The real reason Dems lost

I think now examining the data and how people mostly react economically in elections that this was what really lost it for the Dems, though it’ll never be discussed because the Dem diktat is that Obamacare is unblemished, almost a miraculous, glorious triumph.

And not the failure it actually is.

2. The Obamacare Disaster. This was nearly as influential as Clinton’s reckless militarism. Most of the people I know who voted for Trump make too much money to qualify for a significant federal subsidy, and too little to be able to cover the endlessly rising cost of insurance under the absurdly misnamed “Affordable Care Act.” They recalled, rather too clearly for the electoral prospects of the Democrats, how Obama assured them that the price of health insurance would go down, that they would be able to keep their existing plans and doctors, and so on through all the other broken promises that surrounded Obamacare before it took effect.

It was bad enough that so few of those promises were kept. The real deal-breaker, though, was the last round of double- or triple-digit annual increase in premiums announced this November, on top of increases nearly as drastic a year previously. Even among those who could still afford the new premiums, the writing was on the wall: sooner or later, unless something changed, a lot of people were going to have to choose between losing their health care and being driven into destitution—and then there were the pundits who insisted that everything would be fine, if only the penalties for not getting insurance were raised to equal the cost of insurance! Faced with that, it’s not surprising that a great many people went out and voted for the one candidate who said he’d get rid of Obamacare.

I understand why as formulated the individual mandate needed to exist. However, it was a terrible, ridiculous and punitive idea that has harmed more people than the ACA has helped and soured many people on the ACA who would’ve otherwise supported it.

Well, that and the double-digit premium increases and the giveaway to the insurance companies.

Forget Comey, forget the faux-whitelash and forget misogyny — my contention is that the Dems lost mainly because of the ACA and its harmful effects, and particularly that a large percentage of people who could least afford it received notice of large premium increases right before the election.

This is something Democrats will never discuss because the official wisdom is that the ACA is a huge win.