A major shift in thinking has occurred since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, and the political ramifications are likely to be enormous.

At his inaugural in 1981, Ronald Reagan said, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” This wrong belief has pervaded and controlled political thought for at least three decades and led to some very bad policies such as the bank deregulation that caused the financial crisis of 2008.

Recently, Republicans realized they have to actually develop a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, and people are demanding that some important features are available in a replacement plan. These features include allowing people with pre-existing conditions to get insurance, no lifetime limits, and allowing children under 26 to stay on their parents’ plans.

It gets even worse for Republicans. People are also demanding improvements such as more affordable premiums and lower copayments and deductibles.

For the first time in many, many years, there is a popular uprising where people are saying to the government, “fix this.” People realize government is the solution.

This is not to say that the government is the solution for everything. However, the right government policies can provide great solutions to some problems as illustrated by health care.

In point of fact the public enables the private, and now that people are realizing this, it signifies a seismic shift in our politics.