10.26.07
Kill Don’t Amend
John Carter and the radical right wing’s strategy on health care goes back to 1993:
December 2, 1993 - Leading conservative operative William Kristol privately circulates a strategy document to Republicans in Congress. Kristol writes that congressional Republicans should work to “kill” — not amend — the Clinton plan because it presents a real danger to the Republican future: Its passage will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote and revive the reputation of the party.
The radical GOP/”conservative” stance on this issue, like on so many issues, has nothing to do with wrong or right. Instead it has to do with sticking by their party, right or wrong. They know, as most of us do, that a government that works for it’s people would be the death of modern conservatism and they will do anything to make sure that doesn’t happen. Including threatening children’s health care funding.
More excellent analysis of Carter and the radicals dilemma, (link via this DKos post):
This is really the issue: from the New Deal through the Great Society, the Democrats dominated American politics by being first and foremost the stewards of social-democratic middle-class entitlements. In the wake of the Civil Rights Act, white southerners in particular and white middle-class voters in general, began to associate the Democrats with pursuing the interests of Others - minorities, homosexuals, welfare queens. Conservative political dominance in the post-Reagan era has rested on two pillars: preserving, at a rhetorical level, the conception of the Democrats as being beholden to “special interests” (who don’t look like you) and, at the policy level, making sure Democrats never have an opportunity to pass legislation that would belie that claim.
That’s the real reason this episode has unleashed such a fit of viciousness from the right. At some deep level conservatives recognize just how politically dangerous S-Chip is for their cause. Support for the program’s expansion is running around 70% in polls, and Americans of both parties consistently rank healthcare as the most pressing domestic issue. But conservatives are simply way outside the mainstream of American opinion on this issue. Conservatives are of the belief that, in short, families like the Frosts should suck it up: work harder, sell their house to pay for medical bills, or just not get into car accidents in the first place. Stop whining.
Carter and his ilk don’t see any benefit in working for the best solution to make sure more children, if not all children, have access to health care. All they see this as is a fight to protect their ideology. And that’s a big problem.
As always give him a call, write a letter, send an email.