Those people who remember what life was like before Velcro will also remember the phrase, “Only Nixon could go to China.” Back in those pre-Velcro days, politicians who even sampled Won-Ton soup were considered pink when it came to dealings with the godless Chinese communist regime. But Nixon was such a staunch anti-communist, that no friend or opponent could suggest that he was soft on communism when he made his historic trip to see Mao. Only Nixon, among American politicians, could have done that. And if not for other issues, it might have been for this that he was most remembered.
Back in 2007 when Hillary was considered inevitable the first time, I wondered aloud, “What could only Hillary do?” Both my pre- and post- Velcro friends were confused. I explained, “On what issue are Hillary’s bona fides so secure that she could do something truly important?” We decided that Hillary could support a legislative ban on “partial-birth” abortions. She could reach out to the reasonable independents who wanted to support choice, but who saw activists for late term termination in the same way they would see the NRA’s support for an anti-aircraft gun in every backyard. The NARALs would know they still had their best friend possible and the reassured unaligned would seal her electoral majority.
I am interested in making things better, not just in seeing my team win. My team won in November of 2014 and things ARE NOT better. So here is my advice to Hillary during the second phase of her inevitability. Only Hillary can fix the Affordable Care Act. If Hillary takes my advice, she will be the next President. And I am OK with that–if she does exactly what I tell her to do next. Hillary should heap praise on President Obama for the monumental victory he won—actually getting this monster bill passed. She should say that he and the ACA will be remembered by history in the same way as FDR and Social Security. She should say that political necessity (the balance in the Senate in 2010) forced the bill to be passed perhaps too quickly “so that we could see what was in it”. She should say, now that we can see what is in it, there are some key things that must be fixed. And only she can do that. Of course, the “fix” must be a complete dismantling and replacement of the law but politics demands that such words never be spoken. She can, like Chinese revolutionaries before her, purge the corrupt bureaucracy that failed Obama and replace it with her own competent minions. In that way, the parallels to Nixon and Mao will be complete.
Only Hillary can rid us of Obamacare. Good luck, dear. Take my advice and run with it.
