And the obsession with repealing Obamacare is making it worse
It’s no secret. The next generation of new voters is far more diverse and minorities are rejecting the Republican Party at historically high rates.
Demographics are not destiny — but even The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza sees how this ends for the GOP:
The concentration of young minority population in the Southwest and South means that states like Texas and Arizona as well as Georgia and South Carolina — all of which have been conservative redoubts at the presidential level for decades could be in real jeopardy for the party in the medium and long term.
Republicans don’t just need to lose Texas to never win the White House ever again. They just need to have to spend serious money there to drown out the nearly one million Texans who are being denied Medicaid expansion starting to show up at the polls.
But we’re likely a few presidential elections from that.
I’ve written that the GOP is closer to a death spiral than Obamacare ever was. I wasn’t making the usual, dubious prediction that the GOP is in its last throes. I was saying Obamacare’s fate is more secure than the GOP — and that’s certain as long as this party cannot break free of the parody of itself it has become.
The best ad of the 2012 election cycle was “Stage” where a former employee of a company purchased by Bain Capital told the story of having to build a platform, which was then used by Bain to announce that they were being laid off.
The purpose of these ads was to make people understand that Mitt Romney was actually serious about Paul Ryan’s budget, which cuts taxes for millionaires while gutting most of the good the federal government does for 99.9% of America including Medicare. In a way it just a sketch of a vision Romney laid out himself in the ’47 percent’ tape.
Paul Ryan has gone on to prove he’s serious about this agenda that has been endorsed twice by the House GOP since Romney lost. The latest version cuts Medicare less but still transforms it into a program that resembles — unbelievably — Obamacare.
One thing Republicans have done effectively, with the help of the flubbed roll-out of Healthcare.gov, is make Obamacare anathema in red states, where it is still far underwater with most voters. However, the law’s most progressive benefit — Medicaid expansion — remains popular and Democratic governor Steve Beshear who implemented it effectively is far more popular the Republican Bobby Jindal who refuses to do so, which has helped encourage embattled incumbent Mary Landrieu to go on the offensive for the law.
She should point out the dirty secret of why Republicans really hate the law: it taxes the super rich to get working people health insurance.
Obamacare may not be a winning issue for Democrats but it easily can be. Just point out the obvious: If Mitch McConnell still wants to repeal Obamacare even though it covers 413,000 Kentuckians — next he’ll gut Medicare.
Republicans have branded themselves as the party that’s willing to take away your health insurance as they cut taxes for the rich.
And which demographic is that supposed to win over?
