Recently Scott Walker, in a radio interview, was asked if he would set up a state health care exchange in the event the Supreme Court buys into the arguments of King v. Burwell and kills the subsidies on the federal exchange.
Walker didn’t hesitate to say no. He wouldn’t have any compunction about throwing 165,000 people to the wolves. For those of us on the left this comes as no surprise since we have long known of his heart of cold. It works for him.
The politics of resentment has worked well for the state Republicans, resentment of teachers who get three months off each year, resentment of those on public assistance, resentment of union workers with all of those benefits and resentment of colleges for teaching critical thinking.
For Wisconsin Democrats it is a game of whack-a-mole. When one of these outrages comes along all they do is point out to whoever might be listening that these policies hurt families and workers which by now sounds like the chorus of a song.
It is time to turn the table and take an affirmative stance that will serve as a campaign template in the battles to come. The WisDems should become the party of family values and steal that theme from the right and make it work for them. And put a face on those values.
“This is Crystal, she has type 2 diabetes. She needs medical care but she doesn’t have insurance. She would be covered however our governor refused to take advantage of the Medicaid expansion and denied her and 85,000 people just like her access to health care. The Wisconsin Democratic Party believes no one in this great state should be without health care. That is a pro-family issue and the Wisconsin Democratic Party stands up for family values.”
“This is Adam. He and his wife work at minimum wage jobs. They struggle to pay their rent and buy diapers and rely on public assistance to get through the month. The Wisconsin Democratic Party believes the minimum wage should be sufficient to support a family without the need for government assistance. A family-supporting wage is a family value and the Wisconsin Democratic Party is the party of family values.”
The list of topics is endless, “The Wisconsin Democratic Party doesn’t believe any children should go to bed hungry because it is the end of the month, that is a family value. The Wisconsin Democratic Party believes all women should have access to affordable family planning regardless of their economic circumstances, that is a family value. The Wisconsin Democratic Party believes we should not be erecting barriers to voting because voting is a right and a democratic value. The Wisconsin Democratic Party believes the citizens of this state should have access to an affordable college education without going deeply into debt. That is a family value.”
Democrats need to hijack this theme from Republicans who don’t deserve the label. I have this vision of a television ad promoting the Democratic Party’s family values with a young couple cutting a wedding cake. Just a thought.