On Tuesday I questioned the Republican strategy of celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision that the individual mandate is a tax. It seemed kind of pointless, since people hate the mandate no matter what it is. Basically, GOP leaders were 
putting their own presidential candidate in a tight position for no real reason.
But the past couple of days have produced a glimmer of an explanation. Take a look at the tea party email bomb on the right. Ignore the fact that your retirement account can’t, in fact be seized and liquidated by the IRS for failing to pay the mandate penalty/tax. That’s just the usual puffery. Mostly this is a signpost, suggesting that the emerging conservative strategy is to convince Americans that everyone now has to pay a new Obamacare tax. Democrats can fight back, but only by explaining that the mandate tax will only be paid by about 4 million people, not everyone, and then explaining that the other taxes in Obamacare mostly fall on high earners and corporations. This is, needless to say, a losing strategy. If you’re explaining, you’re losing; and if you’re explaining about taxes, you’re digging yourself a big fat grave.
In other words, maybe the tax angle makes more sense than I thought.
