The Leaked Plan – Part II
March 19, 2013 - by
The poll young Sean Kosofsky and Jessica Laurenz took told them three stories:
- That President Obama’s mantra – ‘Democrats are for middle class families while Republicans are for the rich’ – had permeated the political atmosphere across North Carolina.
- That President Obama’s plan to expand Medicaid – the plan Republicans in the state legislature just voted down – was widely popular.
- And that the Republicans’ tax reform plan was not popular.
Jessica Laurenz then sat down to write a plan but, right off, took a wrong turn and started thinking like a lobbyist: She took a long hard look at the Republicans in Raleigh and saw, as she put it: ‘Tensions.’ Tensions between the Republican Governor and Republican legislators, tensions between Republican Senators and Republican Representatives – then while ambling down the wrong road, leading her into the thickets of lobbying, she unearthed a political nugget and wrote she sees tension between the Republicans’ base and the Republicans’ statewide political reality.
What Laurenz meant by ‘Republicans’ statewide political reality’ sounded obtuse – but, maybe without even knowing it, she had put her finger squarely on a throbbing nerve: Republican voters just naturally don’t like anything Obama’s for – like Obama’s Medicaid expansion. But Independents just naturally see things through different eyes. They see Obama’s Medicaid expansion as a pretty good idea and that one bit of political ‘tension’ (between Republicans and Independents) leads straight to a cold hard fact: A Republican legislator running in a swing district, say, in Raleigh, needs a lot more than Republican votes to win – he needs Independent votes. And every Republican who will be running in a swing district in two years just voted against President Obama’s Medicaid expansion.
To be continued…
The Leaked Plan – Part II
March 19, 2013/
The poll young Sean Kosofsky and Jessica Laurenz took told them three stories:
- That President Obama’s mantra – ‘Democrats are for middle class families while Republicans are for the rich’ – had permeated the political atmosphere across North Carolina.
- That President Obama’s plan to expand Medicaid – the plan Republicans in the state legislature just voted down – was widely popular.
- And that the Republicans’ tax reform plan was not popular.
Jessica Laurenz then sat down to write a plan but, right off, took a wrong turn and started thinking like a lobbyist: She took a long hard look at the Republicans in Raleigh and saw, as she put it: ‘Tensions.’ Tensions between the Republican Governor and Republican legislators, tensions between Republican Senators and Republican Representatives – then while ambling down the wrong road, leading her into the thickets of lobbying, she unearthed a political nugget and wrote she sees tension between the Republicans’ base and the Republicans’ statewide political reality.
What Laurenz meant by ‘Republicans’ statewide political reality’ sounded obtuse – but, maybe without even knowing it, she had put her finger squarely on a throbbing nerve: Republican voters just naturally don’t like anything Obama’s for – like Obama’s Medicaid expansion. But Independents just naturally see things through different eyes. They see Obama’s Medicaid expansion as a pretty good idea and that one bit of political ‘tension’ (between Republicans and Independents) leads straight to a cold hard fact: A Republican legislator running in a swing district, say, in Raleigh, needs a lot more than Republican votes to win – he needs Independent votes. And every Republican who will be running in a swing district in two years just voted against President Obama’s Medicaid expansion.
To be continued…