump plays with the nuclear buttons to raucous crowds of the misinformed mistrustful, and perpetually angry. Are you quiet because you're sick of all this winning? You got that victory flu? That winner's laryngitis? You're 3 months pregnant with success and you want to abort b/c you already got an entire nursery of wins? All those beauty pageant tiaras and prom queen sashes cutting off the circulation to your tongue? Are you sick of winning or are you just sick? Get used to being sick and sad: it's a pre-existing condition for voting Republican.

Trumpcare: DOA (2017-2017)

The reason why the Republicans don't have an alternative to Obamacare is b/c Obamacare is THE Republican Healthcare Plan. The conservative think tank Heritage Foundation created most of the components of Obamacare aka the ACA plan in the 1990s. Republican Gov Mitt Romney implemented a version of ACA in Massachusetts. This is why I don't like the ACA/Obamacare but can admit it sort of works in a quasi-free market, quasi-gov Medicaid sort of way. Obamacare was created back in the 1990s when the GOP was concerned about actually governing and creating feasible policy...and even then it took several years of effort from serious policymakers and wonks. The current Republican party has no governing wing. They have Paul Ryan powerpoint slides, polemicists, conspiracists, and propagandists appealing to the least informed and most reactive part of their base who don't have a basic understanding of governance. Nothing good can come out of anger, ignorance and entitlement...which is the GOP triad right now. We are seeing a breakdown in the entire political process b/c we have fomented a race-based, xenophobic, misogynistic toxic brew directly from the comment section of Breitbart and into our body politics. And it's killing us. But for now this poisonous kleptocratic klan has inadvertently saved Obamacare...which is actually the bipartisan policy of their political forefathers.

What is next for healthcare? There is only one feasible place to go from here and that's a single payer system. This is not hyperbole but a necessity. Left-wing allies are saying that Obamacare is a precursor to the single-payer but I am skeptical.  I am NOT saying get rid of Obamacare. But I am skeptical of it leading to the single-payer utopia.  Left-wing libertarians still believe in the 'deliberate speed' approach (an oxymoronic term from the civil rights era when desegregation was told to be happening with both speed and cautious slowness). I think the deliberate speed approach is a stalling tactic of the ruling class until they can think of another cultural scapegoat or create an even more complicated and circuitously confusing Rube Goldberg-contraption that reroutes the money into their accounts.

By the way liberal libertarians, 'deliberate speed' doesn't work. It's been 60 years since Brown vs. The Board of Education and our nation is still divided along race in schools, churches, neighborhoods, hospitals, and every single aspect of life.  The country remains largely segregated in fact (despite no longer being that way in law). This is 'deliberate speed' in action. If you think you're going to get a single payer system by being nice and capitulating to the powers that be, then let me introduce you to 400 yrs of Black History.

If there is any questions as to the next step then let me clear: you will NEVER get to a single payer system through Obamacare. Will not happen. Ever. And I acknowledge the program has helped people, but I am also talking about rising premiums and outrageous drug prices which are creating a long-term dilemma. If  you are fine with this stitched together Frankenstein monstrosity then guess what: you get to keep your plan. But any sideways efforts you make in approaching a corrupt system -like health care- will fail. Half-measured attempts will be co-opted, infiltrated, weakened, misrepresented, and appropriated back into the system in the most flavorless way so as not to disturb the profiteers.

When you have the numbers -and we the people do have the numbers- you must approach corruption head-on. Directly. You must swarm, surround, stun, and disarm completely. In the civil rights movements, Blacks were in the minority so we had to employ a different approach: getting fair-minded whites to see the issue through peaceful protests, a media campaign, and letting bigots attack blacks on camera to create moral outrage. But when you are in the majority, the 99% of Americans, there is no need to charm insurance companies with sweet deals b/c you are feeding the corruption. Direct, strong, focused action with simple goals: MEDICARE FOR ALL.

Medicare For. Every. Body. Man, Woman, child. No one left behind. Medicare for all.

Obamacare Celebration? Just Crickets

I'm starting to wonder what's the incentive of creating thoughtful policy to address complex problems. I say that because I'm watching the last few months of responses to Obamacare aka the Affordable Care Act.

Despite website glitches, Obamacare signed up 6 million people to health insurance and Medicaid in 3 months. That's roughly 2.5 million on health insurance markets set up by states and the federal government and the rest of the people who are now covered on Medicaid package. In a year, these numbers will *probably* be in the tens of millions of Americans.  This one policy will save the lives of thousands and improve the quality of health for millions of Americans.

Political capital? Celebration? National media attention? As a result of this policy, the Dems are being threatened with losing seats in the House of Representative as well as the majority in the Senate. Republican-leaning states are continuing to block healthcare markets being set up in their states and the attorney generals are trying to stop Obamacare by finding new chinks in the armor, filing lawsuits, and trying to drown the law in a sea of litigation. President Obama's approval rating is at an all-time low.

Immigration reform, climate change, class inequalities are important issues that need thoughtful leaders creating detailed policy with experts. Yet, I don't know if any of these problems can be addressed in this political climate when the incentive is on loud, monosyllabic slogans

Let's remember some of the GOP's policy suggestions to our most recent problems:

1. Energy: Drill Baby Drill!!!
2. Healthcare: Kill Obamacare!!!
3. Immigration Reform: No amnesty!!!
4. Gun Reform: Keep your hands off my guns!!!
5. Kids being slaughtered by gunmen in schools: Good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns!!!
6. Economy: Tax Cuts
7. Class Inequalities: Cut taxes
8. Corporate Corruption: Cut regulations and reduce government intake...oh hell, cut taxes!!!
9. Global Warming: Al Gore sucks!! (or some variation of a personal attack)
10. Women's Rights: Who's What?!?
11. Raising Minimum Wage: Job Killer!!
12. Abortion Rights: Baby killer!!!

Dems can't beat the brevity of these slogans posing as policies because they're shackled to some basis of facts. But I think that rational is becoming a tired excuse for the incompetency of marketing and touting successes by the left-leaning and moderate politicians.

Over the last six years, Dems have been unable to take advantage of any accomplishments. It's almost easy to think that Obama has done nothing.

Obama's Record

1. Saving the Auto Industry from Bankruptcy (saving a few million jobs FYI)
2. Stopping Economy from Collapsing (like it has in many European countries)
3. Al Qaeda War: killed Osama Bin Laden
                             killed almost every single No. 2 and major lieutenant in terrorist org
4. incentivizing boom in Green Energy and alternative energy, while expanding drilling
5. Repealed Don't Ask Don't Tell
6. Wall Street Reforms: 1000 times stronger restrictions than what others wanted to do.
7.  created Consumer Protection Agency: reducing corporate abuse against citizens
8.  credit card reform
9. withdrew everyone from Iraq!! WE GOT OUT OF IRAQ! WE ARE NO LONGER IN IRAQ!
10. Obamacare: 6 million covered in 3 months.

Yet, some times it feels like Obama administration has been a complete failure. His successes are glossed over and the national attention quickly moves to the next crisis. This lack of focus could thwart the growth of  Obamacare.

ACA can still be hurt. Yes, it would be very difficult to repeal. But enough damage can be done to ACA it so that it doesn't work at its optimal level or it leaves millions without insurance. Misinformation can scare enough young people and citizens of Red States to stay away, so that the marketplace is left anemic in the long-term. And Republican consultants will celebrate this stunt 'victory' of lies with a new wave of candidates selling more odious, ignorant, and malfeasant viewpoints.

Dems need to do better. You know what, forget Dems....well-informed people -of any political persuasion- need to do better by speaking out. We need many more voices putting the facts forward repeatedly again and again. And these 'truthers' need to have the intensity as the Machiavellian Right-wing, which has grown so cynical in its tactics that they border on treasonous behavior.

When one party decides to intentionally sabotage the health, job security, and income of all Americans for political gain, there should be some repercussions. But it seems like Democrats are the most vulnerable. If this happens, then the worst and most destructively cynical behavior will be rewarded by a GOP sweep in the House and Senate. And everyone will be punished.

Love Letter to the Tea Party

Dear GOP Tea Party Members,

I wanted to thank you for distracting everyone from Obamacare and the numerous glitches its had in in the first few weeks. If it wasn't for this massive, pointless, smokescreen people might have called the ACA into question. Instead -when faced with the prospects of the entire government being deadlocked indefinitely- most rational people focused on the greater priority. This default crisis will be a Red Bull speedball for getting disaffected Dems to donate money and vote in 2014. Rest assured, we will bring this up again and all throughout 2014.

Your complete lack of strategy was only highlighted by taking an unbending hardline stance against a bill that passed 2 years ago, implemented, and approved by the Supreme Court.  Also your dickishness, made even me stand up for a change and say 'no.'

I don't think I've ever seen a national party stick their collective mouths in their butts and bite down at once. May we all look back at this rabid, crap-eating feast and laugh at your incompetence soon (shall we say Thursday, lunch?)

Three cheers to Speaker John "Custard" Boehner and Senator Ted "Il Duce" Cruz for their brinkmanship. Nice to know that there really isn't a ruse to that blank, swollen look on your face: you just really are that intellectually constipated.

By the way Speaker Boehner, I hope you can sit back and marvel at how Senator Cruz just split your caucus in two, caused a permanent rift in the GOP majority between Tea Party members and moderates, as well as crippling your leadership. And this is a fellow Republican who did this to you. Wow. Knifed in the back by a friend. To paraphrase what Julius Caesar said to another Senate chamber: 'ain't that a bitch?'

Anyway, I'm looking forward to spanking that ass again. And soon. Stay sweet. No, as a matter of fact, stay bitter. I like your hearts black, like the American people like their presidents.

Love,

B. Hussein Obama

The Default and Death of the Republican Party

The death of the Republican Party has been anticipated for a long time. What wasn't anticipated was that in their death throes they would try to dismantle, muck-up, and freeze the American federal government to the point of creating a global panic.

Apparently we're a few days away from defaulting on our debts. The nation is at a historic crisis point. The causes of the impending catastrophe isn't due to war, lack of money, or civil insurrection. It is a pre-planned and initiated drama aimed at satisfying a small group of radicalized followers whose disdain for a sitting president and opposition party has blocked out any rational thought as to the greater good for their own country.

Throughout Obama's presidency, Republicans in the House of Representatives have threatened to shut off funding for the entire government because of disagreements on individual bills. Rather than going through the process of election and majority rules, the GOP has now pivoted to suicide bomber tactics. They intend to destroy themselves in the hopes of causing damage and pain to others. It's not clear if they have dreams of getting to a GOP heaven with 67 virgins who look like Ann Coulter, but they certain do love using their manufactured disaster to visit the Elysian fields of Conservatism: Fox News.

The Default Crisis has been great for TV news ratings and stirring outrage on both sides at the expense of crippling our ability to regulate, tax, pay debt, and function as a federalized government. What is sad is that we have been heading toward this point in our history for a while. For many decades a small group of radical Conservatives have associated America with their way of thinking exclusively. If there's dissension then it can't be American. Despite this unbending belief, the country has changed in the last 30 years. Their demographics are dwindling. The party for people who think like Old White Men is running out of members and they can't find a way to convert a significant portion of women and non-Whites over to a philosophy steeped in xenophobia, isolationism, misogyny, and bigotry. Despite all the flags and country music, a vast majority of the younger generation isn't buying into the idea that one party holds the exclusive rights to Patriotism and Americana. In response to this, the patriotic Republicans are going to burn down America. This act of willfulness they claim is out of love, in the same way that an abusive person beats, burns, and kills their battered partner and then says 'why did you make me do that? You know how much I love you, right?'

They've dug the hole and intend to get out of it by going deeper: now some members are threatening to impeach Obama for the default. The very destruction they've worked to bring about is -in their eyes- a sign of Obama's treason. He should have given into their demands. Even though he was twice elected by large margins, even though Dems maintain control of the Senate and many states in the union, it is Obama who must bend to the will of 30 House Republicans. And if he doesn't then the country will fail and, at that point, he will be responsible for the crisis they created. It's Mad Hatter logic.

The GOP claims it wants government out of our lives...except when it comes to a woman's vagina, or illegal immigrants, mandatory sentencing, Black teens being illegally stop n' frisked, or unarmed people of color being killed by law enforcement officers and vigilantes. They are fine with government taking a very violent and coercive role in the lives of Brown and Black people, invasive procedures against women to humiliate them away from having a right to choose abortion, denying basic civil rights of privacy to all, splitting up families through deportation so that children are abandoned, adding more rules to make it more difficult to vote for minorities. It makes sense when their ideal America looks like a 1950s TV sitcom.

But other than your body, health, and mental well-being, the GOP want government out of our lives so we can be free to...enjoy unregulated water supplies and breathe in toxic air, eat genetically modified food, work below the minimum wage, have employee benefits stripped away, and plunge 300 million citizens into the hellmouth of unregulated casino capitalism.

The Default crisis isn't an aberration. It's a long-term cancer that continues to pop up in manufactured disasters by a few people who are losing their way and losing the country. I just hope the majority of people don't let an angry few take everyone down with them.

The death of the Republican party has been diagnosed but it's not the shifting demographics. The cancer of hate in their body politics is too far gone to salvage its remaining virtues. Their perspective is too warped on memories to see the present reality. In short, the patient's condition is terminal and there's no need to linger. For the sake of our children and all future generations, the Republican party can commit itself to one last patriotic deed: to die.