That over a decade later, we are still debating the precise meaning of the IWR vote and what it meant. To me, it was about giving Bush the authority to do what he felt was necessary regarding Iraq. I never took it as a vote for war per se and Kerry made a speech outlining why he voted for it and what he expected Bush to do with it. I think a lot of Dems voted for it in a similar manner and/or out of political concerns. Doubt many actually wanted war.

more than they care about their own uninsured constituents. And all of the people they've trotted out as "Obamacare horror stories" could have had similar (or better) insurance if they had bothered to go on "that Obama website" or their State's (if they're living in an elightened one) website to find out for themselves- though they chose to complain about it to their representatives (or were paid by the Koch's to pose as an "Obamacare victim". If anybody bothers to ask why I'm not a Republican, I will point stuff like this out to them. Disgusting. I'm yet hopeful that ACA will endure and outlast all of this hatred and demonization but it is utterly depressing to see them work so hard to make it harder for people to get healthcare than a gun in this country.

how when he does try to talk about something else, they accuse of him trying to "distract" coverage away from ACA. They have no internal/consistent logic to any of their arguments and they are unrelentingly nasty towards him. It's gotten to the point that I just automatically tune out 99% of anything that comes out of their mouths.

And I hate how the media gives them a veneer of legitimacy that they don't IMHO deserve. All of the things they claim to be against seem contradictory to their support of the GOP and their "policies" and a lot of what they complain about seems like either "sour grapes" because Republicans lost in 2008 (and 2012) and/or things that Bush/Cheney and Republicans did IN SPADES that they didn't complain about at the time- and their outrage is *conveniently* timed to coincide with President Obama's election in 2008 (i.e. debt, deficits, debt ceiling). None of which anybody (but us) ever seem to call them out for.

And they flipped out about the ACA registration including some kind of links to voter registration.

Problem is that it's the current President of the United States- and he can't do anything right- to them

Even if we know we can't win some races, we should make the Republicans have to fight for every vote. Nothing frustrates me more than seeing political races go uncontested election after election. However, there is a price for having a 50-State Strategy in supporting some "Blue Dogs" in order to win in some races/areas as we continue to work to turn states purple/blue. Personally, I feel that as long they are voting with the Dems enough of the time once elected and not participating in Republican-led "filabostruction" in the Senate, we should give them a pass once in a while.

they're fighting for the right to be bigots (THEY want "special rights" for themselves!) and do what they want (even if that includes bullying)- as long as they claim that they are religiously motivated.

They're fighting for the ability to tell women what to do with their pregnancies at every stage and, in some cases, fighting against a woman's ability to even control her ability to become pregnant in the first place by allowing employers and businesses to deny them access to contraception or, in the case of adolescents, the necessary education to make good choices.

They're fighting against the right of same-sex adults to form their own legally recognized marital relationships.

THIS is what they consciously choose to spend their time and energy on every single day- backed up by a well-financed cadre of angry bile-spewing talk show hosts whom rile people up over all of this.


And years from now, all of THIS, is what they'll be remembered for..............

Like with their tax cuts "hammer everything else is a nail" approach to public policy, this phrase- used to justify doing absolutely nothing worthwhile to make things better- has been used so many times it's become virtually a self-parody. What's worse is that nobody ever demands a follow-up explanation about how exactly tax cuts, regulation, etc. actually harms the economy. It's become almost become accepted conventional wisdom that all of these things harm the economy despite any actual evidence presented that it actually does.

Although, people are actually beginning to see more of the benefits of the law whereas in 2010 and 2012 it was still more abstract. However OTOH I'm sure that Republicans are going to trot out all of the "horror stories" about people losing their junk insurance policies and smears about website security, etc. and most of the people whom believe such nonsense aren't going to bother doing any fact-checking and just believe that it's true- and more of them will probably come out to vote. Although, on Kagro (Daily Kos) the other day, one of the participants noted that the people that hate ACA have hated it since it was first being discussed. The Republicans have them and Democrats have the other people. The question that remains is whether or not the Republicans are going to bring some indies into the fold. I would like to think that, at some point, people are simply going to get tired of talking about all of the (non-)"horrors" of ACA and insist that we move on to talking about other things. ACA is law, it's not getting repealed anytime soon, the website seems to be fixed, people are signing up en masse now but the Republicans don't seem to be slowing down on attacking it day after day. You'd think that THEY would be getting bored with it by now.