Today was the seventh anniversary of the day the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed into law. Involving Herculean efforts, months of compromises and false starts, and almost killed by, among other things, turncoat Democrats who were then executed by their voters anyway (anyone here remember or particularly care about Blanche Lincoln?), the law, imperfect and compromising and way too accommodating of big money interests as it is, has nevertheless provided healthcare to millions of Americans, successfully bent the healthcare cost curve, and reduced the number of uninsured people by half. Sadly, there is nothing that works so well that the Republicans can’t wait to screw up, so thus we have our current healthcare tragicomedy
Although the city of Lancaster is fairly blue, it sits in the middle of Lancaster County, reliably red for decades. The city is surrounded by red leaning suburbia and very red agricultural small towns, all the way to the Maryland border. It is a very white and fairly wealthy district, with a lot of well-off retirees. Not the kind of place one would expect rallies to protect Democratic legislation would normally happen
But, as everyone knows, these are far from normal times. The current popular vote-losing President and his Republican enablers are giving a go at dismantling the Affordable Care Act, and despite a farcical attempt at party unity, and indeed in trying to square a circle of providing real coverage to people that is affordable and yet would allow them to give huge tax breaks to wealthy people, they are not getting very far. But the threat is real, and we have used this to activate a population that wasn’t real keen on Trump to begin with (He underperformed in much of Lancaster county, although he did win) to rally to protect these benefits and we hope, prevent an awful lot of unnecessary deaths that would occur if healthcare coverage was significantly weakened or destroyed.
Clik here to view.
Turns out people don’t like being treated as if they were expendable or cotton to the idea that healthy should be the privilege of the wealthy and the well connected
Incidentally, much of Lancaster county is in the 16th congressional district, currently occupied by Freshman congressman Lloyd Smucker. He stepped into a seat that had been occupied for the last fourteen years by Joe Pitts, a very traditional Republican. I think he believed he would be taking a nice safe red-leaning seat; I don’t think he expected the voting citizens of his district to get quite so uppity
Nevertheless there we were today. I don’t think I need to repeat all the reasons why the ‘Trumpcare’ bill (I call it the ‘Unaffordable Care Act) is such a terrible piece of legislation and all the damage it can do; I would merely point out that these resistance efforts — against Trump and every damn thing he stands for — are no longer confined to big cities and elite coastal establishments. They are springing up even in reddish places. Also, as someone who had a hand in planning and publicizing this rally, I can tell you they don’t require all that much work to set up. So since it looks like Ryan and his brain-damaged crew are going to have another go (I Think) at ultimately turning a good part of the population to Soylent Green, I urge all reading this to at least think about or actively abet political agitation where you live, and making your views clearly known to whoever has the public trust of representing you.
Clik here to view.
