Republican Strategy 101

In one of the most sickening and disgraceful episodes in American political history, the 2004 George W. Bush campaign, aided by the abhorrent "Swift Veterans For Truth," successfully used one of John Kerry's greatest strengths, his sterling military service, and turned it into one of his greatest weaknesses. Of course, in order to do this, they had to lie. As usual, in spite of pushback from the Kerry campaign and what we like to call the "facts," the nature of this kind of propaganda is such that a lie, repeated often enough, starts to be understood by enough people as the truth to make a difference.

Nobody should then be surprised that the Romney campaign now has the sheer audacity to try to campaign on their supposed strength, and Obama's supposed weakness, on Medicare, of all things. As with the Swift Boat campaign, it's complete nonsense. The Romney/Ryan claim is that the President "stole" $700 billion dollars from Medicare, to pay for the Affordable Care Act which, as we all know, they abhor (even though it's modeled on Romney's own plan in Massachusetts and stems from an idea hatched at the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation).  I'll give them credit -- this time it's not an OUTRIGHT lie, just a massive distortion.  The fact is, the President did not "cut" Medicare at all, but rather limited growth, entirely on the supplier side, by eliminating waste, fraud, and overcharging, primarily through the Medicare Advantage program.   NOT ONE CENT of these limitations, or "cuts," if you insist, comes in the form of reduced benefits.  NOT. ONE. CENT.  

Furthermore, the vaunted Ryan budget KEEPS these reforms, and then goes considerably further, to turn Medicare into a voucher program, shifting dollars to private insurance firms, and limiting the benefits so that most seniors will wind up having to pay more for their coverage. True to form, they are just not telling anything remotely resembling the truth, and trying to shift attention away from what really is one of their greatest weaknesses. The fact is, Americans LIKE Medicare, just like they LIKE Social Security. And these are not "entitlements," they are insurance programs into which people pay and contribute their entire working lives. They have kept millions of seniors, disabled, and ill people out of poverty, and been huge successes. 

But Republicans have hated these programs from the beginning, and will not be satisfied until we go back to the "good old days" before the New Deal. I think they've finally crossed the Rubicon, and that the American people are finally figuring out that the GOP does not have their best interests at heart - just their own twisted vision, which is something closer to fascism than democracy. And before anybody gets all riled up about my calling them fascists, I'll just close by suggesting you read what fascism is really about. Not Nazism, with which it is often confused, but real fascism. The GOP isn't quite there yet, but it's getting too close for comfort.