We’ve been here before. Republicans are, once again, pushing a health care bill that would kick millions of people off their health insurance, raise costs, and throw the health care market into turmoil. They’re doing so as rapidly and stealthily as possible, avoiding as much of “normal order” as they can, hoping that an exhausted opposition won’t mobilize in time to stop it. This obfuscation comes, in part, at the behest of a donor class whose interests are wildly out of step with the public—this bill, like those that have come before it, is staggeringly unpopular.
To add to the Groundhog Day-iness of it all, last night Jimmy Kimmel, who emerged as a star the last go-round, once again used his program to target the insidious Republican effort to repeal Obamacare.
It is, like his first impassioned plea, very moving and effective, particularly when he makes the case that this bill only benefits people like him. It’s also a kind of landmark in late night history—I can’t think of another time that the host of a late night show implored his viewers to call a member of Congress. But it also neatly gets at the problem: We’ve been here before. People are exhausted.
Of course, that’s what Republicans are counting on. Trump fatigue and health care fatigue setting in at the same time. An exhausted opposition is trying to fight on too many fronts at the same time. The cynicism of the strategy is both breathtaking and totally in character. Driven by a demonic donor class and a sliver of their base, Republicans are trying to rope-a-dope everyone else.