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Jeff Emanuel: Going into the 2008 election and beyond, the GOP must lead on health care |
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Friday, 14 March 2008 |
March 14, 2008
If the Republican Party is to repair and reclaim its tarnished brand as the party of individual rights and responsibility, of limited government, and of real solutions for the American people, one issue on which the GOP must lead is health care.
The mantra of “50 million (and growing) uninsured Americans,” has become part of every Democrat politician's standard rhetoric. The Left, and many members of the media, are treating so-called "universal health coverage" as though it is (a) the correct solution to the U.S.’s health care woes, (b) a foregone conclusion, and (c) simply a matter of timing an detail at this point. Further, several polls show that a significant portion of the American population views the current health care situation both as an important issue, and as one which should be further intervened in, and regulated by, government.
This trend toward support of the Democrat platform on health care means that Republicans must eschew sitting idly by in favor of coming up with coherent, workable response to the Left on health care -- lest, through their inaction, they allow the Democrats to permanently own the issue.
The strength of public opinion on the side of greater government involvement in heath care – which is helped along by media outlets like CNN, who find "lifelong Republicans" who claim they are now going to vote Democrat because they are the party that promises to offer "universal coverage" and who demand that all positions except those in favor of state health care be vigorously defended – dictates that the GOP move slightly leftward from a position on health care that demands strictly free-market-based solutions. However, Republicans can still occupy a niche far to the right (and far more pro-choice) than that in which the Democrats are currently ensconced.
As with many issues, health care and health coverage (two entirely separate concepts which have been blurred together in the public and political consciousness) are emotional topics; therefore, they are more easily capitalized on by the sloganeering, “appeal-to-heart-not-mind” Left than by the Right, who -- given the fact that their positions and prescriptions are based on economic and practical reality -- is often stuck doing a great deal of explaining of their ideas, complete with the numbers and formulae that show why they will actually work.
That being said, if the GOP is willing to make the effort to get in front of the press and the American pread
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