An interesting tweet just now by Stephen Fry (If you don’t know who Stephen Fry is, I feel sorry for you)
Know this, Republicans.Even the most right wing British politician wouldn’t think of dismantling our health service.
I think this is an interesting point. Why? Because it means the Democrats are going about this entire healthcare thing all wrong. There is really only one way to do this. You do healthcare reform right you pass a sweeping bill you set up the conditions to really set up a solid national healthcare system. No Bull half measures or the weak somewhat crummy bill they have now. It means you have to really legitimately do a healthcare reform. Then you take that bill and you ram it down the throats of the Republicans’ with all the subtly and grace of a panzer tank. And then when it works you beat the Republicans’ around the kidneys with it in every election until it stops sticking because nobody in their right mind would think of getting rid of the program.
But the reality is, if you want to do healthcare reform and you want to do it right you’ve got to have the balls to bet the party on it. FDR bet the party on Social Security and he won. LBJ bet the party on Medicare and Medicaid and he won the double down with Vietnam unfortunately didn’t work out so well. And Obama has to be willing to bet the party on healthcare reform or he should get out of the game.
(For that matter, Bush bet the party on the Iraq war and lost. Reagan bet the party on tax reform and won. Nixon bet the party on China and won, but then he tried to double down with watergate and lost… You get the idea. When it comes to being president you’ve got to be willing to go big or go home. Clinton never really bet the party on anything (other than fellatio perhaps) and I think in the long run will be remembered for a rather boring presidency in which the nation prospered, you know, like Coolidge (a president so boring he doesn’t even rate a built in entry in my computer’s dictionary.))