Instead of trying to analyze the relative merits and flaws of competing Democratic and Repulican health care plans, let us look at the debate from a strictly tactical point of view.

For years, the GOP bitterly opposed Obamacare, without once being able to come up with a realistic and detailed alternative to it. Now, with control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency, they can’t even get enough of their own party to sign on to a replacement for it. Their plans are confused, mysterious, hastily assembled in secret behind closed doors, pushed through the legislature with cynical parliamentary maneuvers, opposed by all the major medical and health policy organizations, and fail to pass CBO muster.

Regardless of how you feel about the merits of Obamacare, or how valid your criticisms of it might be, it must be clear to everyone by now that there is nothing about the Republican plan that makes any sense, except that it is just opposed to the Democratic plan. That is all it’s got going for it. There is no Republican plan, just a lame attempt to discredit Obama’s legacy.

So even if the effort to repeal and replace IS successful, no one knows what it will look like, or how to implement it, and it will arrive stillborn, with no Democratic support, no clear public understanding, complete suspicion on the part of those it intends to serve and total confusion on the part of the medical and insurance establishments. Even the best of plans is unlikely to survive these handicaps, and this one will have plenty of Liberal opposition to it as well, ready to point out and publicize every little flaw and hiccup. Its supporters will not be willing to fight for it, they are exhausted and bloodied and eager to move on to other aspects of their neglected agenda. Even in the unlikely event that it IS a wonderful piece of policy, no one is ever likely to find out, and regardless of how flawed Obamacare MIGHT have been, it will always be remembered as that wonderful legislation that we could have had were it not been for Republican obstruction and sabotage.

The only thing the GOP will have accomplished is that they will no longer be able to point to Obama to explain why health care isn’t working. They will own the new plan, all of it. And in the event they fail to repeal and replace, the Obama plan will be in the fortunate position that its successes will be evidence of the futility of the Republican opposition while any failure will be blamed on Republican treachery. No matter what happens, the Conservatives will have tripped on their own dick. In fact, it will go down as the biggest dill-stomp since the Bush Invasion and Occupation of Iraq.

Ironically, no matter what happens, the Republican plan to destroy Obama’s signature legislative achievement will have the completely opposite effect than what they originally intended; the total dismantling of Barack Obama’s legacy. Instead, Obama will come off smelling like a rose, the new JFK, the new FDR, a Democratic Reagan. His administration will be remembered forever as a 21st century Camelot, the last flowering of American civilization, and it will forever be compared to the grim Trump years that followed.

Way to go, guys.