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More Demographic changes to Republican Party
Seems even the profession is moving to the left. Physicians used to be reliably Republican but now are moving into the Democratic party. According to that leftist publication, the Wall Street Journal anyway.
[link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctors-once-gop-stalwarts-now-more-likely-to-be-democrats-11570383523]https://www.wsj.com/artic…-democrats-11570383523[/link]
Doctors used to be Americas quintessential Republicans. During the 20th century, most were high-earning men who owned their own practices. They liked Republicans support for curbing medical malpractice lawsuits and limiting governments role in health care. When Democrats proposed creating Medicare in the 1960s, the American Medical Association, the largest physician group then and now, opposed the idea with a campaign starring then-actor Ronald Reagan.
In the decades that followed, medical schools started accepting greater numbers of women, who are more likely to be Democrats (women today account for nearly half of U.S. medical students). [link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-your-rising-health-care-bills-secret-hospital-deals-that-squelch-competition-1537281963?mod=article_inline]Consolidation and the cost of new technology made it harder to own a small practice[/link]. Older physicians sold theirs, and new ones didnt want to hang their own shingle, so they became employees of health systems. The result is fewer business-owner physicians who back the GOP for its pro-employer policies.
In addition, many doctors today start their careers with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt and little hope of earning the outsize incomes their predecessors did a generation ago.
[b]The result is a fundamental leftward realignment of a politically powerful professional group, one that has been accelerated by recent politics, including [link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-voters-have-a-simple-health-care-message-for-2020-just-fix-it-11559467800?mod=article_inline]doctor opposition to repealing the Affordable Care Act[/link] and unease some doctors express about President Trump. This phenomenon is changing where physicians choose to live and work, how they treat patients and how they influence the 2020 presidential race. Its part of a larger turn among [link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-manufacturing-towns-once-solidly-blue-are-now-a-gop-haven-1532013368?mod=article_inline]white-collar Americans toward the Democratic Party[/link].[/b]
Doctors are clustering in big cities where other Democrats reside, exacerbating a [link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-americas-childbirth-crisis-the-fight-to-save-whitney-brown-1502462523?mod=article_inline]shortage of physicians in rural areas[/link]. They are urging lawmakers to restrict firearm access and expand reproductive health services. And some are backing Democratic proposals to create a U.S. single-payer health system.
The political drift of physicians accelerated in 2016, when Donald Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination.
Many physicians say they were uneasy about Republicans health policy proposals and turned off by Mr. Trumps stance on scientific issues, such as his skepticism about climate change. Despite having mixed feelings about Obamacare, most physicians say they dont support Republican lawmakers calls to repeal it without a clear replacement since they have already invested in adapting to its mandates, and because repeal could leave millions uninsured.
The Republican Party has changed, said A. Patrice Burgess, a 55-year-old Boise family physician. The lifelong Republican voted for Democrats in the past two presidential elections in part because she didnt want the ACA dismantled, and because Mr. Trumps behavior appalled her. -
5 Replies
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I like to think most physicians are caring moral people
Trump is just not a good being
Unfortunately he brings out the worst in people on all sides of the fence
We will survive and whenever his presidency is over this will be an abberration
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Not a good human being
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Will swing back to an extent post-Trump, especially as the Democrats kick their socialism into high gear. But someone needs to let Republicans know that the abortion issue is DOA.
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Republicans need to let women know its not murder.
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[link=https://donaldgmcneiljr1954.medium.com/trump-backs-boosters-clearly-someone-did-the-math-for-him-153a2ff62718]Donald McNeil Jr.[/link]:
Interesting article on hos the disproportionate Covid deaths of Trump supporters is getting large enough to potentially have electoral consequences.
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Trump Backs Boosters. Clearly, Someone Did the Math for Him.[/h1] Trump is losing hundreds of voters a day to Covid far more than the margins in the swing states.[/h2]
Virtually all are adults. If 95 percent were unvaccinated and we assume that 75 percent of those were Trump supporters, thats 1,300 to 1,900 of his voters being subtracted from the rolls [i]every single day[/i].
Donald Trump lost Arizona by a mere 10,000 votes. He lost Georgia by 12,000, He lost Wisconsin by 21,000. He lost Nevada by 33,000.
Right now, about 60 Arizonans, 36 Georgians, 34 Wisconsinites and 14 Nevadans [link=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html]are dying of Covid each day[/link]. Seventy five percent of 95 percent of that would be minus 103 Trump voters per day[i] [/i][i] [/i]just in those four swing states. Week after week. That adds up.[/QUOTE]
