NY Times
As the nation’s capital was rocked by revelation after revelation from the investigation into any connection between the Trump campaign and Russia, Democrats in Washington were focused on what they saw as nothing less than saving the republic. More than 1,800 miles away, Rob Quist, a Democratic candidate in one of the House special elections that will gauge the mood of the country this spring, was concentrating on high insurance premiums, not high crimes.
"I call it the un-American Health Care Plan," Quist said, noting that health care quickly became the number-one issue of his campaign after the AHCA was passed by the U.S. House.
"This is merely a tax break for the super-rich. That's all it is. In the greatest country on earth, people should not have to declare bankruptcy just because they have a health care issue."
The contrast between what Democrats in Washington are consumed by and what their candidates are running on illustrates an emerging challenge for the party as the president becomes ever more engulfed in controversy: For all the misfortunes facing their foe in the White House, Democrats have yet to devise a coherent message on the policies that President Trump used to draw working-class voters to his campaign.
On the contrary, Quist and Bernie Sanders, who joined him for several rallies yesterday, have a compelling and lucid message. Together, they decried the passage of AHCA, saying it will boot 24 million people off insurance, 70,000 of them in Montana.
Calling it “disastrous,” and “one of the ugliest, most dangerous, most un-American” bills ever passed in Congress, Sanders said he and Quist would work together to create a Medicare for all, single-payer health care system to ensure universal coverage: “Now is the time to make sure we have an economy that works for all of us. Now is the time to make sure we have a health care system that works for all of us.”
“Russia is important to the American public, but health care hits home directly in people’s lives,” said Nancy Keenan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. “Regular Montanans are talking about the heck of a spring snowstorm we just had, this health care bill, the stuff that’s hitting them every single day. They know something is amiss in Washington, but in their everyday lives it doesn’t affect them right now.”