He helped elect Trump. He knew exactly what he was doing by so publicly blanking his ballot. “They both suck” was a quintessentially pro-Trump talking point designed to keep iffy Democratic/independent voters home. It worked to perfection.
Take a look at the popular vote numbers for the last four elections.
Both parties have received around 59 million votes on their worst days. That’s where both parties wound up this year. Bush may actually have won over some Democratic-leaning voters, because he got 62 million votes. Romney and McCain both got slightly more votes than Trump, and still lost badly. Because in both of his races, Obama turned out voters who stayed home in 2004 and 2016.
Governor Baker’s “they both suck” shtick was all a mind game played by the GOP establishment to depress Democratic turnout. Don’t let him wash his hands of Trump and pretend he was neutral. Maybe some were too dumb to understand it and were sincere in saying both candidates suck. But he’s a smart man. He knew what he was doing. Make him pay the price in 2018.
Instead of worrying about his political prospects he should worry about mitigating potential damage the state may feel from Trump’s actions. This week, he should have his policy team come up with some contingency plans because things could move quickly in January. First and foremost, MA needs a plan for what to do when the ACA is repealed and replaced.
https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/healthcare.html
Oh doubleman, you slay me sometimes!
I’m sure it will be replaced, absolutely.
It will be replaced by plans that cost twice as much, impose a 10 month waiting period on any new subscriber, block coverage for existing conditions, impose a lifetime maximum of $100,000 on payouts, don’t cover optional medications or procedures (that’s the euphemism for contraceptives), restrict coverage to minor dependents (so your 22 year old forced to live at home because of their staggering college debt can’t be on your plan), and so on.
In a giant win for consumers, you’ll be able to buy that coverage from insurers in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Delaware, and elsewhere. Those plans will greatly simplify coverage, because any legal objection to decisions made by the insurer will have to be made into whatever state the insurer does business in, and of course any consumer protections of Massachusetts law that survive Charlie Baker’s administration will not apply.
Indeed, I’m very confident that the ACA will be replaced.
so those of us in Massachusetts should be okay, at least for a while. Yeah, this scares the shit out of me, at my age. I’ll be 62 in a couple of months which leaves me that plus three years before I can hook up to Medicare.
According to government sources, more than 140 thousand Massachusetts residents are at risk:
This is devastating to our millennials — too many of whom couldn’t be bothered to vote because they didn’t like either candidate.
It might be ok for you and me. This is a slow-motion train wreck for tens of thousands of our young people.
The replacement will be a big FU.