Tweeting Trump is a diversion

Practical Idealism: Balancing the political landscape

Dylan+Bryant

Dylan Bryant

Dylan Bryant, Reporter

We have to stop falling for Trump’s distractions, or we risk losing every battle we face over the next four years. On March 4, the president tweeted, “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

This claim caused outrage in the mainstream media and left the talking heads circling around the topic for days. The White House would later demand investigations, prompting further confusion and discussion.

While the country was left baffled at these tweets, House Republicans rolled out their new healthcare plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, titled The American Health Care. This plan included every idea hated on both sides of the aisle. It introduces higher premiums for older Americans, includes “health savings accounts” for people with no money to save, and will boot millions of Americans off of Medicare by 2020. It draws criticism from left-leaning organizations and from those on the right. It’s been called Obamacare Lite and a “warmed over substitute for government-run healthcare.”

This order of events was not coincidental. Trump, while being an absolute moron, is a master of entertainment and distraction. His most controversial tweets always come before a big policy announcement or internal conflict, and those statements often serve as a distraction from more pressing questions.

If this health care bill is passed, it will be passed only because the rest of the country is too distracted or disillusioned to pick up the phone and call their representatives.

Multiple Republican Senators, including Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul, have come out against the bill. This may be because of the Medicare expansion that took place in states like Kentucky, which was extremely popular. If only three GOP senators vote against “Trumpcare,” it cannot pass.

Because there are a dozen controversies surrounding the Trump administration, it’s impossible to understand how significant this conflict is.

House Republicans have vowed to repeal and replace Obamacare by mid-April. Trump sat down after his election, promising every American would remain or gain coverage under his proposal. House Republicans refuse to commit to this or any healthcare promise. Discussion of wiretapping, or “The Apprentice,” is meant to distract you from the fact you may lose health care this year. We must not let it.

One person that you can call is our local representative, Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy is one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, and responsible for getting the bill through the House. Up to 20 percent of his constituency gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act, largely through expansion of Medicare.

It doesn’t matter what side you’re on, when 10-15 million Americans stand to lose access to healthcare, we should see it as an attack on human dignity. Join me in calling McCarthy’s local office to express your displeasure with this plan. His office number is 661-327-3611.