Jed Lewison brings up an important point about at least one Kentucky voter and her objection to the ACA. Her antipathy for the ACA is based upon her dislike of Obama; this is no surprise. However, I have noticed a trend on Daily Kos when it comes to discerning the mind of a red state voter such as the example that Jed provided. Some on Daily Kos are willing to admit that racism plays a role with some Republican voters self destructive reaction to Obama's policies, but from what I have seen in the comments indicates that others dismiss racism as a significant factor in Obama Derangement Syndrome. Given that Obama has governed as a conservative, how else do you explain some of the hatred for him unless it based upon his skin color?
Let's stick with Kentucky and the ACA as an example. The ACA has at its core the individual mandate, which is despised by Republicans. How many damn times do liberals have to point out that the individual mandate is a conservative idea from the Heritage Foundation? When I mention this to Republican voters in Kentucky, I get no comment or a blank look. It is if their minds cannot process this information. Obama embraced a conservative Republican idea and made it part of Obamacare? This is rejected or conveniently ignored by Republicans in Kentucky.
However, Governor Beshear was smart enough to understand that when he set up state exchange under the ACA to call it kynect. Billboards appeared on I-64 and TV commercials ran promoting kynect. State workers and others went out in the counties to sign up people who had never had health insurance with the money from the Medicaid expansion in the ACA. Now, we have over 400,000 people in Kentucky with health insurance that didn't have it before.
Think this would have happened if kynect had been called Obamacare? Remember, we have people in Kentucky who believe that signing up for the ACA requires people to have an electronic chip implanted in their arm. I wonder how that idea got promulgated? It doesn't exactly sound like a rational reason for not signing up for Medicaid.
Yes, I have no statistical data that says "This percentage of Kentucky voters are racists, while other Kentuckians base their on opposition to the ACA on conservative principles." It would be wonderful if people were honest enough to admit in a public survey, "Yeah, I'm a racist and proud of it." But I don't, and frankly, it will be damn difficult to obtain empirical data on racial attitudes.
"But Merlin, you are assuming that all those who oppose the ACA in Kentucky are racists." No, but I won't dismiss that racism is a factor among Republican voters in Kentucky either. As I mentioned before, the ACA is based upon a conservative idea, so how is it that conservatives now turn around and go "YUCK!" when Obama uses one of their health care policies? Republican opposition to the ACA is not grounded in policy differences, unless NOW they are saying the individual mandate was a bad idea from the get go.
Well, maybe it is just some form of tribalism. If a Democrat is for it, Republicans must be against it. Except, if Republican tribalism was in play with the ACA, Republican voters in Kentucky should be rejecting a slew of other social insurance policies such as Social Security and Medicare. I don't see a lot of Kentucky Republicans forgoing Social Security or Medicare because Roosevelt and Johnson proposed those programs.
So something else is going on with Republican voters in Kentucky when it comes to the ACA, and I can't help but think that it has something to do with Obama being biracial. And I am not saying that every single person in Kentucky who opposes the ACA is a racist. However, I know that some of those who oppose the ACA in Kentucky are racists because I've talked to them. How do I know this? Would you take using the N word as proof of racial bias?
I get the feeling that some liberals don't want to wrestle with this ugly truth. To be honest, I'm angry and saddened by the fact that more than a few voters in Kentucky are racist. As a liberal, I'm supposed to believe in the innate goodness of human beings, but it is difficult to do when you are dealing with people who are irrational and filled with hatred. Unfortunately, more than a few voters in Kentucky will vote against Democrats this fall because the man who is the party leader is biracial.
Does this mean that I think all is lost in Kentucky? No. Democrats in Kentucky will have to try and get out their base. And they can campaign on the ACA, but Democrats will have to be smart about how they frame the ACA. Frankly, I think Grimes should push hard on the Medicaid expansion and how McConnell wants to take away Medicaid and privatize Medicare, but she is not going to do that for now. Grimes is shy of getting near to Obama. But whether Democrats like it or not, McConnell will throw Obama into the election because of who he is. Racism is a potential mine field in Kentucky politics, but to ignore its affects on the 2014 Election will not make it go away.