I'm on my lunch hour, so this will be brief.
The smaller of my two churches is in a very small, very rural, very conservative/libertarian community in north west Wisconsin. Since 2008, I have heard some gobsmackingly horrible comments in the cafe. I know these folks personally, so I know where they stand on most issues and from where they get most of their information and news, and so do you (three guesses, and the first two don't count).
They are caring folks who have difficultly empathizing with people outside of their sphere. They are bright, capable people, skilled in many ways, who have difficulty engaging intellectually outside of a specific bubble. I love these guys, but more than once I've had to restrain myself from just chucking my toast at them when they get on a roll.
They are independent, proud, conventionally religious, and heavily armed.
Other shoe dropped below the squiggle...
They are also poor. Very poor. 90% of the kids in the consolidated 4k-12 school qualify for free or reduced lunches. The vast majority of the adults are employed at least thirty miles away from the community. If the area wasn't extremely popular with retirees, there would be no tax base for their school district.
So, when the advertisement for Health Insurance Marketplace came on the perpetualy droning television in the cafe, I cringed, expecting a tea party, Limbaugh fueled diatribe.
I heard....mainly silence. Then the conversation started up. And it was rational. And positive. Why?
Many of these folks are on medicaid or VA health plans. They are covered. Their families members have not been. And now they can be.
BECAUSE THEY PERSONALLY KNOW SOMEONE WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM IT, THEY ARE CAUTIOUSLY WILLING TO GIVE IT A SHOT. Sorry, I got a little shouty there, but I was shouting inside when I was listening to them chew it all over. They all know folks in their 20s and 30s making too much for Badger Care but not offered insurance through their employers. And now that Walker and his Koch fueled fantasy of a state full of desperate people have booted a huge number of folks off of Badger Care, they know even more folks. They know folks who can only find part time work and have no insurance or any way to get it. They all know folks who are long term unemployed who have no insurance or any way to get it.
These folks-their kids, grandkids, cousins, nieces and nephews, neighbors, are just like they are and always have been-struggling to make ends meet and pay bills in an economy that doesn't just bite but rends and tears the meat of the bones of the families. And now, there is something out there that can help them. So these folks they know are going to the website. They are looking things up. They are checking. Some of them are praying to hold out until the exchanges go into effect.
They wouldn't pull the lever for a democrat for all the M&Ms in the world. They're still resentful about those "lazy ass folks, you know who I mean" who just take and take. Some even feel uncomfortable about their kids and grandkids using these government programs, but not so uncomfortable that they will tell them not to because, "times have changed, you know."
While I would love for their acceptance of the benefits of the ACA came about because they saw it as a public good that more people will have more access to healthcare, or even that healthcare was a human right, I'll take this as a hopeful sign that some folks will not shoot themselves in the foot, just because they can.
And when it works and my peoples up here begin to see improvement in their lives....I'll be very thankful. And I won't even say "I told you so," when we bicker about politics over our bottomless cups of coffee. Because, in spite of how they make me just want to slap the shit out of their mouths sometimes, I love them, respect them, and admire them. I want them to have abundant life, and I'm extremely grateful that, for once, they don't seem determined to screw it up for themselves.
I hope my experience is echoed throughout the country.