If a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged, is a liberal is a conservative who got sick? Consider, for example, Jim Galloway’s report on a Georgia Republican named Clint Murphy.
If Gingrich sits near the top of the Republican food chain, Murphy was one of those underpaid GOP soldiers who slogged through muddy grassroots in campaign after campaign.
U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell’s patronage took Murphy to Washington in the 1990s. He volunteered in Casey Cagle’s successful effort to become lieutenant governor in 2006, took a paid position in John McCain’s 2008 presidential effort in Florida, and served as a salaried staffer during Karen Handel’s gubernatorial push in 2010.
And so Murphy’s Facebook post on Obamacare last week, addressed to his Republican friends, was something of a surprise: “When you say you’re against it, you’re saying that you don’t want people like me to have health insurance.”
On the surface, Murphy would appear to be the kind of guy who complains about “Obamacare” — he’s a white Southerner who’s spent his adult life working in support of conservative Republican politicians. But Murphy also had a bout with testicular cancer.
Fortunately, the treatments were successful and his cancer is in remission, but because campaign work is seasonal, Murphy also became a real-estate agent. And that’s when he ran into “the pre-existing thing.” Not only was Murphy a cancer survivor, but insurers also had a problem with his sleep apnea.
And so Murphy, despite his history of health trouble, has been forced to go without coverage.
As you might imagine, his views on the Affordable Care Act aren’t quite in line with other Southern Republicans’. Indeed, Murphy told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, in reference to his party, “We have people treating government like a Broadway play, like it’s some sort of entertainment.”
He added that if Obamacare is somehow repealed, it’s likely he’ll go bankrupt and end up on welfare.









