Okay...
Hear me out...
Of Course one decision would be much better than another, but when life hands us lemons, we should make lemonade.
I feel that either way this goes, Liberals can find a ray of light here.
This won't be a long post, just wanted to point this out if no one has already. You could say it's more of a rant. So I didn't bother with links to facts on this one, but if you feel I got something wrong, feel free to let me know!
More below the fold!
Scenario #1: Obamacare is Upheld by the Supreme Court.
I don't really have to explain why this is good for Democrats and the President. It's kinda obvious.
Health Care Reform will have survived a conservative ruled Supreme Court and will be implemented into full law.
Americans will never again be denied for a pre-existing condition, will be able to actually afford healthcare without going bankrupt, and the American public will eventually love Obamacare like they grew to love Medicare and Social Security.
The only bad news here would be that it will probably fire up the GOP base for a bit. They've put off creating jobs to do everything they could to kill this law. They are going into this almost certain that the SCOTUS will strike the ACA down. If it doesn't, they are going to be pissed.
I personally could care less if Republicans are pissed, in my opinion they deserve to be knocked off their rocker.
However, their anger will fire them up and give them more of a reason to vote this year. The thought that maybe Republicans could successfully repeal Obamacare if they send even more in this year will find itself tempting to them.
In my opinion, I wouldn't worry about too much here. The Teaparty is unpopular and almost completely stale. They marginalized themselves as a movement. They wore out their welcome. That ship has sailed.
The Teaparty won actual congressional seats in 2010 and have been a complete disappointment not only to Democrats, but Republicans. Remember Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?
Neither do they...
As soon as they gained a little bit of power, they used it to push some of the most radical aspects of their agenda. America was not impressed. Don't believe me? Go look at any recent poll on teaparty approval or popularity. I'll wait...
Also, the bill already passed and if the Supreme Court upholds it... well.... That's that.
The Teaparty was a tiny bit scary when they could have actually prevented a bill from passing. Back when people actually came to their rallies and weren't reluctant to associate themselves with them.
So overall, Republicans will be furious that Americans won't be denied by insurance that they paid for and families won't go bankrupt because they got sick. Bummer. But this won't last.
If the Supreme Court upholds the law, mainstream America will call it a day and move on. The GOP will too. They will eventually get back to waging wars on women, workers, voters, or whoever is threatening the GOP's agenda of returning to 1634.
Scenario #2: Obamacare is Struck Down.
I really don't have to explain why this is bad for Obama and the Democrats. It's kinda obvious.
A bill that Democrats ad the President have fought for for soooo long... would be toast. Some smaller provisions of ACA may be spared, but the overall effectiveness of the bill to vastly improve our healthcare system would be dead.
Conservatives and the insurance companies that own them will cheer to the fact that we will be going back to CorporateCare. They will high five to the fact that we will be returning to the days of pre-existing conditions and millions and millions of Americans without care. God Bless Capitalism.
It will be a bad day.
But if Republicans think they will be angry if it's upheld, they have no f$#king idea how pissed we will be if it's overturned. You will feel the earth tremble.
They already killed the Public Option with wacky lies and blasting us with a tidal wave of corporate money. Yet we grid our teeth and pushed on. We got a severely compromised version of what we wanted, and here we are, still fighting for even that.
Go ahead and take it all away. Be the very reason millions of Americans will continue to not have healthcare. Be the reason American families will go bankrupt. Be the reason health costs will continue skyrocket unchecked.
They will gloat and shove it right in our faces, but in our anger we will destroy them in the coming election worse than we already will and build the strongest movement, voice, and case for a single-payer healthcare system right here in America.
And I mean... why the hell not go for a full singer-payer system? We just watched Republicans kill an idea that they created to spite us. They will hate anything we like because we like it. I hate to sound that childish, but the situation really is that childish.
They will say that it's a government takeover of healthcare and socialism coming to America... but who cares? We heard all this before when we tried to pass a bill they supported not that long ago. They'll just sound like the broken records that they are. Republicans are expected to call everything we do socialist, communist, and Marxist. No one is scared by this, we all just get a good laugh. They are witch-hunters and tin foil hats.
Besides, if we are going to be accused of a government takeover of healthcare, why not just do it? And why is that a bad thing? How has the corporate takeover of healthcare worked out? How do Republicans in congress like their government healthcare?
I would have no problem watching insurance companies go out of business and have a system where no American is ever denied healthcare again... would you?
There's also the fact that a single-payer system would be more popular than Obamacare. Many forget that a lot of Liberals disapprove of the plan because it doesn't go far enough. In the polls, this just shows up as a majority disliking Obamacare, but they rarely show the reasons. This is one of them.
A Medicare for All system would get vast support from mainstream Democrats as well as Progressives.
Politically, the left would be seen as having another, better solution to our healthcare crisis while the right says that a system that leaves over 50 million people behind and denies paying customers the care they paid for is working just fine and we should do nothing.
So I think there are pros and cons either way this cookie crumbles.
Thank for reading and feel free to let me know what you think!