Even a Majority of *Republicans* Now Support Medicare-for-All

Politics Features Medicare for All
Even a Majority of *Republicans* Now Support Medicare-for-All

That’s it for our capitalist health care system, folks. I’m calling the fight. It’s just a matter of time now. Medicare for All has won, and the fact-checkers can unjustifiably validate as much Koch brothers-backed nonsense as they want, but it will still not outweigh the massively persuasive argument in favor of single payer health care that is our current health care system. Here are the “support” figures from a new Reuters/Ipsos poll asking, “Would you support or oppose the following?”

A policy of Medicare for All?

Democrats: 84.5%
Republicans: 51.9%
Overall: 70.1%

Free college tuition?

Democrats: 78.9%
Republicans: 41.1%
Overall: 60.1%

The only letdown in this poll is that neither Democrats nor Republicans have a majority who support abolishing ICE. People like me who vehemently support getting rid of an agency created by George W. Bush aren’t necessarily saying “abolish deportation” (although there are strong elements within the movement to abolish ICE who support that notion), but we don’t need a paramilitary deportation force. We used to manage deportations through the justice department and local agencies. While that was far from perfect, it’s still preferable to jack-booted thugs using hospitals and schools as staging grounds while looking for illegal immigrants (a crime which is not even a felony).

Regardless, this new poll is yet another victory for those of us trying to rid America of an unsustainably expensive health care system that leeches off of the sick in order to line the pockets of health care executives. Our health care system is a living metaphor for the degradation of America. It sits at the center of all our problems, and we will not be able to fix our dystopia without ensuring that millions of people aren’t being forced to choose between bankruptcy and/or death. This is why Medicare for All has won before the battle really even began.

Lastly, those figures on free college tuition are immensely encouraging too. Forty-one percent of Republicans is nothing to sneeze at—as it comes out to around 32.5 million people. Student debt is another albatross hanging around the neck of the American economy. The answer to the eternal clickbait question of “why aren’t millennials buying X?” is student loan debt. Check out the chart at the top of Mother Jones’ report here. Now compare that to what I believe is the chart that most succinctly summarizes America’s economic malaise, and there’s a clear death-spiral pattern emerging.

Prices are going up faster than wages, while the cost of an education that people need to get higher wages has skyrocketed. This is absolutely bananas, and when—not if—when, the trillion-dollar student loan bubble pops, our economy will take an absolute beating. Maybe then our government will listen to the majority of people who say that a rich country like ours should provide the tools essential to building the life needed to survive in 21st century America.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.

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