Donald Trump: A Man For Our Times

If you can get past the snark, the insufferable Paul Krugman is, unbeknownst to himself, actually groping his way to an important point, even if he never gets there:  it is depressingly clear the Republicans are "A Party Not Ready to Govern".  Why?

Consider Obamacare.  For seven years the Republicans have been chanting "repeal and replace."  So how, exactly, should they go about doing that?

I imagine that early on they would have formed a working group.  That group would have consulted with think tanks, economists, lawyers, and actuaries.  Seven years is enough time to put together a serious plan.  Likely, they would have written pro-forma legislation.  And, over seven years, Republican leadership would have had time to educate, inform, cajole, and sometimes threaten their membership to get on board with the plan, for when the time came.

Amazingly, they did none of that, and that requires---nay, demands---an explanation.  I, of course, have no such explanation, but I do have an hypothesis.  To paraphrase The Three Stooges, "Hypothesis means I'm guessing and I have a college degree."

Like most of us, I suspect the Republicans are surprised to even be in power.  But even if they did not expect to be in power, they should have had blueprints for their idea of the ideal health care system.  In this way, they would have had some plan of action for influencing the development of Obamacare.

The Republicans have nothing.  Krugman implies they have nothing because they are idiots.  He writes, "they have no idea how to turn their slogans into actual legislation, because they've never bothered to understand how anything important works."

That is just a stupid remark.  I think the Republicans do not have a plan of action on health care because they never intended to repeal and replace Obamacare.  I think they like Obamacare just fine.  In the matter of health care, the Republicans and the Democrats are as one.

Does that seem unlikely?  It should not.  We have exactly the same thing regarding immigration.  Year after year, at least since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the American people wanted the borders controlled and immigration reduced.  Year after year the Republicans would promise.  And, year after year, nothing would get done.  At some point, you have to conclude that the Republicans are happy with things just the way they are---just as happy as the Democrats.  As with Obamacare so with open borders, the Republicans and the Democrats are as one.

Oh, you still don't believe me? Then take it from "Jeb!" Bush, 

many who illegally come to the United States do so out of an "act of love"

Don't you just want to punch him in the mouth? I think a lot of Americans finally caught on to the evident fact that there is no important difference between Republicans and Democrats, and that is why Donald Trump swept the field during the Republican primary elections.
Furthermore, this explains why so many Republicans share "Trump derangement syndrome" with Democrats.  They like things just the way they are, and they hate Donald Trump for upsetting the apple cart.  The election of Donald Trump is as much a defeat for the Republicans as for the Democrats.

The failure of the recent effort to repeal and replace Obamacare merely confirms my conviction that Donald Trump is "A man for our times."  We have an apple cart that needs overturning in the worst way, somebody has to do it, and it looks more and more like Trump is our guy.