I know there have been a lot of Democrats who have been concerned about the implementation of the ACA. And yes, these Democrats have good reason to be concerned about the impact on the Democratic Party politically if the American People view the ACA in a negative light at the time of the 2014 elections.
But, if the Administration does not get the website running smoothly shortly, and if by the midterm elections next year the American People do not view the ACA in a positive light, the Democratic Party will have more serious problems.
There has been a debate in this country for many years about the role and basic competence of government. Ronald Reagan stated in his First Inaugural Address
. . . government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.
http://www.reaganfoundation.org/...
And this view has been widely held by the Republican Party. For years, we have faced Republican efforts to privatize basic government functions like Social Security. We have heard argument after argument from Republicans that private industry can do things better.
Even some democrats have accepted the idea that government is not always a good thing. For example in 1996, Bill Clinton stated:
The era of big government is over
http://www.cnn.com/...
Progressive Democrats have not been satisfied with this point of view and have been fighting to get the American people to see government as a positive force in people's lives. And this is a view that President Obama had in his 2013 Inaugural Address
Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce, schools and colleges to train our workers.
Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.
. . .
But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
The Affordable Care Act is the President's and the Democratic Party's chance to show the American People that government can and should function in a way that will help ordinary people. And by showing the American People a government program that will allow people to have access to quality affordable health care, it will hopefully result in the rejection of the GOP's philosophy of limited government.
It is very important that the Administration fix the problems with the website, and that they do it soon. Otherwise, the Democratic Party will face the danger that not only will the Democratic Party be punished in the 2014 elections by an American Public frustrated with the failed implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but that the American People will turn to the Republican Party's anti-government solutions in the years to come.
*********
Yes, I know that the ACA is private health insurance, and not government health care like single payer. And yes I know that the plan is basically a Republican Plan similar to Mitt Romney's plan in Massachusetts. But the American People won't see it that way. The Republican Party and its mouthpiece Fox News have convinced the American people that the ACA is government run healthcare, and therefore any failures of the ACA will be perceived as a failure of government.
Fri Nov 15, 2013 at 5:54 AM PT: I think that some of the commentators are not understanding where I am coming from. I am someone who has a positive view of the ACA and thinks that as a community we ought to be getting the word out about the positive effects of the ACA to counter the Republican/Fox News negative spin.
However, the purpose of this diary is to point out to the community that if they don't fix the website, there are broader implications for the party then just the ACA.
As a community, we can't just stick our head in the sand and hope that it all works out. We need to be prepared for the inevitable Republican spin that will occur if the website is not fixed. That spin will be that ACA is an example of why government solutions to problems don't work. And we will need to have a response as to why government does work as a solution for other issues despite the problems with the ACA