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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGeorgia governor's race a bellwether for 'Obamacare'
Georgia governor's race a bellwether for 'Obamacare'
Republican incumbent, funded by health insurance monopoly, confronts popular support for Medicaid expansion
June 6, 2014 2:15AM ET
by Zaid Jilani @ZaidJilani
http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/opinions/2014/6/georgia-governordealcartermedicaidobamacarehealthinsurance/jcr:content/mainpar/adaptiveimage/src.adapt.960.high.1402035017673.jpg
The Republican Governors Association bought television ads tying Democratic challenger Jason Carter to Obamacare.
The Republican Governors Association (RGA) was clearly worried about news that Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jason Carter, grandson to former governor and president Jimmy Carter, was outpolling incumbent Republican Gov. Nathan Deal. In late May, the organization bought more than $500,000 worth of airtime for an attack ad in the Peach State.
The RGA ad is revealing for what the party is and isnt willing to say in its campaign to protect the endangered incumbent. The ads narrator says Obamacare five times and accuses Carter of wanting to expand it.
Actually, Carter has been critical of the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, saying it was a mess. He insists, however, that Georgia should take the federal dollars offered as part of the ACAs Medicaid expansion and utilize them either to expand Georgias Medicaid program or to subsidize the health exchange market, which is what Arkansas and Kentucky did.
The RGA likely studied the polls before deciding to avoid mentioning Medicaid altogether. Almost 6 in 10 Georgians support Medicaid expansion, which makes Deals opposition unpopular in a state where four rural hospitals have shut down in the past two years and as many as 30 more face large cuts or closure altogether due to lack of funding.
But the RGAs ad isnt just another political hit piece that spins the issue and denies talking about the underlying facts. Its also a smooth act of political money laundering, in which a special interest group was able to pump money into Georgias political system without having to put its name on a single commercial.
more...
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/6/georgia-governordealcartermedicaidobamacarehealthinsurance.html
n2doc
(47,953 posts)Hopefully enough are tired of the "obamacare demon" crap to ignore it too. Go Carter!
riversedge
(70,242 posts)are deceptive and many will be convinced because of the name Obama as in Obamacare!!
n2doc
(47,953 posts)It is really just preaching to the choir for them. The big issue is, will Dems turn out?
Glitterati
(3,182 posts)Please read my post below. We CAN reach them. I do it every day.
mdbl
(4,973 posts)all the right wing has to do is start screaming abortion, gays and taxes and the idiots vote for them, even though the right wing doesn't really care about these issues. The right wing only cares about keeping money for themselves. All other issues are folly for this fact.
Glitterati
(3,182 posts)There are a lot of voters who vote republican because they've been doing it their whole life. A few minutes in polite conversation and you've converted them to a reliable DEM voter.
But, you have to be willing to make the investment.
Broad brushing them with bigoted statements just means we will always be in this perpetual "fight" cycle and convert no one, depending on turning out our voters who don't turn out.
Step 1. Enlarge the base
Step 2. Turn out the base
mdbl
(4,973 posts)Hasn't been working for me in the past. BTW, I didn't know talking about awful over-used political strategies makes my statements bigoted.
Glitterati
(3,182 posts)But, calling the voters we need to reach "idiots" is dismissive and self defeating at the outset.
We really have to stop dividing into us and them if we hope to have conversations with them at all. It's sometimes very hard to do, but the politicians are stuck in this cycle and we really have to lead by example - one by one, voter by voter.
mdbl
(4,973 posts)By being divisive and calling Democrats names. i will continue to turn those tables on them until they come to their senses- and yes, they are idiots for listening to other idiots like right wing radio and TV. The media was never so abused as it is today pushing an ideology when all we really need to hear is the truth. So yes, they are idiots. Maybe ignoramuses is better? I am not going to use honey to lure the bear that wants to eat me.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)Only if they have a reason. "Republicans are big meanies" won't do it.
Glitterati
(3,182 posts)keeping them uninformed of what it really IS and what it really COSTS the consumer.
Without fail, every right winger I tell about my Obamacare coverage and cost runs to healthcare.gov to find out what they missed out on! In Georgia. At Walmart.
I have multiple opportunities to talk up my Obamacare coverage there - with employees and customers. And, whew boy, they really react when they discovered what they missed out on.
When I tell these people I am 62 yrs. old with a pre-existing condition, paying $28.55/month and $25.00 per doctor visit, plus $500/650 deductible, out of pocket, they RUN to healthcare.gov
These people form their own little political "clumps" where they all agree with each other and never let in the FACTS unless they accidentally overhear a conversation from someone else.
These are the people Jason Carter needs to talk to. And these are the people the RGA has set out to keep uninformed and stupid.
johnlucas
(1,250 posts)This is what I hoped Obama would do when he passed a plan in office.
No matter how many people hate him because he was Black, they would have to think twice when see how much Green they can keep.
They're gonna be put to the crossroads: ← Hate Blackie. Save Greenie. →
They gotta pick a road at this fork one way or another.
There will always be those fools hanging onto that Klan mentality but some of those folks will pick Save Greenie & the erosion of the Solid Southern Bigoted Block will happen more & more.
Campaigning with the Boogieman approach on Obamacare may just backfire on the Republicans in Georgia.
In that case I say Please Proceed Governor.
John Lucas
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Glitterati
(3,182 posts)Piercing that bubble of hate these folks have surrounded themselves with is the key to conversion.
Politicians who refuse to do that one-on-one can never win a race. They have to get IN the circle and start a conversation with these people or we have no hope of informing them.
THAT has to be the key - information. I find that so many of these people simply don't have the information they need - they ASSUME and never hear facts. These folks had never even BEEN to healthcare.gov.
As for the sig line graphics, I'm not a fan of "decorations" on forums, and I feel like I have to hear more from Jason Carter before I can offer my full throttled support. His voting record in the state senate has me concerned, to say the least. I'm not saying I won't vote for him (hell, I'd never cast a vote for Nathan Deal!), but I want to hear more before I start sporting "bumper stickers" anywhere.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)My "bumper sticker" campaign has a specific purpose here on DU. First, it's to encourage people to demand that we nominate a liberal for President (i.e. Elizabeth Warren), and, second, it's to remind non-Southern Democrats that the Democratic Party has some strength in the South and a proud tradition in Georgia particularly (i.e. Jason Carter and Michelle Nunn). That's not to say that I agree with either of these politicians 100%, but it does announce that there's a strong, liberal, Democratic presence in the South that can win.
Speaking of which, I hope you saw the recent poll that says Jason Carter is leading against Nathan Deal by 7 points ... HERE.
As for your crusade to inform people, I could not agree more. Ignorance is our primary enemy, and it is fueled by dis-information from the right. Your willingness to actively inform others is admirable.
-Laelth
Blanks
(4,835 posts)Every ad he ran showed him talking about repealing Obamacare.
I don't think opposing Obamacare (as a single issue) is a winning proposition.
We are at the point now, that a congress that repeals Obamacare will take health insurance away from millions.
That should be the democrats issue for November.
babylonsister
(171,070 posts)that Deal has turned down Medicaid in this state, talk it up big. So many people aren't insured because of that.
I turned several rethugs here in GA when I told them about the ACA; despite their initial doubts, they are now insured.
Yes, getting people informed is imperative.
And PS, I got an RGA flyer in the mail yesterday which I promptly threw out. They're nutz.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
GoCubsGo
(32,086 posts)I get my local TV out of Georgia, so I have been seeing this crap on a fairly regular basis. It's not quite as bad the filth that Suxby Chambliss used to smear Max Clelland, but it's fitting of its source. Bunch of dirtbags.
Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)Polling has Deal leading by single digits, but in a heavily Red state that is probably more than enough. Realistically, I don't think we can do it, but I've been wrong before.
IMO, the biggest threat is the loss of the Senate to the Rethugs. If we lose that, which is a definate possibility, then President Obama's last two years in office is toast. He will spend the final two years in office struggling to maintain any progress at all, as the Rethugs chip away at his legislative accomplishments bit by bit. If we work our asses off, and we don't give up, we have a fair chance of maintaining the majority by a vote or two in the Senate.
BTW. The Health Care law is unpopular according to polling. So running on it is not exactly a guaranteed winner, and if you doubt me, then check back after the election if Carter loses. Because then all the apologists who swore that the election was a bell-weather for the ACA will be swearing that the ACA had nothing to do with the defeat and that Jason Carter was an idiot and ran his campaign wrong.
Because we've seen that before, the effort to re-write history.