Republicans are once again reminded that Democrats are better at the messaging war and the majority of the national media has already chosen a side.
My Facebook timeline has been inundated with posts by angry females who saw headlines such as, “Under the GOP, rape is now a pre-existing condition.” I did a quick Google search myself and read through these articles without seeing many balanced or unbiased headlines. From the majority of the media outlets, you’d think Republicans got together behind closed doors and said, “How badly can we hurt women with this new health care bill?”
That’s certainly not what happened, but I doubt they put much thought into the unintended consequences of trying to go back to the way the healthcare system was pre-President Barack Obama.
My fellow Republicans, the truth is you cannot go back.
America is not the same America it was eight years ago. Opinions have changed, there is a new group of young voters influencing today’s politics and dare I say, the country is more tolerant than it was a decade ago. America is also, thankfully, more knowledgeable than a decade ago.
Technology comes with a price where our lives our constantly on display and privacy feels like a thing of the past. But it also comes with great benefits, such as a rape survivor being able to tell her story and having it heard around the world. One female was able to share how she had been raped and left on the side of the road, later treated for her injuries and then had her rape be considered a pre-existing condition when she lost her insurance a few months later. You no longer have to be a victim of sexual assault yourself to know how prevalent it is or to realize that victims are victimized over and over again by these American systems.
While I seriously doubt House members had a long conversation about how to most hurt women and sexual assault survivors with their new bill, I also don’t think they thought through the consequences of this bill, or the last-minute amendment. From what I’ve read, it seems to me that House members want to go back to pre-Obamacare days without realizing there are enough Americans who wanted Obamacare because the health insurance system was broken prior to that.
That doesn’t mean I believe keeping Obamacare is the answer.
What is being left out of the national media argument right now is how broken Obamacare is.
Just last night a friend of mine sent me a snapshot of her current medical bill. Her premiums rose 109 percent under Obamacare and her deductible is $6,600. That’s completely unaffordable to most working families. Unfortunately, it’s as if people have forgotten that there are people out there paying the price for Obamacare. But it also seems the GOP has forgotten that there were people paying the price prior to Obamacare.
They’ve also forgotten we live in a world where most Americans listen to 30-second soundbites from the person who screams the loudest. While it bothers me greatly that we live in a soundbite world, I also know that’s the reality we are in. Democrats figured that out that long ago while Republicans are still struggling to figure out why a significant amount of GOP House seats are no longer considered safe.
What the GOP needs is more females in office. Females who will remind them that there are consequences for trying to go back to the way things used to be, a time when sexual assault survivors paid deeply, and financially, for the actions of their assailants. We are just now making headway in this area where victims can now fight back when they’re charged for the rape kits used to catch their rapist.
The GOP needs more moms who know what it’s like to balance family and career in a way that men don’t usually have to deal with. Moms who know that being singled out for having a child isn’t something that just women should pay for (it does take two).
The GOP needs more diversity so they can truly understand the America we live in now – an America that doesn’t want the same men from the last 30 years creating and voting on laws that affect our lives and our futures.
What the GOP needs is young Republicans joining the ranks and saying, “We’re not going back to the status quo. We’re moving forward.”
Elizabeth Peace is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She worked as a journalist and TV news anchor for more than a decade before working as the communications director for a member of Congress. She is now the principal of Capital Media Training in Washington, D.C. She is a former airman now married to a U.S. Marine.
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