I think that Dana Milbank’s interepretation of the failure of the Millennials to sign up for healthcare insurance in droves as their abandoning Obama’s White House:
Young voters, after playing a big role in the campaign, became little more than an e-mail list for the White House and Obama’s Organizing for Action group. Then came health-care reform. The millennials, very liberal overall, saw Obama’s plan as too timid; they were disillusioned by his failure to fight for the “public option†of government-run health plans.
This cost Obama the young activists he would need to rally enrollment in Obamacare. Polling by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that, while the generation looks more favorably on big-government solutions than do older generations, the millennials disapprove of Obamacare in the same proportion as the rest of the population.
is wrong. I think they’re like most of the rest of us. It’s easier to support projects that don’t actually make any demands of us. Which reminds me of a joke that was a favorite of a dear old now-departed friend of mine.
It was Farmer Brown’s birthday. The farm animals were talking about what they would do for him in celebration. The cows suggested that they make him breakfast. The chickens asked “What shall we make?” The cows responded “We were thinking of bacon and eggs.” The pig protested “Hey! You’re convinced but I’m committed!”
Commitment is hard, especially when you have other priorities. Among young people who are too old to be covered under their parents’ insurance plans, are saddled with large education debt not dischargeable in bankruptcy, and are drastically underemployed those priorities include food and shelter.
Forgive me for linking to HuffPo:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/14/obamacare-saves-money_n_4966955.html
The analogy here is to cars. Maybe you want a car that’s just basic transportation. You don’t want any of that fancy and expensive safety equipment. Well, sorry. You’re getting seat-belts and airbags and crumple zones whether you like it or not.
Back in the day, believe it or not, the seatbelt law was a very big cause for libertarians. I was living in Massachusetts at the time and listening to local talk radio as I cleaned toilets and pushed a vacuum. (Pre-iPod days.) It was an obsession. Freedom would die if we were required to wear seat-belts. We’d soon be goose-stepping. And now no one gives a damn or even remembers the controversy. It’s just reality: cars come with seat-belts, and if the cops stop you you’d better be wearing yours.
An interesting point I heard on NPR while driving, so no direct quotes, I’m afraid, but the gist was that CHIP was seen as a failure in its early years. But now 90% of eligible kids are signed up.
The oldest millenials are in their early 30’s. With the rule that “kids” can stay on their parents insurance until 26, I would think a lot of them would do that instead of get their own.
If I were young and voted for Candidate/President Obama, I would be more than disappointed. I would feel used. In my opinion, it is best to become jaded early, but I am a cynic.
In my youth, I realized the system is rigged, and politicians will use you. It is not personal. It is just politics.
The analogy here is to cars. Maybe you want a car that’s just basic transportation. You don’t want any of that fancy and expensive safety equipment. Well, sorry. You’re getting seat-belts and airbags and crumple zones whether you like it or not.
I think the analogy would be a better fit, if instead you inserted navigational system, seat warmers, and custom sound systems for the safety upgrades listed. This is because Obamacare forces people to pay for options that aren’t even age-related, such as pediatric care, obstetrics etc for older age groups. Basic HC is not what is being criticized here. Rather, it’s the niche care that just doesn’t apply to a particular consumer’s needs.
By the time I was 12 years old I had sat at my family’s dining room table with the Sheriff of St. Louis, the chairman of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, our Congressional Representative, and multiple (elected) judges. Truman had asked my dad to be his campaign manager (that was before my time). When I was in Scouts, one of the kids in my patrol was our U. S. senator’s son. Politics was my family’s dinner conversation.
That’s why my reaction to Michael’s telling me that I don’t understand politics something between amusing and outrageous. I understand politics just fine. I just understand it differently than he does.
To say that I was “jaded early” is an understatement.
Dave,
Reading your family political history was interesting, to say the least. You never cease to surprise me with personal tidbits you invariably toss out on this blog. Those must have been some riveting conversations you heard around the dining room tables of your youth!
I do not think it is possible to exaggerate the peculiarity of my family.