New Fox News Poll: Obamacare’s Popularity Is at an All Time High

If you traveled to any district with an election next month, you’ll likely see the Democratic candidate hammering away at health care talking points. The standard Republican health care policy of stripping people of their health care is wildly unpopular, and the preeminent boogeyman on the right is now one of the most popular policies in America. In fact, “Obamacare” is as popular as it has ever been in Fox News’ poll.

Fox News is a reputable source for polling despite not being a reputable news source for almost any kind of journalism. It does have a robust news organization that operates under the standards of journalism, but it is constantly betrayed by its state-mediaesque opinion programming which tells seniors that Obamacare is teaming up with MS-13 and George Soros to murder them and their grandchildren. That said, their propaganda around the Affordable Care Act has not been able to outweigh reality, and the lesson that Democrats need to take from this episode is that liberal policies are popular in America, and just because the Sean Hannity’s of the world screech about how they plan to kill every good-natured white conservative in America, it doesn’t mean those attacks will stick. Policies that tangibly help people’s lives are more convincing than propaganda.

Additionally, voters disapprove of the way that Trump is handling health care, and he has only cracked a 40% approval rating once on this topic.

There’s all kinds of bad news for Republicans in this new Fox News poll. Not only does it provide a wealth of evidence of how unpopular their policies are, but if the Democrats match their +7 lead amongst likely voters in this Fox News poll, they will have about a +20 advantage in the House after the midterm elections. Given that vastly more respondents told Fox News that they prefer the next congress to be a check on Trump (53%) than one to help enact Trump’s policies (41%), it’s difficult to see how the Republicans can make up that ground campaigning on their policies which have proven to be unpopular.

Their signature accomplishment—massive tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy—is less popular than “Obamacare.” The only way for the GOP to make up ground in this environment is to strip people of their right to vote, and they are aggressively pursuing that route in lieu of enacting popular policies that improve people’s lives. Make sure you’re registered to vote, and check it periodically in the leadup to next month’s elections on November 6th. Enough people have been purged from the voter rolls by this inherently anti-democratic party that it seems certain that if they could disenfranchise the majority of Americans who approve of Obamacare, they wouldn’t even hesitate to do it.

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