Until Murdoch acquired it, the Wall Street Journal was pro-business, but not overtly partisan. Despite his promise of 'journalistic integrity', he's using it as a bully pulpit to get Republicans elected. Evidently his message is being diluted to the point that he can't seem to get his message across through Fox News, the radio stations he owns, and the New York Post, so he's taken to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Of course, Murdoch didn't sign this, but it has his right-wing paw prints all over it. Framed in the guise of advice to the Republican party, it is a head-on attack on Democrats and health care reform.
The danger is that if the [Republican] party doesn't use the campaign to create a mandate, it won't be strategically positioned to repeal, let alone replace. That fight will be hard enough as Republicans vie with President Obama's veto merely to chip away at the edges. And unless the GOP pours the political foundations now for more lasting health reforms, they won't have anything to build on going into 2012.
In other words, Republicans ought to be using the 2010 campaign to build opposition to ObamaCare and educate voters about the differences between private and government health care. They could also begin persuading the public—and maybe even themselves—of the virtues of an alternative system based on market principles and more consumer choice.
In two paragraphs, we have every right-wing meme about health care reform packed in. The idea that it's government-run, that somehow health care should be foundationally based upon market principles, and of course, the 'repeal and replace' maxim.
Then he takes after Russ Feingold and Earl Pomeroy, who are running aggressive campaigns on the passage of the Affordable Care Act:
The goal is to reinforce the liberal mythology that while ObamaCare is unpopular, people support this or that provision and believe the Oliver Twist narrative of insurance industry malfeasance. If Messrs. Feingold, Pomeroy and others win, Democrats will claim vindication and justify their obstruction of efforts to rationalize ObamaCare.
Mythology? Really? Those people who were screwed by insurers were just making stuff up? Hmmm, that's why I have a full recording of Anthem Blue Cross playing games with one of their insureds, I guess. Because it's a 'myth'.
Republicans will need a reform alternative and a coherent health-care philosophy, and the time to start shaping it is now, so that voters can see how future decisions will be made according to a set of principles they can understand. Another epic health-care debate is inevitable whether Republicans like it or not, and the time to begin the counterrevolution is now when voters are paying attention to their arguments.
This is where Murdoch proves he lives somewhere in an alternate universe other than the one the rest of us do, because there IS no Republican reform alternative. He doesn't want one either. If you doubt their desperation, just look at this paragraph, because he knows, just like I do, that the insurance companies are simply picking up their toys and going home, which means the next step will be opening Medicare to all.
Rupert, the ship has sailed and you're trying to swim to it against the currents. Give up, go home, and screw up someone else's country. I know, it sucks to give millions to astroturf groups, the Republican party and other buddies only to lose, but after all, you're the guy who made the investment. No one twisted your arm. Maybe you should've bought some derivatives to cover the loss.
