#DontBlink — Defund It

By: Erick Erickson
I am in the minority among my closest friends. Most of my friends are, as they are expressing on twitter and elsewhere, appalled at Heritage Action for America, For America, and soon other groups running targeted ad campaigns against various Republicans in Congress.
The ads are designed to remind voters that those members of Congress and Senators have campaigned against Obamacare, but now will not vote to defund Obamacare.
My friends believe these conservative organizations are doing great harm and will potentially hurt Republicans. They find them off putting, likely to do more harm than good, pushing a strategy doomed to fail, and putting Republicans in a no win position.
I myself intend to give For America and Heritage Action money so they can keep the ads going.
I understand my friends’ position. My concern is not that these ads harm our side, but that the ad buys are too small. I think our side has been harmed by Republicans campaigning since 2010 against Obamacare, passing symbolic vote after symbolic vote to show just how much they hate Obamacare, then putting themselves in a position to actually be able to do something to stop it and punting on it.
When most of my friends disagree with me on these matters, I have to step back and wonder what I am missing and why I am wrong. I see their points, recognize the soundness of their positions, and I still think they are wrong. I still think this is a fight worth having. I still think defunding Obamacare is the best way forward.


I have no fall back plan. Defunding Obamacare is not a starting position for negotiation. The Democrats did not negotiate with the American public before subjecting them to this law. I see no reason to negotiate now. The GOP has the power to defund Obamacare and if the Democrats do not agree, it is on them.
I find it disgusting that people like John Cornyn and Tom Coburn run to every television camera they have access to so they can tell the world how much they do not like Obamacare, but that they are going to fund Obamacare.
I find it horrifying that a majority of Republicans in the House and the Senate and much of what makes up the intellectual wing of the Republican Party have come up with all sorts of elaborate ways to surrender the fight without looking like they are surrendering the fight — and all while sending out fundraising pitches to conservative activists begging them for money to continue a fight they have no intention of fighting.
I find the actions of For America and Heritage Action for America bold and refreshing. It is time conservatives hold their own side accountable. This is not a confusion of principle and tactic, this is forcing the GOP to put up or shut up. I believe they have been playing our side, lying to us, and have given up the fight privately while publicly blustering.
The Democratic Party of the United States and the President himself were willing to sacrifice their majority in order to foist Obamacare on an unwilling populace. If the GOP is not willing to stake its position on repeal of a law most Americans oppose, that makes the Democrats far braver.

They will either fight or fold. The actions of these outside groups against the Republicans put them in the spotlight so we can all see who they really are, not who they pretend to be hiding behind tv cameras, press releases, and chest pounding prognostications.
I believe this is a fight worth having and I understand most of my friends do not and think it a suicide mission. As for me, I think defunding Obamacare is a hill worth dying on. I know I am in the minority among my friends, but I am convinced this fight must be had after years of Republican Leaders telling us they’d do anything and everything to repeal Obamacare.
“Just not that” is unacceptable.
That — the defunding of Obamacare through the continuing resolution — is no less realistic than a delay and would have a far greater impact on shutting down the whole enterprise. If Barack Obama wants to shut down the government over defunding Obamacare, so be it. And if the GOP cannot make it about him and his unpopular, cost and burden increasing law, so be it.
Obamacare will not collapse on its own — not when the GOP itself is backing candidates like Mike Rounds in South Dakota who pledges to make it work. It will not collapse under its own weight, but the country sure as hell will.
#DontBlink