(Credit: Getty Images/Justin Sullivan) The Republican effort to repeal (and replace — they promise!) Obamacare died so quickly it made folk’s heads spin. But with persistent rumbling that the GOP will try again, it’s worth taking a closer look at why conservatives failed so spectacularly the first time around — and why things are so unlikely to change. While press attention tended to focus on a few key actors — President Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, the House Freedom Caucus — political scientist David Hopkins had a different view, expressed in two posts (here and here) on his blog, Honest Graft.