@CS in AZ Between non-Obama-like golfing vacation (/s) the Drumpf probably only took 5 minutes to consider the ramifications of Replace and Repeal (or is it the other way around?).

Having successfully joined the "Loser" club with luminaries such as Paul Ryan and Hillary Klingon, Mr. Drumpf is going to let the whole, smelly mess ride on the Republican's backs (as is correctly the case). However, he, too, is some sort of Republican and this weight is laying on his shoulders also. Now that the Republicans have completely, totally, finally alienated their electoral base by failing to perform their long-promised healthcare reform, their elected "representatives" will see themselves as heavily primaries in many areas. The concept of "safe seats" in 2018 will have disappeared as public outrage mounts as the ACA goes nuclear (Boom, people--don't get sick. You're on your own)

So the Repubs better practice cold war exercises of duck and cover. But people will also not be so forgiving of the lame Democrats, i.e. nearly all of them. Expect lots of so-called safe seats of the Blue Party to be at issue in 2018 primaries.

This COULD be a turning point in our political system IF Bernie left the Party, gathered real Progressives around him (and I do not include Jeff Weaver's sham Our Revolution taking corporate funding) and pushed all-out for a viable third party in 2018. Sorry, Greens, but you've never been and never will be viable in America.

The last cartoon of my essay was precisely pointed at the expected lack of response to this governmental collapse. At present, only Bernie could pull this off with credibility--he still has enormous political capital (61% approval rating) despite his shilling for the Clinton Monster.

#2.1 #2.1

Trump has already said they are "moving on" from healthcare as an issue. He lost interest in working on it after about five minutes. People who met with him during the past week have said he didn't know or care about any of the details in the law, and talked only about himself. (Big surprise.) He didn't make any effort to keep his big promises, and he's not going to do a thing on healthcare in the future. It was a campaign slogan for him, nothing more.

The dumbest thing he said about it was how this complete failure of the republicans to keep their promises was a good thing, because "now democrats own Obamacare." What? Evidently he doesn't grasp that the democrats have owned the ACA since day one. What the republican failure actually means is now, at long last, they co-own it. They've said for years they would repeal it. They now have all three branches of government, nothing is stopping them, and yet they let it stand. Ryan said Obamacare is the law of the land and will remain so. Republicans' empty promises are now fully exposed.

The democrats ... arg. Their open hostility to single payer makes my blood boil. I got an email a day or two ago from Jeff Weaver at Our Revolution. I didn't know I was still on their mailing list. Anyway, they want a donation to help push Medicare for All in the wake of this recent fiasco. Right. Then I saw Bernie saying he's going to introduce legislation for it. Let's see how that goes. Heh.

If and when it ever happens, it will be because of massive popular demand for it, such that both parties will be backed into a corner and have no way out. Short of that, neither of them will do a damn thing. While I'm glad Bernie is still pushing it, it's not enough unless he breaks with the duplicitous democrats and starts an independent party that gets big enough to force the issue. I'm losing hope he has the fire in him to go there, unfortunately.

@Creosote.

#5.1
voted for the Klingon without ever investigating the opposition to Colorado care. Not everyone in the Republic of Boulder is awake.