For the GOP, there's no putting the `repeal' genie back in the bottle

You would think they would move on but it is like they are stuck in reverse and until they get what they think their base wants it is still BACK to the Future for the Republicans






Posted at 1:44 PM ET, 02/ 3/2011

By Greg Sargent

Yesterday I noted here that Mitch McConnell has taken to claiming that a majority of Americans support full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, even though this assertion simply isn't supported by the polling evidence.

Today, Jonathan Chait points us to Orrin Hatch also making this false claim, and notes that this has become an almost robotic talking point for Republicans. Chait asks whether Repubicans are falling into the trap of getting on the wrong side of public opinion without realizing what they're doing:

I understand the propaganda benefits of claiming the high ground of public opinion. I do wonder, though, if Republicans are actually falling into the trap of believing their own bullshit. The party blundered into the government shutdown fiasco under Clinton in large part because its propaganda apparatus asserted that the people agreed with them so loudly and repeatedly that Republicans came to believe it.

I don't know how repeal will end up playing for Republicans in the end. But one thing is clear: There is no way to put `repeal' genie that Repubicans unleashed by whipping their base up into a frenzy during the Long Hot Health Care Summer of 2009 back into the bottle.

Consider this article by the Post's Amy Goldstein, which quotes a range of Tea Partyers talking about the repeal of "Obamacare" in fervent and even messianic tones. They are prepared to invest years in realizing this goal. It's clear that for an untold number of base GOP voters, major questions about political and national identity are now bound up in repeal. An entire industry has been created around this new Holy Grail. There is now a big stake for a whole range of actors, some less reputable than others, in keeping millions of Americans emotionally invested in the idea that total repeal is not only achievable, but absolutely necessary to preserving their liberty and the future of the republic.

In the wake of yesterday's failed repeal vote, McConnell and other Repubicans insisted that they will press on with other tactics. It's unclear whether Republicans think such efforts have a real chance at success, or whether they are merely trash-talking to keep the base happy, and are privately hoping a Supreme Court decision bails them out. Dems hope that the GOP's repeal obsession will prove damaging to the party over time, as they are forced to push for doing away with specific provisions that the public likes. But it also seems possible that for Republicans, banging the repeal drum could be an easy way to please the base while independents and moderates who are more ambivalent about the law tune out all the back and forth over repeal as meaningless Beltway white noise.

We don't know how this will shake out. But the point is that for Republicans, there is simply no going back at this point. Whether or not they want this crusade, they are stuck with it, come what may.