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In reply to the discussion: CNN finally says it: The real reason Trump is so dead set on crushing Obamacare [View all]LiberalLovinLug
(14,176 posts)Obamacare was coined by Republicans who wanted the ACA to be tagged this way. I first heard it spoken this way by Republican guests on news shows. Then they would set out to destroy it, make it not work, defund it etc.. and when it ultimately failed, it would forever be associated with Obama and the Dems. That was their plan. And evidence of it starting to work, at least in Repubican voter circles, were those stats that showed half of Republicans thought Obamacare (which they learned to hate) was not the ACA (which they saw was actually better than what they had).
The Dems mistake was to arrogantly call their bluff. Because the believed the ACA would survive and prove the GOP wrong, and thus make the GOP look like fools and watch them backpeddle and try and detach Obama's name from it. So they started also calling it that too. Then I heard Obama himself use the name! And the MSM also began using it all the time.
And the whole purpose of the bill. To make heath insurance more affordable, hence the name the Affordable Care Act, was lost in translation. I contend then and now that the Democrats should have resisted the urge to one up the Repubs, and instead double down on always using the name, not even the acronym, but the full name, the Affordable Care Act whenever they were talking about it. Because it seemed like the whole point, "affordable care" was morphed into some personal 'community organizer' project by one man, and a socialist kenyan muslim at that.
If and when, the ACA gained steam, which it looked to be doing, and would if we had Hillary in the Whitehouse and at least the Senate in Dems hands, THEN, we would have the luxury of conceding with the Republicans on the nickname, while they would be scrambling to call it anything but.