Via Chicks on the Right, two possibilities for why the GOP’s grown chilly to national health care programs over time. One: Republican pols used to support a bigger role for government here, replete with variations of an individual mandate, but as the country’s sunk deeper into debt over the past 20 years and the entitlement wave has begun to crest, conservatives have grown more libertarian. You may be seeing the start of a similar phenomenon right now in foreign policy: Most grassroots righties I know backed the Iraq war but are deeply skeptical of intervening in Syria. Quasi-isolationist Rand Paul is a more popular figure among rank-and-file conservatives than the staunchly hawkish former nominee John McCain. If I had to bet, I’d bet heavily that GOP voters will be more accepting of gay marriage 10 years from now than they are today. Parties change, for complex reasons. Many conservatives wish Beltway Republicans would change more quickly than they have.

Two: Racism.

To take this argument seriously, which none but the cheapest lefty demagogues pretend to do, you have to believe that the Republican response to health-care reform in 2010 would have been different under President Hillary. If you remember 1993, you know the truth about that. But then, instead of posting this video, in that alternate universe I’d be posting a video of some Democratic apparatchik complaining that the opposition to HillaryCare is driven by sexism. The only upside to losing to Andrew Cuomo or (giggle) Martin O’Malley in 2016 is that this sort of lame identity-based pandering will be momentarily disabled for national policy, unless the left figures out a way in the meantime to build a “Republicans hate Italians/Irish” narrative. They’re smart. Don’t put it past them.

Anyway, a lot more people are set to become racist next year. Exit question: If Peterson’s right, why do I loathe RomneyCare so much? Oh, right — biased against his religion, I take it. Never mind.