This is a perfect example of the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans (and the reason why I am a Democrat). Both Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. John McCain were diagnosed with brain cancer (glioblastoma specifically). Sen. Kennedy returned to the Senate after his diagnosis to work on helping Americans to get healthcare. He died before he could vote on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), but is there any doubt that he would have voted for it? Sen. Kennedy wanted to give millions and millions of Americans healthcare and wanted to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for it. Sen. McCain, after his diagnosis, wants to do the opposite: take healthcare away from millions and millions of Americans and give tax cuts to the wealthy (Trumpcare).
From the Washington Post:
At the twilight of a storied career and battling a brain tumor, Sen. John McCain stands poised to deliver for his party and his president on the issue that’s defined the GOP for the past seven years.
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McCain himself campaigned heavily on the “Obamacare” repeal issue last year as he won re-election to a sixth and almost certainly final Senate term.
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And the situation was eerily reminiscent of a similar scenario involving McCain’s good friend, the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, who returned to the Senate in July 2008 while battling brain cancer to vote on Medicare legislation, his dramatic entry in the chamber eliciting cheers and applause. Kennedy died of cancer in August 2009.
You would think that Republicans would be embarrassed that their party is so determined to be so cruel to want to take healthcare away from millions of Americans, and you would be wrong. Far too many Republicans actually believe that it is morally wrong — think about that — to tax some very wealthy people, who do not need that money to live, to pay for healthcare for people who will die without that healthcare. Republicans look at taxing as “stealing” rather than as the price of living in a morally just society. Both Democrats and Republicans look at the choice between taxes and people dying and see a simple, obvious choice but come to opposite conclusions. Republicans come to a morally bankrupt conclusion. To Republicans, people dying is mildly unfortunate but taxation is the greatest injustice in the history of the world. Democrats make the morally correct choice. To Democrats, raising taxes is mildly unfortunate but people dying from lack of healthcare is an injustice that must end.
Democratic politicians are not perfect. Sometimes they seem to be embarrassed to admit that they want to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for healthcare. Most Americans agree with that idea, but Republicans have done such an amazing job at poisoning that idea and poisoning the public perception of Obamacare over the last seven years. Yet with Republicans poised to repeal Obamacare and many Americans starting to realize the magnitude of the negative consequences of such a repeal, the Republican ruse is quickly losing its effectiveness. More Americans are in favor of Obamacare now than against it. Trumpcare is a joke, a bad joke, a bad joke that will kill people.
We cannot convince people who perceive taxes as worse than people dying to vote for Democrats. I still have a hard time believing that such people can exist despite the fact that I talk to some of them and am related to too many of them. But this is where Democrats must fight for moderate voters and even reasonable, conservative voters. As part of a strategy to win back Congress and the Presidency, Democrats should make this fundamental difference between political parties something that every voter sees, every journalist understands, and every American knows. Not everyone who sees that difference will side with Democrats, but if it becomes political narrative, then no one can claim that they do not know what Democrats stand for.
