What Conservatives Like: Treasonous Confederate Statues, Crap Healthcare... & Bribes

This morning, following Jim Clyburn's attack on Medicare-for-All and Nina Turner, David Sirota and Julia Rock wrote how the above TV ad drove pharmaceutical industry lobbyists and its bankrolled lawmakers into action. Corrupted status quo Democrats like Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ), Hillary Clinton and Jim Clyburn endorsed against Nina and in favor of a candidate who has expressly attacked Medicare-for-All, as have Gottheimer, Hillary and Clyburn. "Clyburn-- one of the Democratic Party’s most outspoken opponents of Medicare for All-- is intervening to try to halt Turner’s rise in the polls," wrote Sirota and Rock. "Clyburn has vacuumed in more than $1 million from donors in the pharmaceutical industry-- and he previously made headlines vilifying Medicare for All during the 2020 presidential primary. When a Medicare for All bill was first introduced in 2017, Clyburn signed on as a co-sponsor. But two years later, Clyburn removed himself as a sponsor and turned against single-payer health insurance, arguing that it would hurt the party in congressional elections."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on how wildly popular Medicare for All is in northeast Ohio: "A new poll found Northeast Ohioans overwhelmingly think America should move to a Medicare-for-all plan, viewing health care as a human right. The poll also showed Northeast Ohioans want government intervention in the health care system. Nearly a quarter of respondents said health care was their top priority in their voting decisions, while another 69 percent said it was important... The poll shows strong support for nationalized health coverage in one of the state's most populous regions heading into the 2018 midterms. People in nearly every demographic said they thought health care was a right. And 60 percent of respondents said the government should provide Medicare-- the federal program that provides health care coverage for the elderly-- for all."

Today, Morning Consult released a poll asking respondents across the country whether they agree with healthcare initiatives being pushed by progressives (and opposed by conservatives). The proposal introduced a decade ago by Alan Grayson in the House and Bernie in the Senate to add dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare is still being blocked by corrupt corporate members of Congress from both parties. But it's what 84% of voters-- 89% of Democrats and even 79% of Republicans-- want!

I wish the House would have voted on powerful, substantive proposals like these yesterday. But that isn't what happened. The House did, however, vote on an important symbolic measure-- removing Confederate statues from the Capitol. HR 3005 passed overwhelmingly-- 285-120 last night. Every Democrat voted yes and they were joined by 67 Republicans, including 2 of the GOP's top House leaders (McCarthy and Scalise; the former "moderate"-turned-Trumpist fanatic, Stefanik, voted with the South Will Rise Again crowd). In all 120 Republicans voted against the bill.

Obviously, the whole insurrectionist, anti-American, QAnon crowd voted NO (the Gang-Greene): Andy Biggs (AZ), Lauren Boebert (CO), Ted Budd (NC), Mad Cawthorn (NC), Andrew Clyde (GA), Matt Gaetz (FL), Paul Gosar (AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Gym Jordan (OH), Devin Nunes (CA), Claudia Tenney (NY), Beth Van Duyne (TX)... But I wonder how non-Confederate Republicans are going to explain their votes in upcoming elections, like Trumpist crackpot Lee Zeldin, a candidate for governor of New York and Mike Bost, who is seeking reelection in a patriotic Illinois district where men were killed defending the U.S. from the traitors depicted in the statues. The Southern cause is not popular in California, yet besides just Nunes, 4 Republicans voted for the Confederacy: Doug LaMalfa, Tom McClintock, Jay Obernolte and Michelle Steel.