The federal government is now sorta-kinda shut down as House Republicans battle Senate Democrats and the White House over PPACA (aka “Obamacare”).

I’m a critic of PPACA for reasons that I outline in my latest Maryland Policy Report paper; nonetheless, I disagree with the shutdown strategy. I’m a believer in the “train wreck” theory of public policy: policy rarely changes course unless there’s an undeniable demonstration that the current policy is a failure. Accordingly, I think the best path to repealing PPACA and replacing it with sound health care reform is to allow PPACA to be fully implemented and give the public a good dose of it. As I explain in my paper, PPACA is a highly inefficient, costly, and convoluted way to pursue a few worthy policy goals, and it ignores (and may even exacerbate) serious problems with American health care. I don’t think the legislation will lead to a catastrophic “train wreck,” but I think that when people see how little it does, and at such high cost (both monetary and otherwise), they’ll be ready to try something else.

With that said, I do understand the shutdown proponents’ motivation. PPACA is a major package of new law, regulation, and spending; crafted behind closed doors with no effort at building consensus support either in Congress or among the public; adopted on an extremely partisan vote taken in a fevered rush to beat the swearing-in of new senator who would have forced PPACA’s authors to seek consensus; and it is viewed skeptically by a majority of Americans. It’s the nature of politics that such radical policymaking will sooner or later be met with radical backlash.

However, some commentators are now offering a different explanation for the PPACA/shutdown fight: it’s really just racism-motivated hatred of President Obama.

From Andrew Sullivan:

The GOP does not regard the president as merely wrong – but as illegitimate. Not misguided – illegitimate. This is not about ending Obamacare as such (although that is a preliminary scalp); it is about nullifying this presidency, the way the GOP attempted to nullify the last Democratic presidency by impeachment.

Except this time, of course, we cannot deny that race too is an added factor to the fathomless sense of entitlement felt among the GOP far right. You saw it in birtherism; in the Southern GOP’s constant outrageous claims of Obama’s alleged treason and alliance with Islamist enemies; in providing zero votes for a stimulus that was the only thing that prevented a global depression of far worse proportions; in the endless race-baiting from Fox News and the talk radio right. And in this racially-charged atmosphere, providing access to private healthcare insurance to the working poor is obviously the point of no return.

From Joan Walsh of Salon:

On the day the Affordable Care Act takes effect, the U.S. government is shut down, and it may be permanently broken. You’ll read lots of explanations for the dysfunction, but the simple truth is this: It’s the culmination of 50 years of evolving yet consistent Republican strategy to depict government as the enemy, an oppressor that works primarily as the protector of and provider for African-Americans, to the detriment of everyone else. The fact that everything came apart under our first African-American president wasn’t an accident, it was probably inevitable.

It’s hard to give this narrative any more credence than claims that Barack Obama is a jihadist. But if Democrats and the political left truly believe this explanation, then there’s an easy way for them to end the government shutdown and get PPACA implemented tout de suite: agree to—and champion!—House Republicans’ demands, with President Obama claiming those demands as his own ideas. If the shutdown really is motivated by racist hatred of the president, then Republicans will begin falling all over themselves to protect and implement PPACA—and perhaps go further and embrace a single-payer health care system. Simply by using reverse psychology, the Dems can easily achieve the health care system they wish for—and all with fervent GOP support.

But what? Dems wouldn’t try this? Fine—then don’t use reverse psychology.