Romney is no Democrat, IMHO. He’s simply a Republican that happens to believe in the democratic process and has long been tired of Trump’s immoral and illegal actions.
Romneycare was a Republican position at the time. Republicans thought personal responsibility meant that everyone should be responsible for their own health care and buy their own health insurance from private providers. No one should get out of the obligation by being too poor and showing up at the hospital to get free care. Obama sincerely believed that by championing a Republican idea, he could work across the aisle, make some compromises, and accomplish something good for America. His version also had more in financial support for low wage workers than Republicans would have given on their own but it was mostly what Republicans had been asking for–right up to the moment a black Democrat wanted the same thing. Then, they couldn’t run farther from “socialism” and “death panels.”
Someone started calling it Romneycare because he was governor of Massachusetts at the time, and he signed the bill. The legislation had been in the works for a long time (before Romney was governor) and was not Romney’s idea. The Massachusetts legislature is mostly Democratic.
Below is an excellent article from Forbes (not exactly a left-wing commie rag) about the history of individual health insurance mandates in public policy. The first advocate for it was the Heritage Foundation, which is a noted conservative think-tank. The individual mandate was raised as a response to a mandate imposed on hospitals that accept Medicare that required them to treat the indigent (signed by that pinko, Ronald Reagan). When poor people started getting health care as a result, a long litany of Republicans, with names like George H.W. Bush (that Marxist) started kicking this idea around. Then Hillary (you know which one) started advocating for single-payer health care. In response, all the leftist Senate Republicans like Bob Dole, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, etc. etc. etc. put forth a bill that would have imposed an individual mandate and given subsidies to some poor people (hmm, what does that sound like)? This got the support of that radical Trotsky-ite and prominent Republican, Newt Gingrich.
Call it what you will, Obamacare was a Republican idea first adopted by a Republican governor (as you note, in a predominantly Democratic state). There can’t really be much debate about that. Although it never had the support of all Republicans (the article does a good job of discussing dissent among Republicans), it was only universally rejected by Republicans when enough Democrats agreed it might be worth considering.
Manchin is fine as a senator from West Virginia. We could use a lot more Manchins (a moderate to conservative Democrat holding a seat in a solidly red state) - who wouldn’t trade Mitch McConnell or Rand Paul for a Manchin-like Democrat?
Manchin would not stand a chance running for national office.
Probably be fine as a senator from mars, you’d know what you were voting for. Has there been a poll (from WV) checking dems’ disappointment with the misleading packaging?
Not an option here on Earth. The gops have pulled out all the stops, we should do the same. I get it that “It’s West Virginia, Jake” but I’d hesitate to apply faint praise to the munchkin. The gops can stick together when it’s our country they want to wreck; we should do the same to preserve it.
Dan
I just goggled “how is manchin polling in west virginia” and the answer is, not surprisingly, “stinko”. Too bad the DINO couldn’t stand up an help inflict some damage.
Dan
Manchin? You mean the Reactionary Rightist who’s somehow allowed to sit with the Ds? That Manchin?
He should be expelled, not extolled.
the only thing WV cares about is voting for whoever kisses the ass of the coal companies by defeating any alternative energy bill ever put out
I hate Manchin, but if (when?) he loses in WV. he’ll be replaced by a Trumpist, not someone more liberal.
Despite being the most rightwing of the Dems, Manchin stills votes with Biden 88% of the time. That’s 20 points more than the most leftwing Republican.
True. But given his de facto veto power over everything the D’s do, we’d do better to accept that Trumpist rather than being forced to propose only trumpist-lite legislation as our own.
Huh. So we expel Manchin, Sinema flips to Republican and… don’t we then have McConnell back in the Senate Majority Leader seat? (Rhetorical question.)
I’m no fan o’ Manchin, but come on.
The proper answer to Manchin isn’t to get rid of him; it’s to get some more solid Democrats so we can pass bills without him. He’s mostly a reliable Democrat, on everything except things relating to the coal industry.
Now, Sinema, she’s a disgrace, and we can, should, and hopefully will, do better than her.
That’s the real point, much better said by @Chronos than by me.
The Ds can’t be reduced to a 1 vote majority and expect to accomplish anything. Fix that and Manchin won’t matter.
Romney thought Trump was a stupid uncultured buffoon but he agreed with him policy-wise on almost everything. He just didnt like that Trump said thw quiet parts out loud.
Fuck him.
Trump wants to subvert the US constitution and turn the USA into his personal property. The “normal” R politicians (now greatly in the minority) of which Romney is one, want what they always have: to dominate politics with an agenda based on greed and power for the Establishment fat-cats, and deficit spending aimed mostly at the military industrial complex and “corporate welfare”.
Neither of those are what the Ds want. But they are very different situations with very different implications for the Ds and for the USA.
I think that most of would agree that if there was to be an R in the White House after the 2024 election, we’d rather have Romney than Trump. At least with Romney there’s some chance there will be a 2028 election to vote him back out. With trump there is no such chance.
None of which says the idea of Romney running as a D is anything but insane.
Talk. The Ds say that they are opposed to those things, but when the tacks are brass, they do almost nothing about them. Republicans implement destructive policies and the Ds just let them slide (though, granted, Joe the President has reversed a handful of Individual-ONE’s more egregious affronts).
Decades later, Reagan’s tax cuts remain in place even though they have driven the nation into peril. A Glass-Steagal-type safely valve could have been restored in '09 when the D’s had firm control of the government, but, no such luck. And we still have a Space Force – why?
The socioeconomic system is severely damaged, and the Rs keep breaking things, but the Ds do nothing to fix the damage, only barely enough to keep the system from collapsing completely. And some pretty stickers to cover the cracks.
The Reducto ad Manchinum: every thread in P&E, if it goes on long enough, ends up about Joe Manchin.