[zanny]

On one hand, the Democrats did not have control of congress to pass whatever they wanted when the ACA was passed. On the other hand, the Democratic party of the US has never fought with any fervor against Republicans on pretty much anything. The closest I have seen in my lifetime to democratic resistance was to the most blatantly and obviously stupid and racist decisions Trump has made like travel bans and appointing fossil fuel and wall street banker execs and investors to every cabinet position. In the Bush years, there was practically no resistance at all. Bipartisan support for the evil Patriot Act and disastrous No Child Left Behind. No adherence to any ideology or conviction.

Probably the most important realization for the average American in the current political climate is how no party establishment represents you. Both have their sponsors, and none of them are the American people. Individual politicians might have more empathy than others and some might try to help the common man more than another, but they all still have their bosses and despite whatever rhetoric we throw around in almost every election (aside the scant few in contested states and counties) the people are not holding their leash, so they don't work for you.

It is like climate change. It doesn't matter how you want to argue about solving it, it is simply acknowledging the reality that has to happen first and moving on from there on a unified foundation of fact.

[tptacek]

Even if we just stay on the subject we're talking about here it's easy to rebut this notion that the Democrats don't fight the Republicans.

A lot of people forget that the GOP does not, as a political party, believe in universal coverage. Moving the country closer to universal coverage is not a GOP political objective. What is a GOP objective is minimizing federal interference and involvement with business. Health care is something like 15-20% of the entire economy, so the GOP's stated objectives run directly counter to universal coverage.

And yet, repeated efforts to eliminate the ACA have all retained policies built around universal coverage, including a massive federal expenditure in Medicaid (block granted or otherwise) and an extremely intrusive regulatory requirement for guaranteed issue insurance, something that only Ted Cruz has tried to push back on.

If that's not a win for the Democrats it's hard to imagine what plausible outcome would be. Nothing that involves 15-20% of the American economy will be simple, or will happen in one legislative session.

[zanny]

Is that the Democratic party fighting the GOP, or just the GOP realizing that if they start throwing people off healthcare, especially those that both need it most and represent their most substantial voting block (middle aged, white, poor midwesterners and southerners) no amount of campaign dollars will keep them in office. They would probably never turn blue, but the GOP establishment would primary them out of their own reelections for how unpopular they would be.