This guy thinks that a significant proportion of them might consider voting for a Demcoratic candidate. Some of his "analysis" is based on this poll, described here. Since those who answered the questions in effect "volunteered" for the poll, I don’t find the results credible.
This article captures the lay of the land a bit better, I think, as it describes a certain confusion, but no mass movement in the direction of the Democrats. Yes, the issue portfolio is broader than it might have been a decade ago, but note that the war against radical jihad is up there too.
And Nicholas Kristof is onto something, as George W. Bush has been for years.
Finally, I’d second at least some of the line of argument the good folks at Acton have been making, especially this part:
Now of course there is no one “Christian” set of policies on the best way to help poor or stimulate an economy. Unlike life issues, these are prudential matters and good Christians can disagree. Yet there seems to be a growing tendency among Christians to allow the left to claim the moral high ground with their big government interventionist plans despite the fact that history has shown this to be not only ineffective but harmful.
Communicative incompetence. What do you expect from people who derisively describe vision, as "the vision thing."
There are far too many wealthy Republicans who don't get the health care issue, who've never seen loved ones battling with insurance companies. They've never seen them weekly, yes, WEEKLY, month after month, year after year, wading through an endless and confusing correspondence about issues INCREDIBLY important to them. Bills, more bills, endless bills, some they're not supposed to pay, some they are, some they've paid but the damn billing firm screwed up. Some the insurance company paid but didn't have to, and are now billing them.
A GOLGOTHA of bills and correspondence, ABOUT THEIR TREATMENT. ABOUT THEIR PAIN! Or worse, the treatment and pain of their child.
When was the last time you were in a convenience store and saw a jar with the face of some kid plastered to it, and on it was a tale of woe that only a Dante could do justice to.
THAT'S what's out there. Ordinary Americans see those jars, contribute, and are privately APPALLED that such families have to rely on the charity of strangers to provide for the care of their kid, who they love. Which of us can imagine what that's like?
Can you imagine what it's like to be in pain, DAILY and agonizing pain, have to deal with insurance companies and remittances, getting hit with bills for treatments that you know are covered by your insurance scheme, but for some reason your insurance company fails to cover.
People like Bush, and McCain for that matter, haven't so much as a frickin clue what's that like.
I've seen grown men, successful men, married men, fathers, veterans, in my office and before my very eyes BREAKING DOWN IN SOBS AND TEARS because they're being tormented by insurance companies, and it's just too much.
That's what's going on out there. All across the fruited plain.
And what does our party have to say about it? What do we have to offer? What is the response of the party of Lincoln, the party of Roosevelt, the party of Eisenhower and Reagan? What is it that we have to say about it all?
Nothing!
Nothing other than offering pathetic gimmicks like "health care savings accounts."
We're going to get our doors blown open come November.
The Democrats push a Socialism wholly hostile to Christianity, and our party is so damn stupid as to cede them the issue, and what's more, cede them the issue AFTER the complete collapse of the Warsaw Bloc, the Soviet experiment AND the clearly visible failure of European health care. The United States is SURROUNDED by a sea of health care failure, abject failure. Yet our party is so damn stupid and incompetent that America is about to embrace the failure, instead of improving upon its success.
There's a term for this in the military, it's called "Embrace the suck."
But for the Republican establishment disagreeing is just too painful, waging an ideological struggle is just too draining, too exhausting.
What we have is old, old men, OLD MEN. Fatigued, tired, weary, world weary, yet hanging on to the perks of their office. Stale, lifeless, listless. Devoid of energy, recreant to the ideals of their youth, which they can no longer recall. Corrupted by money, by power, by proximity to greater power, corrupted by hot dames throwing themselves at them, despite themselves being aging wonders. Feted, flattered and fattened in one cocktail gathering after another, one state dinner after another, one embassy reception after another. Every day, or at least every other, every week, every month. Hell, the hardest thing they have to do is round up money for re-election.
We need new blood. The old, people like Specter, Lugar, people like Snowe and Collins, they all have to go. People like Bennett, people like Craig, people like that all have to go.
We need a quasi-Cromwell to come in and clean them out. We need someone to banish this "Long Parliament" within our party and our national body politic, which has long outlived it's usefulness.
Ok--I appreciate the sense that there are people that truly need this help...but aren't the majority of these people already getting help from our government? The waste and abuses of our welfare system are beyond beliefe and the Democrats want to add more to the bill...and who exactly is going to pay for this--you got it you and me. The people who went to college, pay their bills on time and live within their means in order to make a good life for themselves. Those are the people who are going to be hurt by all of this.
Everyday at school I see kids who are economically disadvantaged (I teach at a very poor rural school)--and yet, these poor kids who need social security, welfare and you name it to "get by" have cell phones, I-pods, wear the hottest clothes by Abercrombie, American Eagle, Aeropostale, etc... I think it is time for people in America to start re-evaluating what is important instead of our government providing more handouts. Americans need to realize that they don't need the best of everything that Wal-mart and the mall sells...the problem isn't a lack of health care it is a lack of priorities.
I like how you put this Dan. I have said that it will be the GOP (and not the Dem's) who socialize (or rather complete the already part socialization) medicine because the libertarian business interests want the cost of their books. However, that may just be the motivation for a GOP go along with a Dem plan. I have ran into too many otherwise conservative, middle class, married with children middle manager types who are struggling with these issues mightily to have any illusions that it is anything but a matter of time. My wife is a physician, and we do not look forward to how these things will turn out.
But back to the Mr. Knippenberg's question "What happens to the Huckabee voters?". My answer is that by the time I get to vote here in NC, If he is still a candidate I will vote for him, otherwise it really does not matter because I would not vote for McCain or Mitt in the general - in fact, I would vote for Obama before either one of them, which of course I can not do in good conscious because of the holocaust...
.the problem isn't a lack of health care it is a lack of priorities.
This is only partly true. The fact is, the middle eastern bizarre method of pricing, billing, etc. in health care these days is impossible to sort out. One reform that would go a very long way to helping folks who do have their priorities straight would be transparent, honest pricing of medical services.
The GOP won't lead this effort because they are in bed with the business interests who benefit. The Dem's won't lead the effort because they instinctively trust the very bureaucracy who created the problem.
Too bad we don't have conservatives who can deal with this! Instead, most folks around here are trying hard to convince themselves that Mitt is a conservative...LOL!