Tea party conservatives have not only embarked on a legislative confrontation without an endgame, they have also made a hash of their Obamacare critique. Both their apocalyptic urgency before implementation and their fatalism after it are rooted in a misunderstanding of the law itself.

Obamacare is not primarily an entitlement program. The entitlement component — the exchange subsidies — will involve about 2 percent of Americans during the first year. (Others will be added to Medicaid, which has been around since 1965.) About 20 million Americans will eventually get subsidized insurance — a check that goes not to the individual but to insurance companies. The remaining 170 million Americans will not experience Obama­care as a sugary treat but as a series of complex regulatory changes that may make their existing insurance more costly, less generous and less secure. …

This presents Republicans with a political opening. But it is equally true that politics — the securing of a Senate majority and the presidency — is their only option to repeal and replace Obama­care. There are no shortcuts. The task will require a substantive critique, effective political strategy, democratic patience and market-oriented policy alternatives that deal with preexisting conditions and cover more of the uninsured.