It’s true that Republicans have been against a national health care plan for a very long time. They opposed it when Harry Truman proposed it in 1946.

They were against it when Lyndon Johnson tried again in 1965, settling for the Medicare and Medicaid plan s instead. And they beat it back one last time when Bill Clinton discussed it in 1993.

So when Barack Obama not only talked about national health care, but enacted it, it was hardly surprising the GOP would attempt to undermine it.

The fight was on in 2010, when Republicans re-took one chamber of Congress. It continued through 2012, when Obama was re-elected and the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, though allowing states to reject an expansion of Medicaid that was a key part of securing near-universal coverage.

The problem is that, though the legal and political fight is over and the law is being implemented on schedule, a small bloc of House Republicans doesn’t know when to quit. The longer the shutdown continues, the more damage will be done to a Republican brand that was already in serious disarray.

And for what? Can anyone who doesn’t have an ideological aversion to “government” take seriously the argument that Obamacare represents a mortal threat to the Republic?

Since they opened Oct. 1, the health care exchanges have been busy, and those who are using them – the normal first-day glitches excepted – are getting some pleasant surprises. Nationally, the rates quoted on exchanges are 16 percent below predictions.

Along with the subsidies included in the law, health insurance is suddenly affordable for just about everyone. A part-time college professor who has gone without health insurance for years, but is now pushing 40, can sign up for $200 a month. College students whose parents don’t have insurance can get a fairly comprehensive policy for $75.

As many have noted, Republicans’ real worry about Obamacare was not that it would fail – though they keep repeating that line, with less conviction – but that it would succeed.

Several million poor and near-poor people will not have access to insurance, but that can be laid directly at the door of Republican governors and legislatures, who refused to accept Medicaid expansions that are also nearly fully paid by the ACA.

Maine is, unfortunately, one of those states, and Gov. Paul LePage has also prevented Maine from setting up its own insurance exchange, so the federal government is at least temporarily running it.

LePage, remains true to his pledge to not “lift a finger” to implement the state-federal partnership the ACA contains. What he hasn’t been able to do is come up with a single persuasive reason not to.

Republicans say Obamacare will explode health care costs. All the existing evidence says it is moderating them, though clearly we still have a long way to go to match Canada, where coverage is universal, health outcomes are better, and the system costs one third less than ours. That’s an astonishing amount of money that, by itself, could eliminate most of the federal deficit.

Nearly five years of fervent opposition to the health care law has, understandably, made many Americans concerned and doubtful. But with the system finally starting to take full form, its advantages over the “wait until you get sick” system that has prevailed for far too many Americans will become abundantly clear.

If there really were some Republican alternative, the current standoff in Washington would make some sense, but there isn’t. During the entire health care debate, the GOP hasn’t come up with any proposal that would meet even one of the three-part test for a better system: to increase access, maintain or improve quality, and reduce costs. The ACA has already met the first test, and is doing well on the third. Quality of care can only be proven over time, but for the millions of previously uninsured, it will be a big improvement overnight.

The New Deal created long memories that one party seemed to represent the interests of ordinary Americans and the other did not. When it passed Congress, “Obamacare” didn’t seem to have the same potential. But now that a small faction in one corner of government is prepared to court disaster simply to prevent Americans from getting health care, perhaps it does.

Douglas Rooks is a former daily and weekly newspaper editor who has covered the State House for 28 years. He can be reached at [email protected].