American People vs. Politicians: Group Vitality Achieved Through the Construction and Realignment of Political Cultural Identity in Online Comments About “Obamacare”

Introduction

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010. This controversial legislation has been received with mixed reviews and has been a lightning rod for political ideological debate and grandstanding from those espousing various political perspectives (e.g., Goldzwig, 2013; Johnston, Hillygus, & Bartels, 2014). In this way, the Affordable Care Act is more than a law; it provides a talking point that can help establish political alignment as evidenced by its politically loaded nickname ‘Obamacare’ that references, or rather attributes blame to, Barack Obama, the 44^th President of the United States (Hopper, 2015). As a construct used for political alignment, the way in which the Affordable Care Act is discussed can inform about current American political identities. This chapter exposes how communication about ACA constructs political identities. This construction process has high stakes because it facilitates the group vitality (Giles, 1978) of political groups within the American political system as they vie for power and compete to exist within the current American political climate.