found online by Raymond
From The Big Empty:
I see the ACA repeal through the prism of identity politics. Most GOP voters believe ACA is welfare. Most GOP voters believe most welfare recipients are black and brown. Most GOP voters do not want black and brown people to have ACA “welfare.” So…when GOP politicians express delight at eliminating ACA, they are merely reflecting their voters’ delight. Don’t believe me? Ask your Republicans friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers.
I still see this as a political and practical matter more than a racial one.
If this were a racial matter, then white Republicans would not care about fellow white people getting subsidies for health insurance through the ACA or using other welfare programs. The trouble is that many of them seem to assume that the people who do use these tend to be useless liberal parasites who don’t deserve the support–but if they or one of “their own” does, it’s not so bad and might not even be welfare at all; that they should not be obligated to pay for another’s health insurance or care, especially if they struggle to pay for it themselves or if it raises their costs; that non-citizens are taking advantage of the system to get free stuff and costing us a fortune; that Democrats use such programs to get votes; etc. Some of these are valid complaints, some are hypocritical nonsense, and some are overblown, but they’re not really racist.
If the GOP and the Democratic party’s racial demographics were switched but their political positions remained the same, I suspect that many white Republicans would focus their attention on Democrats “living off the government” rather than non-white Republicans doing the same. And those Republicans who do care about consistency would still be making the same practical arguments against welfare in general.