Our Republican future (PZ Myers)

[pokerfan]

Category: Politics
Posted on: November 7, 2010 7:00 PM, by PZ Myers

There are hints of the direction our country will be taking in the near future.

* Medicaid is one of our rare social safety net programs — it provides basic health care support for low income, disabled, and elderly people, and is supported by both federal and state level funds. Emboldened by the recent election results, which apparently tell them it's now open season on the poor, Texas Republicans are talking about ending Medicaid. By refusing to carry their 40% of the Medicaid bill in the state of Texas, they'd lose the 60% coming from the federal government — so poor Texans would lose 100% of their Medicaid assistance. What a deal!

* The Democrats aren't preparing to stand up for anything, either. They're already talking about backing down on the repeal of the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military. I didn't vote for the Democrats so that they could turn tail at every Republican whim: they're supposed to work for the policies Democrats claim to stand for.

This is pretty much the fat lady singing folks. Democrats are preparing to abandon the fight. We will see them, once again, as they did on LGBT initiatives in health-care reform, as they did when they passed DADT and DOMA, and Bill Clinton signed them, they take a big crap on us, then come to us and say, "Well, what else could we do? We had to."

Don't you believe it. You tell them, "You could have fought for it."

That's what I want to hear. I don't seem to be getting it from the Democratic party.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/11/our_republican_future.php

[xchrom]

1. The tools for economic populism on the left are there.

Apparently you can't make anyone run on them.

[treestar]

2. Nonconstructive criticism

And is the election not expected to have consequences? Of course it will be harder, if not impossible, to get anything through now.

[RonReagan]

3. A bit overdramatic

I understand your frustration, but it's not as bad as it seems. I don't see medicaid as going anywhere. Despite a little demonizing here and there, medicaid is incredibly popular and you're never gonna see enough votes against it to actually repeal it. Old white people are the right's main constituency, they really can't afford that fight.

[Drale]

4. If you've ever driven on the Kennedy expressway in chicago

during rush hour, thats what the next 2 years is going to be like.