I constantly think to myself "what if this happened" and "what if that happened". I know that it may be monday morning quarterbacking, but as a human, I am always curious. One question I always ask myself is "what would have happened had healthcare reform passed in 1994?". Sadly, we will never know the answer, but I think this would be a pretty interesting conversation to have.
In Bill Clinton's book "My Life", he believed that half of the Democratic losses in 1994 occured due to low Democratic turnout because of failure to pass healthcare. He also blamed the assault weapons ban for turning out the other side's voters, but he saw healthcare as the reason why Democrats didnt turn out that year. I suspect he was right.
Had the Democratic base turned out in 1994, Democrats would have held control of the House and prevented the rise of people like Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay, most importantly, George W. Bush. Had healthcare reform passed, George W. Bush would have never been elected President. He would have simply been former President Bush's loser son.
Democrats cannot make this mistake again. It seems that Democrats have learned from their mistake in 1994 and will pass a healthcare bill by late January. This means that many liberals in the House will have to suck it up and vote for the bill, even if there are some provisions in it that they dont like. I suspect that they will do the right thing so we can pass this and avoid another 12 years of misery that occured the last time Democrats failed at reform.