Why have the Democrats never put universal healthcare on their agenda even tho it is a universally supported policy position, especially among their voters?
Speaking as broadly as possible 90% of Democrats say the government has a responsibility to make sure everyone has healthcare. When you phrase it as “Medicare for all” the support drops to 78%, when you say government run healthcare instead of private healthcare the support is 71%, and when you phrase it as “single payer” it drops to 52%. When you only ever have a slim majority, how a plan is implemented drastically affects the number of votes.
Dems need to stop chasing polls and go back to persuasion tactics. The GOP figured this out a long time ago. They don’t care about issue polls because they taught themselves how to manipulate their base and a large portion of independents via appeals to emotion. Just look at how many people have gone backwards on gay rights since 2013. Persuasion strategies take time and investment but they’re highly effective.
Unfortunately the dipshit dems did nothing over the last 30 years to counter the growing GOP media empire so now they’ve made things much more difficult. In fact in some cases the Dems actively shot themselves in the foot by allowing media consolidation.
Breaking up the big media mergers needs to be a top priority for the next Dem president, assuming they can think past the next election for once.
That’s why I mentioned investment. Communication is a tough skill to develop. The Dems don’t need to communicate complex truths, they need to boil their issues down to emotional appeals. It sucks that it’s necessary but it’s a time-tested strategy and it’s just how human brains work.
It’s worked for progressives in the past (i.e. Teddy and FDR were great at image building, messaging and making emotional appeals, although of course it was a very different time)
The GOP has dozens if not hundreds of will funded think tanks and this is one of the things they excel at. The Dems haven’t been short on money historically, but they’ve blown most of it on short term planning while the GOP’s been playing the long game. Because it’s not just their media empire, they have a permanent ground game in every state whereas the Dems only spin theirs up a few months before an election.
So what I’m hearing is that “At worst, a majority of voters support preferred phrasing for universal healthcare” but somehow the Democrats have never once even attempted to cater to a majority of voters. Why would that be?
Because you need more than half the votes. If none of the Republicans and even 10% of Democrats vote against a bill, it will fail. The ACA is a long way from universal healthcare but even that compromise had Republicans try hundreds of times to repeal it.
Dems have tried many times, but it is always blocked.
In the last 13 years there have been 2 years where the Republicans weren’t blocking all Democratic legislation and that was at the peak of COVID where passing the American Rescue Plan and other associated pandemic recovery acts took priority. Before that the only other time there was a free path to pass something was when the ACA passed.
He’s not an alien, but he did have a time-travelling brussels sprout from an alien planet called Barry (the sprout, not the planet) living in his head for a while there.
Some people say the world is flat or that Elvis was a space alien, so go for it.
Why have the Democrats never put universal healthcare on their agenda even tho it is a universally supported policy position, especially among their voters?
Speaking as broadly as possible 90% of Democrats say the government has a responsibility to make sure everyone has healthcare. When you phrase it as “Medicare for all” the support drops to 78%, when you say government run healthcare instead of private healthcare the support is 71%, and when you phrase it as “single payer” it drops to 52%. When you only ever have a slim majority, how a plan is implemented drastically affects the number of votes.
Dems need to stop chasing polls and go back to persuasion tactics. The GOP figured this out a long time ago. They don’t care about issue polls because they taught themselves how to manipulate their base and a large portion of independents via appeals to emotion. Just look at how many people have gone backwards on gay rights since 2013. Persuasion strategies take time and investment but they’re highly effective.
Unfortunately the dipshit dems did nothing over the last 30 years to counter the growing GOP media empire so now they’ve made things much more difficult. In fact in some cases the Dems actively shot themselves in the foot by allowing media consolidation.
Breaking up the big media mergers needs to be a top priority for the next Dem president, assuming they can think past the next election for once.
110% agree. The tough part is that simple appealing lies are so much easier to sell people than messy complex truths.
That’s why I mentioned investment. Communication is a tough skill to develop. The Dems don’t need to communicate complex truths, they need to boil their issues down to emotional appeals. It sucks that it’s necessary but it’s a time-tested strategy and it’s just how human brains work.
It’s worked for progressives in the past (i.e. Teddy and FDR were great at image building, messaging and making emotional appeals, although of course it was a very different time)
The GOP has dozens if not hundreds of will funded think tanks and this is one of the things they excel at. The Dems haven’t been short on money historically, but they’ve blown most of it on short term planning while the GOP’s been playing the long game. Because it’s not just their media empire, they have a permanent ground game in every state whereas the Dems only spin theirs up a few months before an election.
Dems push unpopular things all the time, but only when it serves the wealthy.
Those unpopular things usually have bipartisan support
So what I’m hearing is that “At worst, a majority of voters support preferred phrasing for universal healthcare” but somehow the Democrats have never once even attempted to cater to a majority of voters. Why would that be?
Because you need more than half the votes. If none of the Republicans and even 10% of Democrats vote against a bill, it will fail. The ACA is a long way from universal healthcare but even that compromise had Republicans try hundreds of times to repeal it.
Dems have tried many times, but it is always blocked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_for_All_Act
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1655
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3069
They’ve also refused to hold the vote in the first place. They don’t want to put it on the record, so we can figure out who needs to be primaried.
In the last 13 years there have been 2 years where the Republicans weren’t blocking all Democratic legislation and that was at the peak of COVID where passing the American Rescue Plan and other associated pandemic recovery acts took priority. Before that the only other time there was a free path to pass something was when the ACA passed.
Elvis WAS a space alien though. Cave rat told it to me.
He’s not an alien, but he did have a time-travelling brussels sprout from an alien planet called Barry (the sprout, not the planet) living in his head for a while there.