So the Democrats are doing another Talk-A-Thon about the disaster that will be Trumpcare.  (GOPCare?)  As part of a sit-in on the Capital steps with other Democratic Senators and Representatives, Cory Booker started a Facebook post with this:

Health care is a human right.

Nice beginning.  And yes, I agree that health care should be a universal minimum in any civilized society.  Heck, even in America.  But….

See, this is where being old enough to remember more than one decade is a problem.  While Democrats supported an expanded social safety net, more or less, back before the current struggle, they didn’t say healthcare was a right, just that it was a good idea.  Maybe Cory is saying he’s changed his mind, but it sounds like he’s pretending that’s what Democrats have always said.

Because they didn’t say anything like that until now.  I wish they had, back during the initial ACA debate or before, but… nope.  I’d have noticed.  I think they should, then or now, and if that’s part of a new, progressive Democratic position, than I’m all for it.  But it would be a change from the past.  (And disappointingly unlikely.)

I give Republicans regular grief for pretending to principles and ideas they clearly just made up.  Go ahead, tell me about states rights’ again, or personal liberty, or why it’s criminal not to have another six months to review the changes to something as big as healthcare.  When you swear to principles you don’t hold, you’re just a damned hypocrite, and I’ve already got more of that then I can stomach.

Over the years, Republicans gave up, and seemed to define themselves by their opposition.  Their rallying cry was “We are against <whatever>!”  Didn’t matter what.  Anything voiced by a Democrat, they opposed.  Whatever the Democratic party voted for was bad, and they decried every glance and costume change along the way as if each legislative step was a new sedition.  Even being touched by a Democrat was grounds for treason.

That almost made sense, back when Republicans were stuck as the minority party.  They’d been locked out of any meaningful role by short-sighted Democratic leadership, and had little left but posturing.  Extremism wasn’t the right answer, but it was all they thought they had.

But, you know, time passed.  Little by little, Republicans began to win.  And not just a little, they have it all: the Presidency, both houses of Congress, most state legislatures and governorship of most states.  Now’s the time for Republicans to shine, and build the things they’ve been hoping for during all those decades lost in the political desert.

But it’s like Republicans have nothing of their own to offer.  All their positions are in opposition to something Democrats said or built, and all they propose is tearing down stuff along tribal lines.  It’s nonsense, and surprisingly unpopular, but great red-meat politics, I guess.  They wrap things in tribal dog-whistles, but they don’t have anything else to talk about.

So if that’s what I see as ‘bad’, the opposite should be to have positions and principles. Tell me what you’re for.  And it has to be something real.  Don’t spout about ‘freedom’ or ‘liberty’ or ‘human dignity’, or any other words that aren’t clearly defined and specific enough to both sides to recognize.

If Democrats have given up, and decided they have no reality of their own, and other than to oppose Republicans back, they have nothing for me.