# Why did the Republicans demonize Obamacare so much from the start? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 27, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147 "2017-03-27T16:32:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/21 "2017-03-28T00:31:25Z")
Yeah, I don’t buy into it either. I’m 100% for noting the Southern Strategy and various forms of racism that work their way into Republican rhetoric but McConnell & Cantor didn’t base their plan around “We hate Obama because he’s black!”, they based it around “We want to get back into power and making the Democratic president and congress a failure is the best way to do it”. Frankly, proactively planning to sabotage the government for years is bad enough without having to add “Because racism” to it. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/22 "2017-03-28T00:55:37Z")
It’s both. They capitalized on the racism as a major tool in their strategy to get power again. They weren’t racist just because they’re evil; they were racist because a lot of electoral votes are from states where racism is popular. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/23 "2017-03-28T00:58:37Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > They were going to yell about anything Obama proposed (and they did) although, had they managed to trip Obama up on infrastructure first then healthcare may have never gone on the table. Some people feel that the Democrats made an error is trying to achieve healthcare first but, if they knew they only had one big thing to use their power on, then healthcare was the hill to die on. > > The GOP also opposed the Stimulus to a man as well, as you may recall [Edit: Almost; in the Senate, Collins, Snowe and Specter voted in favor though Specter then switched parties]. Again, no attempts at a bipartisan compromise, just a repeated chorus that it was terrible, socialist, yadda yadda because that was more valuable to them than the risk of Obama having a victory. > > I disagree that racism played any major role in congressional strategy – they would have done the same with Clinton or Edwards. Ref your last sentence, I think you misunderstood the earlier posters you were responding to. It’s not that the Rs were opposing Obama in general and Obamacare in specific mostly because Obama himself was black. They were opposing what Obama was doing because they thought so much of the benefits would flow to ordinary blacks. In their cartoon version of Obamacare all those hardworking white union members and retail workers would loose their affordable good insurance so all the black unwed mothers and unemployed ex-cons could get free health insurance paid for by increased taxes on working white people. _That_ was the racism that motivated the mainstream Rs. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/24 "2017-03-28T01:17:21Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Ref your last sentence, I think you misunderstood the earlier posters you were responding to. Not at all. **JohnT** argues that they didn’t react the same to Clinton, but Clinton’s policies would have also helped African-Americans. He’s saying that they didn’t act that way towards Clinton because Clinton is white and Obama is black. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/25 "2017-03-28T01:28:58Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Let me get this straight: the American electorate was so racist that hinting at racism puts a white Republican in office if he’s running against a _white_ Democrat – but not if one is running against a _black_ Democrat, who wins and wins? > > That’s downright weird. You think the strategy bloomed “to full fruition 2009-2016,” which explains – why the black guy got re-elected in 2012? Exigencies exist, and in 2008 the big demand was for an economy that wasn’t collapsing. I have no doubt that if there wasn’t an economic collapse in 2008, McCain would’ve won. None. You? And the power of incumbency is a strong one as well. Also, as a Northeast Republican, I doubt Romney had the power of fully playing the Atwater card even if it was in him… and it was not. The closest he came was the 47% comment, which I’m sure he regretted making - especially after it was released. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/26 "2017-03-28T01:31:32Z")
Eh, never mind. Gotta make corrections to the post that was here, but don’t have time. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/27 "2017-03-28T01:56:51Z")
It wasn’t/isn’t just Republicans who hated it. I, and some others on the Far Left, wanted the whole package he talked about during his first campaign - serious total reform and reformation. Almost something along a National or Social model. I may not dwell on it the way many Republicans but don’t mistake that for any kind of support. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/28 "2017-03-28T05:21:53Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > It was basically everything Republicans despise all wrapped into one package: a new entitlement program, a new set of mandates, a wealth transfer program, all put forward by the politician they most hated in recent history. I think you miss a (IMHO _The_) big factor, raised by **Little Nemo**. Follow the money. The healthcare industry is a financial juggernaut that has been living off the US’s healthcare mess for decades. In my view most of the reasons you give were at most \*convenient \*in that they meshed ideologically with the real driver: healthcare industry bribery in the form of campaign donations. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/29 "2017-03-28T11:16:31Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Not at all. They hated Clinton, no doubt. But their hatred of Obama was even off _that_ chart. Hell, the Repubs _branded_ the ACA “Obamacare” because they knew it would play well to their base. Good point. No one ever used the term “Hillarycare”. Oh wait, they did. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/30 "2017-03-28T12:48:30Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Exigencies exist, and in 2008 the big demand was for an economy that wasn’t collapsing. I have no doubt that if there wasn’t an economic collapse in 2008, McCain would’ve won. None. > > You? Given that we now live in a country where Trump can win a nomination and then a presidency, I don’t feel real comfortable making I-Have-No-Doubt claims. I _do,_ though, ask you to imagine yourself as someone who would’ve fought tooth and nail against both Clinton’s efforts and Obama’s: maybe you’re a true believer in the ideology of the way things were, or maybe you’re a bought-and-paid-for operative shilling for your backers; whatever. Imagine you’re asked – by fellow like-minded idealists or by your big-money donors – to explain your efforts against Clinton and against Obama vis-à-vis health care. _“You foiled Clinton,”_ they say, _“but you didn’t foil Obama; what the hell happened? Did you not try as hard against Obama as you did against Clinton? You did more than enough to torpedo Clinton’s efforts; how do you explain doing less than enough to stop Obama’s efforts cold?”_ What do you say in reply? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/31 "2017-03-28T13:37:19Z")
I think racism played a big part of it. Obama’s race was a leverage point that the GOP could score points against Obama with their base. The GOP would certainly have opposed any Democrat who was president, but Obama being black was an easy place to start. Once they went down that road, they couldn’t really go back. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/32 "2017-03-28T15:37:36Z")
I think racism has been overplayed. I’m not arguing that it doesn’t exist but I don’t think it’s a primary motive in how politicians operate. It’s just a tool they use when it works for them. Republicans used racism against Barack Obama. They used misogyny against Hillary Clinton. They used family values against Bill Clinton. They just picked whatever tactic they felt would work. The real motivation for politicians are power and money (which are intertwined; in modern politics, power leads to money and money leads to power). ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/33 "2017-03-28T16:06:51Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > So it was mainly because this was Obama’s first big thing that the Republicans opposed it? If his first big push was for improving infrastructure then the Republicans would have been yelling about how terrible Obamastructure was instead? > > I guess the most conservative view would be that the government has no business doing health care. But if you think they should be involved at all, it would seem to be hard to make a more conservative version than Obamacare, considering how the idea for the individual mandate was from the Heritage foundation, and the health insurance exchanges were thought up and supported by Republican legislators. If there was a good conservative alternative to Obamacare, I would think that’s what Paul Ryan would have proposed, instead of the Obamacare lite that was Ryancare/Trumpcare. There are lots of ways to do health insurance that are more conservative than Obamacare. The Heritage foundation plan that was never endorsed by them including the individual mandate but coupled that with deregulation to make the insurance affordable and Medicaid reform to make the whole system cheaper. The reason Trumpcare is different is that it starts from a different status quo. Trumpcare had to start with Obamacare and make changes without bringing the whole system down, plus Trump is not a conservative about healthcare policy so he made a bunch of promises while campaigning. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/34 "2017-03-28T16:09:04Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I think racism played a big part of it. Obama’s race was a leverage point that the GOP could score points against Obama with their base. The GOP would certainly have opposed any Democrat who was president, but Obama being black was an easy place to start. Once they went down that road, they couldn’t really go back. The previous Democrat president was opposed from the start by the Republicans and had his healthcare proposal defeated. He was then impeached. Obama was treated much better than Bill Clinton was. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/35 "2017-03-28T17:55:35Z")
To say that Republicans demonized Obamacare from the start is ridiculous and is completely contradictory to the legislative history of Obamacare. Does nobody else remember 2009? It was a yearlong process of bipartisan debate and compromise that led to the ACA. Republicans engaged in that process and were willing to compromise up to the point of the individual mandate. That is when Republican opposition solidified. The whole premise of this thread is completely at odds with what actually occurred. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/36 "2017-03-28T19:12:01Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Racism. It’s merely an extension of their “Southern strategy” where you can no longer say “nigger, nigger” and have to code the blatant racism in other ways. > > [https://www.thenation.com/article/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/](https://www.thenation.com/article/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/) > > [http://www.salon.com/2013/12/22/how\_the\_gop\_became\_the\_white\_mans\_party/](http://www.salon.com/2013/12/22/how_the_gop_became_the_white_mans_party/) > > [https://storify.com/docrocktex26/white-poverty-the-black-middle-class-the-southern-](https://storify.com/docrocktex26/white-poverty-the-black-middle-class-the-southern-) Taken out of context and used unethically. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/37 "2017-03-28T19:13:43Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > It is funny to me to see how the Republicans have put themselves in such a tough situation with health care. They can’t make a more conservative version of Obamacare, since it is already fairly conservative and modeled on Romneycare. But they have to do something since they’ve yelled about how terrible Obamacare is for 7 years and kept trying to repeal it. If they had only criticized it from the start and said it wasn’t good enough, then they could work with Democrats on something better, but after saying it’s absolutely awful, you can’t come back and say it just needs tweaks. > > This made me wonder why did they go so hard against it from the start? Was it just because it was Obama’s first big thing and they wanted him to be a failure, or is there something else I’m forgetting? I don’t know about why ‘Republicans’ dislike Obamacare, but I can tell you why I don’t like it and why I don’t think it should have been passed. #1. Negative rights vs. positive rights. I land squarely on the negative rights side of the house. I don’t believe it is the governments job to provide health care to people. That is the philosophical side. I won’t go into much detail about how I got there but that is the basic gist of it. #2. The problem is with health care is cost. Obamacare is about who pays and while it paid a bit of lip service to costs (bending the curve, etc), it didn’t go after the costs in a way that I think will be [effective](https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2016/03/31/u-s-health-spending-as-a-share-of-gdp-where-are-we-headed/#2a4b5abd1dcc)long term. Fixing the doctor shortage, changing the FDA drug approval process, allowing more generics, fixing the insane quality reporting systems for hospitals, get somewhat transparent pricing in place, encourage primary care instead of specialty care, etc. #3. Once you give it, you can’t take it away. See [Greece](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=greek+health+care+crisis&*) for an example of why this becomes a problem. #4. Obamacare won’t be fixed until it explodes due to #3. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/38 "2017-03-28T19:15:54Z")
> [@treis](#): > > To say that Republicans demonized Obamacare from the start is ridiculous and is completely contradictory to the legislative history of Obamacare. Does nobody else remember 2009? It was a yearlong process of bipartisan debate and compromise that led to the ACA. Republicans engaged in that process and were willing to compromise up to the point of the individual mandate. That is when Republican opposition solidified. > > The whole premise of this thread is completely at odds with what actually occurred. Obamacare is unworkable without the mandate. That’s not compromise; that’s just trying to sabotage the plan. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/39 "2017-03-28T19:20:57Z")
Because, like Obama said before he was president, solving healthcare by requiring people to buy health insurance is like solving homelessness by requiring everyone to buy a house. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147/40 "2017-03-28T19:23:03Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > Negative rights vs. positive rights. I land squarely on the negative rights side of the house. I don’t believe it is the governments job to provide health care to people. That is the philosophical side. I won’t go into much detail about how I got there but that is the basic gist of it. Just to address this one issue, do you believe that people have a right to roads? Should the government not provide roads? What about water? IWO, just because the government provides something, it does not mean that something is a right. It just means that we, as a democratic entity, have decided to distribute that something via the government rather than the market. The government should be involved in protecting all rights, but not everything the government does is necessarily related to a right of the people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-republicans-demonize-obamacare-so-much-from-the-start/783147.md?page=3)