PYRRHIC VINDICATION FEELS PRETTY DAMN GOOD. As Obamacare‘s problems continue to mount, conservative morale has improved. For example, in 2008, despite vigorous objections from the right, PolitiFact rated as “true” then-Sen. Barack Obama’s promise that his health plan would allow Americans the choice to keep their existing health coverage. Although PolitiFact’s stamp of approval helped deliver two presidential victories to Obama, it later declared the same Obama promise to be 2013’s “Lie of the Year.”

On that issue and many others, conservatives have been sure about what they are against — but they have never come together on what they are for. No consensus among Republicans or conservatives offers a plan for replacing or reforming Obamacare. More importantly, the Right shares no vision of what a conservative health care system should look like. As a result, health care policymaking has fallen mostly to the other side, with disastrous results.