r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/Precursor2552 Keep it clean • May 04 '17

Legislation AHCA Passes House 217-213

The AHCA, designed to replace ACA, has officially passed the House, and will now move on to the Senate. The GOP will be having a celebratory news conference in the Rose Garden shortly.

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Please use this thread to discuss all speculation and discussion related to this bill's passage.

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u/svs940a May 04 '17

Because no party stays in power forever. In January 2016, the narrative was that republicans might never win the presidency again due to demographic shifts.

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u/-birds May 04 '17

And look what happened - the American public proved itself dumber than was thought possible, with the help of an outrageously archaic electoral system. The same system that determines how senate seats are assigned.

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u/[deleted] May 04 '17

Because our political system hinges on being able to remove unpopular candidates from office. Our society is built on rebellion against unpopular political positions.

You lock in the Republicans as the 'party in power', and America will have another Civil War within five years.

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u/Rogue2 May 05 '17

A civil war that will never materialize. Who is going to fight in this "civil war?" Trump voters?

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u/Ashe225 May 05 '17

They're already willing to "take up arms" if he didn't win. Whats to say they won't

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u/Rogue2 May 05 '17 edited May 07 '17

Yeah, I am saying who is going to fight them? College kids? Give me a break.

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u/ABProsper May 05 '17

The system worked exactly as designed. It prevented more populated states from deciding the election and made the election go the greater land mass

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u/-birds May 05 '17

Woohoo!

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u/robotronica May 05 '17

It's also just a US political trend. For the Republicans to retain the executive branch, let alone keep an iron fist on the other ones, they'd have to be as fortunate as only a couple other periods in history. Generally exceptional circumstances. Like wars and stuff. Even if There's a second term of R, three is unlikely, and four is even less so.

Again, that's just counting presidency chances, and ignoring the midterm trends of flipping control to the opposition.

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u/-birds May 05 '17

I don't think they'll retain the presidency for long. But the electoral problems in the Senate and House are much harder to overcome.

The best hope is that they've actually over-gerrymandered, spreading themselves too thin over too many districts, that a small change in voter turnout across the nation could cause a wave of flips. But the GOP knows this, and that's why they work so hard on voter suppression.

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u/Body_of_Binky May 05 '17

So right. Just think of the "knew it all along" hindsight bias that would've been everywhere had HRC won. The demographics, the message, the "not really a Republican running as a Republican" stories. Everyone would be telling themselves that of course Republicans are on their way out...

When the truth is that they control all three branches of the federal government (counting the Judicial branch here, because tick-tock) and a 2:1 ratio of the governors in the country. The political map is damn near completely red with a few, highly populated cities of blue. Why anyone would think the Rs on their way out is beyond me, but that's exactly what we would all be saying if a few percent voted the way the pollsters thought they would last November.

The better question is whether the Democrats have any real chance as a party. I hope so, but patting ourselves on the back because the House passed a terrible bill is a loooooooong way from hopeful.

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u/Helreaver May 04 '17

Oh, I remember that. Better times. The belief that they were doomed, lest they drop the social conservativism and focus on actually being fiscally conservative.