Watching Republicans float the idea of nullifying health care reform on "state sovereignty" grounds is both funny and reflective of the neo-Confederate tradition from which they tend to speak. I'm not above being entertained by the asininity but I'm more cautious than some about saying they aren't on to something. We don't exactly enjoy the most un-partisan or restrained court system in history.
I'm also interested in seeing what happens to Republicans who intend (at least as of today) to run in November on repealing this bill. Aspects of the bill that go into affect immediately are sure to be popular if they are well understood by enough people. At the same time, since so many people won't notice any immediate difference in their lives and will still be paying premiums to the same insurance companies, it may very well still be possible to convince enough voters that something sneaky and evil was passed that they absolutely have to stop before it eats us all alive. It wouldn't be the craziest thing anyone's tried this year.
One thing that will help Democrats will be the fact that they actually managed to DO SOMETHING for once. Today's signing ceremony looked like a big Democratic pep rally. Maybe that sort of thing will be helpful. Or maybe it's not as much of a big fucking deal as they may think.
See yesterday's Lens for more. Best and truest line: "But (Congressman Cao's) assertion that the healthcare reform bill passed into law “seeks to expand” abortion is, simply put, a mean-spirited lie."
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