8th November 2009, 11:39 AM
I'm pretty impressed that bill got passed (minus the abortion part, but somehow it doesn't surprise me that that snuck in), and from the eyes of at least this humble Canadian, this is a good step to seriously improving health care in the United States (and I'm pretty sure my family in America harbours the same views as I've heard some them speak openly on several occassions about how badly they've been screwed over by the current system). So really, bravo. This is good for the American people.
But for all the talk I hear about the Republican party being broken and in shambles, I'm not sure if that's really the case. One way in which Canadian and American politcs differ is the concept of party discipline - when voting on a bill in Canada, MPs are not permitted to vote opposite what the party has decided. Even if they're morally opposed to the issue, they still can't vote "no" if the party has decided that it will vote "yes." This obviously isn't the case in America where reps are free to vote as they feel (and 39 Democrats voted Nay). But still, out of 177 Republicans, all but 1 voted against the bill. Does every single Republican (minus one) think so alike that they all hold the exact same views on such a serious issue, or is the party much more coherent than we all think? I definitely think it's the latter. The way the Republicans voted so (almost) uniformly says a lot of positive things about how that party is run, and the fact that the bill barely passed despite such a strong Democrat majority speaks volumes about the state of that party.
But for all the talk I hear about the Republican party being broken and in shambles, I'm not sure if that's really the case. One way in which Canadian and American politcs differ is the concept of party discipline - when voting on a bill in Canada, MPs are not permitted to vote opposite what the party has decided. Even if they're morally opposed to the issue, they still can't vote "no" if the party has decided that it will vote "yes." This obviously isn't the case in America where reps are free to vote as they feel (and 39 Democrats voted Nay). But still, out of 177 Republicans, all but 1 voted against the bill. Does every single Republican (minus one) think so alike that they all hold the exact same views on such a serious issue, or is the party much more coherent than we all think? I definitely think it's the latter. The way the Republicans voted so (almost) uniformly says a lot of positive things about how that party is run, and the fact that the bill barely passed despite such a strong Democrat majority speaks volumes about the state of that party.