Thomas Edsall concern-trolls the Democrats over the ACA

Thomas Edsall has occasionally written some good reports on far-right politics and how it mixes in the with the Republican Party. He's not in David Neiwert's league in that regard, but then who is? Still, even since I read Edsall's 1991 book Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics, co-authored with his wife Mary, I've thought of him as mainly a "liberal concern-troll."

That book argued that the key to success in American politics was to be the most anti-black party and the most anti-black candidate. And as long as the Republicans had that mantle and the Dems kept screwing around supporting equal rights and such nonsense, the Reps would be the permanent majority party. Clinton's election in 1992 did provide him the chance to do some entertaining verbal somersaults to explain how such a win was possible since Bill Clinton didn't exactly sound like George Wallace.

Now he's saying that if the Democrats don't gut the ACA, they may be big LOSERS in 2016: Is Obamacare Destroying the Democratic Party? New York Times 12/03/2014. This is typical Esdall analysis, of the kind he's been doing at least since 1991:

As if Democrats do not already have enough trouble, data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that many, if not most, of the seven million people who purchased insurance through the A.C.A. will either have to pay higher premiums or higher deductibles, or submit themselves to the complex process of switching plans.

Regurgitated Republican talking points, made more respectable by that important "OR". Yeah, lots of people that had crap plan before the ACA had to switch plans because the old plans didn't meet the minimum requirements under the new law. Or people switched to a higher quality plan, or an equivalent one that provided better terms. And if you couldn't get medical insurance at all because it was too expensive or you had a pre-existing condition, now you can probably get one, which is more expensive than, you know, not being allowed to buy a plan at all where "all" you had to worry about was paying the full medical costs yourself.

This is how the professional "liberal concern-trolls" do it:

As if Democrats do not already have enough trouble, data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that many, if not most, of the seven million people who purchased insurance through the A.C.A. will either have to pay higher premiums or higher deductibles, or submit themselves to the complex process of switching plans.