It should come as no surprise that the right-wing grassroots is up in arms right now. In their minds, they voted for senate candidates who promised repeal, they voted for house candidates that promised repeal, they voted for a president who promised repeal, and they won on all fronts. They had majorities in both houses that agreed with everything they argued for in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. And now they feel betrayed—how could these members of congress fumble the ball at the goal line? How could they renege on their promise to repeal Obamacare?
To answer that question, they should turn their sights back to the 2008 democratic primary. I was at the DNC convention in Denver in 2008, my first and only national convention so far. There’s always an interesting cast of characters as these events, everyone from democratic socialists to anarchists with black masks. But what I remember the most is the fascinating conversations with the base of the party, and all of it’s varying factions and interest groups. Tom Dashle, our former Senate Majority Leader and President Obama’s first nominee for HHS, led a conversation at a “Health Care First” rally. That conversation echoed what was debated between Hillary, Obama, and he who shall not be named. It echoed the conversation that occurred among democratic voters throughout 2008. It’s a conversation, a debate, that the GOP skipped in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017. The specific, detailed debate that democratic voters participated in throughout 2008 resulted in an equally specific, detailed health care plan that became the 2008 democratic platform. It became the platform that democrats ran on up and down the ballot.
There were, of course, disagreements. We barely failed to oust Joe Leiberman, and failed to convince him of the need for a public option. We had some strange Stupak 6 members of congress that took a brief but irrational stand. We had Bernie Sanders and a few others pushing for single payer. We initially had Obama opposing the individual mandate, but convinced him of it’s merit through this vigorous debate. But for the most part, we had agreement not just on broad principals and rhetoric and ideas, but on a specific detailed plan that we wanted to make law. When we elected our representatives in 2008, we knew where they stood. They had made commitments to pass not just a catch-phrase, but a plan. A plan that provided a workable framework for what eventually became Obamacare.
From 2010-2016, GOP voters skipped that debate entirely. They didn’t care about specifics. They made it clear they wanted repeal. All republican politicians had to do was promise them Obamacare would be repealed, and they were satisfied. The voters didn’t bother learning what the Affordable Care Act was, they didn’t bother learning the difference between exchanges, regulations, and other components of the bill. They didn’t bother discussing what would happen with people who suffer from pre-existing conditions. They didn’t bother discussing what to do with medicaid, medicare, the employer mandate, or the taxes. They didn’t vote for a plan. Some presidential candidates had plans. They weren’t interested. The guy who yelled “REPEAL AND REPLACE” the loudest, that’s the one they went with. End of “debate”. End of election. We’ll figure out the details later, they thought.
By the time they took power in 2017, they had no idea where any of their representatives stood. The only thing they had in common was a catch-phrase. Some wanted full repeal. Some wanted to kill medicaid. Some wanted to only kill the individual mandate. Some wanted skinny repeal. Some couldn’t even care less. And now, as we can see, they may have failed to come up with a consensus entirely, leaving ACA as law for the near future, and maybe, just maybe, leaving it as law until the next election.
Democrats often get criticized for being the party of the 12 point plan. They party of the rambling policy proposal, often losing to the concise messaging factory that is the GOP. We should be simpler. We shouldn’t confuse voters with the minutia. But as last night proved, at least for now, our details matter. Our focus on policy makes all the difference. It’s how we passed Obamacare in 2010, it’s how we protected it in 2017, and it’s how we’ll reach true universal coverage in 2021.
So to my right-wing friends fuming at the failures of their elected representatives, you have only yourselves to blame. You treated a decade of elections as sport, not as an attempt at governance. You cared only that your team won. We cared about policy. So you won the game, but our policy stands. And in the end, the reason elections matter is the policy that results from them. Let’s never lose sight of that policy. Let’s debate universal health care not as rhetoric, not as catch-phrases, but as specific plans we want to make law. Let’s never stop debating exactly how to improve health care for Americans, and let’s never become America’s second stupid party.