I wrote a letter to the editor that would have passed for an ordinary post here. It was published today.
Here is the text:
Republican leaders blew their chance
The Republican Party had seven years to create their health plan and explain it to the public. With that much time and passion devoted to a single subject, you would think they would write something down.
You would think there would be thousands of pages of analysis and the plan would be honed to a razor edge. Everyone would be on the same page, they would have held dozens of meetings and seminars, and anyone in the party could explain in detail why their plan was better.
The Republican plan turned out to be complaining about the features of Obamacare that were compromises to get enough votes to pass it, and holding 60 symbolic repeal votes, safe in the knowledge that they would be met with a veto.
This is more than a political setback. It is a metaphor for politics of image and automatic objections to anything proposed by the other party.
It is the difference between using the power of government to help people, and using that power against them.
President Barack Obama spent years hammering out a plan and most of a year getting it through Congress. Pinning his name on it was originally supposed to be an insult, but now it is a triumph.
Mr. Obama and a Democratic majority created something that is a long way from perfect but a decided improvement. They spent years working on it. They campaigned on it and they got it passed.
The GOP now owns the halls of power, and can’t find the light switch. They don’t do homework and they don’t seem very smart.
This contrast will make it difficult for the media to pretend that “both sides” are somehow equal, but I’m sure they are up to the challenge.
(Repack Rider)