Less than two weeks before Election Day, the Republican Party is broadcasting a variety of closing messages. But all boil down to this: We know that we cannot win elections unless voters are wildly misinformed about our intentions for future policy, and America’s present challenges.
That might sound like Democratic invective. But it is a plain description of the premise that unifies the GOP’s 2018 rhetoric.
Republican candidates throughout the country are campaigning on their support for preserving the Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with preexisting conditions. And yet, most of those candidates have used the power of their public offices to eliminate those protections, through either legislation or litigation (in fact, some are using their power to that end right now, at the very same moment that they’re assuring voters of their deep commitment to guaranteeing affordable insulin to diabetics). The dissonance here isn’t a product of an “evolution” or a “flip-flop.” The GOP has not changed its actual position on the issue in question. In recent weeks, Senate Republicans have sought to burnish their candidates’ claims to moderation on health care by publicizing a bill that would require insurers to offer coverage to everyone — but that would also abolish restrictions on how much companies can charge people with preexisting conditions for their coverage. Which is to say, the bill guarantees affordable coverage for rich people with serious medical problems, while abandoning the rest to their fates.
If Republicans believed that they could win elections by giving voters an accurate picture of their position on health care, they wouldn’t be eliding this point in every campaign advertisement they’ve aired on the subject. But they don’t, so they are.
