CT Blue

I always profess to look on the bright side, but the thing is the side you’re looking at has to be bright. Check this out for seeing brightness in dark corners. 

A little background first. The Supreme Court has decided to take a case challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare. It is practically a given that the court will grasp at an absurd little straw to do so. At the request of the criminal’s DOJ, it has agreed to put off a decision until after the election.

Okay, here comes the bright side, brought to you by the Democratic consultants who specialize in losing elections:

Democratic strategists say that in some ways, the fact that the Supreme Court won’t make its final decision until after November 2020 may be the worst possible scenario for Republicans.

Democratic candidates can remind voters that casting a ballot for Trump or down-ballot GOP nominees could wipe away protections for preexisting conditions, and take health care away from 21 million people, according to a New York Times report on the impact of fully repealing the ACA.

“Trump — and the Congressional and Senate Republicans who have been supporting him — got cold feet about their lawsuit to take away everyone’s health care but the Supreme Court just guaranteed that it will be front and center right before the election,” Eddie Vale, a Democratic strategist, said in an email Monday.

Polling already shows health care is the most important issue for voters this fall — especially swing voters who may help determine the victor.

Yes, according to Democratic strategists, the fact that the Supreme Court is doing precisely what Republican strategists want it to do is good for the Democrats!

These people, one would assume, should have some elemental grasp of psychology to do their jobs, but then, if you specialize in losing, I suppose it’s entirely optional. There may be some intelligent species that has evolved somewhere where there is an electorate that follows the Supreme Court calendar and would be aware of the significance of upcoming cases and would be more impressed with the fact that their health care might be taken away than they would be by the fact that it has been taken away. Even on such an alternate planet, it would be necessary for the political party seeking to take advantage of such a threat to come up with a way to alert the electorate to the threat in a way that would get through to that far more evolved electorate. Earth is not that planet and the Democratic Party is not that party. The Democrats are terrible at messaging, but they would certainly be better if they were talking about a fait accompli. 

I’m not rooting for an adverse decision, though I am expecting one. I’m just saying that from a political perspective it would be better for the Democrats if it came around September than in late November. After all, that’s what the Republicans think, and there’s excellent reason to think that they’re right.