Even the usually stellar health reporters at The New York Times, Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz, are subject to the editorial mandate that every single Trump voter in the nation be found and interviewed. That effort reveals that Trumpies remain idiotic sheep who love being lied to. And the rest of us are going to have to save their sorry asses yet again in this election.
"I think people should be able to have insurance even if they have pre-existing conditions," Pamela Jean Locke, 59, in Jacksonville, Florida. "I've heard from him that he would continue with pre-existing conditions so that people would not lose their health insurance," she said. The woman is a children's museum director, so she has enough brain cells to direct something, but apparently not enough to follow the actual news and realize that everything Trump has done this far has been to take away her health insurance, including asking the Supreme Court to throw the whole thing out. Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), she told the Times that her husband's heart condition meant they had to jump from one plan to another to keep finding coverage for him. Not having to do so because of the law has "made a big difference with me and my husband," she said. She's still voting for Trump, because she heard him say it. And yeah, we're going to have to save her from herself.
It's about saving the country, even these idiots. Simple as that. Donate now to help bring it back to the White House and Senate.
She's not alone. Kaiser Family Foundation found in its survey in late August that 84% of Republicans think Trump has the better plan for protecting people with potentially disqualifying medical histories. Eighty. Four. Percent. How that is possible is beyond me because I don't have a Republican brain. Those racism-curious swing voters (because, really, how could it be anything other than racism to make you undecided here) slightly swing to Trump, on preexisting conditions. 54% to 52% think Biden has a better handle on it. A Commonwealth Survey in battleground states in September found similar numbers: 79% of Republicans believe Trump is the "most likely to protect health insurance coverage for people with preexisting conditions."
"I think he's talked to enough families who have pre-existing conditions and wouldn't have insurance, who wouldn’t be able to get the care they need," Locke said. She believes he talks to people with families. She believes he cares about people. The Times found "a dozen voters who said President Trump would do a better job on pre-existing conditions." These people have extremely selective understanding, apparently. Like Phil Bowman, a 59-year-old retiree in North Carolina. "There is not a single guy or woman who would run for president that would make it so that pre-existing conditions wouldn’t be covered. […] Nobody would vote for him."
And another one, because how can you stop watching a dumpster fire? "I think he's straight up telling us what he's going to do," said retiree Ronald Regal, a Florida man. "He has done what he wanted to do, and told us what he was going to do with all the things he has done." Which is utter nonsense, but he's damned committed to it. They all are. Experts have explanations. Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, is not surprised to hear these kinds of statements. "It's strictly partisanship," he said. These people all hated Obamacare because they hated President Obama and drank the Kool-Aid. "If I've decided to go with him, I believe he won't hurt, quote, me or someone like me. But it's not substantively based." Which is an understatement. "They all have insurance now, and they can't lose it because of a pre-existing condition," Mollyann Brodie, the chief operating officer at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said. "And why would President Trump change that? It's a consistent position if you trust him." Also, you already voted for him once and don't want to be confronted with the massive mistake you made.
Even if they lose their coverage if Trump prevails in the Supreme Court and wins reelection and does absolutely nothing—because he has absolutely no plan and doesn't even plan on coming up with a plan—they will blame anyone but Trump when they're left without coverage. Because it couldn't possibly be him.
So it's up to us to save their asses, as well as everyone else's, by taking back the White House and, just as critically, the Senate. It's going to be nearly impossible to keep Trump's pick of Amy Coney Barrett off the Supreme Court, and she is 100% going to vote against the ACA. In the best scenario there, Chief Justice John Roberts—and maybe Neil Gorsuch—find a way not to agree with probably the most bullshit legal argument that has ever been brought before them and come up with some kind of ruling that limits the ACA but doesn't completely toss it. They'll still damage it and we'll need the means to repair the damage. That means Democrats controlling the House, the Senate, and the White House. Even if it means we help the Trump voters who don't care about us. Because that's who we are.