Aug 20 2009
I Am My Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper!
President Obama came out today in another lame attempt to guilt Americans into giving up their premier health care system to bungling DC bureaucrats (remember, we would be trading FedEx/UPS for the USPS). His efforts involved invoking a Judeo-Christian belief we serve best when we serve each other. Fine, I am my brother’s/sister’s keeper.
But I am not some lazy, elite liberal who offloads his responsibilities to some inept bureaucrats who will be deciding who is worthy and who is not. In America only the lazy shirkers use the government to perform their civil or spiritual or personal responsibilities. This under arching nature of Americans to do for themselves and their neighbors is why America is the best in the world at what we do across the board.
We don’t send out the hired help to do our jobs. It is insulting to propose Americans ‘watch out’ for our neighbors by lazily tasking bureaucrats to play Scrooge and lower all our health care to the bare minimum. Only a liberal would claim it is better for the government to be responsible instead of ourselves.
This ridiculous attempt to shame us into throwing away our medical edge and premier health care system is just another in an endless line of examples which illustrate how sick the liberals in DC see this country and their role in it.
We will take care of our seniors and their needs, we will not offload them onto a faceless, penny-pinching, unaccountable bureaucracy and then claim we have done our duty. Â DC liberal elites may find that satisfying, the rest of America is shuddering in horror at the concept.
Conman,
“I hate to say it, but I think you may be right about the fate of health care reform. Once again, the Democrats are their own worst enemy. Many liberals will blame the right for its failure, but I think the Democrats were the ones that caused it. Obama and the Democrats over-sold it as more for less, rather than be more open and up front about the trade offs we need to consider – something that I think Obama could have done pretty effectively. Obama never should have allowed Congress to run with it, creating multiple bills with different approaches so that critics could cherry-pick and attack the worst part of each bill and there would be no “plan†to defend. He overlearned from Clinton’s mistakes.”
I agree with you 100%. But do not forget the other part of this – America doesn’t want their idea of reform.
Conman, I’ll agree with you that it is indeed way too early to count Obama out. Clinton provides a perfect example of what Obama needs to do to stay relevant.
One of Clinton’s most memorable scenes was the so-called “Sistah Souljah moment” when he shot down an activist on the left and thus convinced the center that he could be trusted not to go too far. Plus, his greatest asset after 1994 was Newt Gingrich – Newt guaranteed that a) Clinton had someone who was powerful but not popular across the country to play off of. (Obama has tried to cast Rush Limbaugh in that role, but it won’t work because RL has no actual power) and 2) Clinton had nowhere near enough power on his own to push through anything remotely threatening to the center of the country, especially after Hillarycare died. Therefore after that he was not seen as a threat by the center. With this healthcare fiasco, Obama has managed to cast himself as a threat to the center – and every claim that they are going to “go it alone” just makes the threat bigger and thus is more and more disastrous politically for him.
If Obama wants to survive and even thrive, he has to find a way to open fire on the left, not just on the right. He has to find a way to tell Nancy Pelosi to sit down and shut up, and that if she can’t pass a workable bill she should resign her office. That would send Obama’s popularity soaring overnight. Since I think he’s essentially an empty suit who only says and does what the people around him tell him to do and say, I don’t think he has the wisdom to see this as his salvation or the courage to follow through on it even if he did. But I could be wrong.
But if he sticks to the Pelosi wing of the party, he is going to end up with Pelosi-level approval ratings by the time the next election comes around. And that don’t win national elections.
“If Obama wants to survive and even thrive, he has to find a way to open fire on the left, not just on the right. He has to find a way to tell Nancy Pelosi to sit down and shut up, and that if she can’t pass a workable bill she should resign her office. That would send Obama’s popularity soaring overnight.”
I don’t think this is about “Obama” so much as it is about the Democratic Party. Remember that Obama’s campaign staff basically took over the DNC and moved it to Chicago from DC.
The margin of victory in many Congressional elections is very thin. Obama can not get his agenda through without them. If he goes too far left, he loses the center and loses Congress. If he doesn’t appease the left, he loses them and loses Congress. The Democratic Party is currently The Party Of Chicago with the Chicago “machine” running the national party.
The party has already told the “blue dogs” to knock it off or the party will fund challengers to them in the primaries in 2010. This leaves “blue dog” who is popular back home in a dilemma and what they will do probably depends on the nature of their primary back home. If the blue dog has broad support back home and an open primary, they will probably take their chances and defy the party. If they have a closed primary and the Democrats back home lean toward Pelosi’s way, they might change party. The blue dog with marginal support back home will do as they are told and probably lose the election anyway.
I expect the scope of the change on Congress in 2010 to be beyond anything we have seen in our lifetimes.
Beyond anything in our lifetimes?
I remember the election of 1980. That was a lot of fun.
The part that was the most fun was all the news anchors staring in shock at their teleprompters and virtually bursting into tears when they had to spit out the word – LANDSLIDE!
So no, I don’t need something completely unknown – just give me another 1980, and I’ll be a very happy camper.
Of course, there’s the caveat that I’ve always got to throw in – without good leadership, it won’t happen. Even with all the troubles on the left, I still don’t see diddly squat for leadership on the Republican side. Ditto for the independants/centrists. Wihtout a committed and focused leader, you’re nothing.