ObamaCare has become a nightmare America just can’t seem to escape. Every time it seems to have been vanquished for good, and relieved voters begin discussing rational market-based approaches to health-care reform… ObamaCare surges up from its damp grave, moonlight flashing from the trillion-dollar machete gripped in its fist.
Last week, we even had one of those cheesy “stingers” during the end credits to this horror film. The Republicans nuked ObamaCare into steaming fragments during Obama’s disastrous health-care summit, but the President staggered to the nearest camera and announced his intention to stuff the hot, glowing wreckage down our throats, in a political ritual that will require the sacrifice of many senators and representatives from his increasingly unpopular party.
Opponents of the health-care takeover have always hoped there wouldn’t be enough Democrats willing to sacrifice their seats to push it through. Congressional leadership has been working to steady nervous Democrats by assuring them the long-term political gains will be worth a drubbing in the next couple of elections. Socialized medicine represents a permanent re-alignment of the relationship between American citizens and their government, which will cease to be “representative” in any meaningful sense after it gains control of health care. The voters will forever become its clients, rather than its masters, and this will deliver huge political benefits to the Party that has long worshiped and nurtured the power of the State.
It’s worth going through a couple of bad election cycles for that kind of long-term reward. It’s even worth losing the White House, as Obama has spoken openly of accepting his fate as a one-term President, if he can impose such a massive change on his unwilling countrymen. The Republicans may hold both houses of Congress and the White House by 2012, but they won’t be able to do anything except clean the carpets and re-stock the mini-bars for the permanent Democrat ruling class that will soon return. Besides, the Democrats are already taking the hit for dragging this nightmare out, alternately annoying and insulting an electorate whose demands to focus on economic growth are falling on deaf ears. They might as well push ahead and collect the prize they’ve been working for.
I’d like to give wavering Democrats another possibility to mull over. There is another way the health-care saga could end.
It could end with the complete destruction of the Democrat Party.
Consider that, as unpopular as this health-care bill is now, these are its salad days. Not only will the electorate be angry that parliamentary maneuvers were used to ram it through Congress, they’re going to hate what happens in the first couple of years after the President signs it. Remember, in order to make the Congressional Budget Office pretend ObamaCare is anything but a sizzling stick of dynamite wedged into the national debt, the bill’s authors had to front-load its tax increases, and delay its benefits. This also means voters will be slapped across the face with the worst garbage from back-room deals, such as the sweetheart deals for union health-care plans, long before they see anything resembling a benefit.
It also means the economic damage from this travesty will hit first, a fiscal tsunami rolling out from a political earthquake. If there was ever a time for Democrats to abandon their childlike faith in static analysis, this is it. Let me put this simply, for the fools who still think tax increases automatically bring more money into the Treasury: the private sector will immediately begin changing its behavior, in ways that damage small-business formation and employment. They’re doing it now, based on the mere possibility this bill will pass into law. In fact, the best hope for Democrats to avoid a historic pounding in the 2010 elections would be killing ObamaCare once and for all, then taking credit for the resulting swell of relief in the private sector.
When Democrats return to their districts for a health-care reform victory lap, they’ll find more than just angry peasants with pitchforks waiting for them. They’ll also face Republicans with lightsabers. I encouraged the Republicans to attend Obama’s summit meeting, and use the opportunity to engage him, in a forum that would resist media image control. They actually did it, and the only person more surprised than me is Barack Obama. The GOP is rolling into 2010 with Boston harbor tea pumping in its veins. Republican stars were born at that summit meeting: Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and a senator from Arizona with the same name as the guy whose tired campaign for President in 2008 helped put Barack Obama in the White House. Meanwhile, the Democrat leadership consists of a walking corpse from Nevada, and an openly delusional San Francisco leftist who talks like her own caricature in an editorial cartoon.
As low as Obama’s approval ratings have gotten, he’s still the most popular figure in his party. That’s generally true of presidents versus congressional leaders… but in this case, the difference is between profound disappointment in Obama, and growing contempt for absurd figures like Reid and Pelosi. Harry Reid is so dreadful that voters will actually remember him when he’s gone. Obama will suffer, as the director who gave such cretins starring roles in a big-budget flop. Democrat Party Studios will suffer as well. Audiences will not be eager to buy overpriced tickets to their next production.
To sum up: in 2010, an energized Republican Party will address a public charged with grassroots energy, and furious over the passage of legislation they didn’t want… forced on them in the express belief they’re too stupid to understand its magnificence, and too feeble to survive without it. The Republicans will explain the only way to roll back this legislation is to decimate the party that passed it. They might just be smart enough to demonstrate how ObamaCare is the concentrated essence of everything that has gone wrong with American government – not America – over the last half-century, and present its repeal as the beginning of a comprehensive movement to cleanse the tainted ground from which it sprang.
In other words, Democrats, ObamaCare might indeed become your ticket to perpetual influence… or it might become the centerpiece of the best argument Americans will ever hear to get rid of you. You’ll have your core supporters and a few safe seats, but that’s the formula for a rump party. Americans will always insist on a vibrant opposition party, and they are wise to do so. They tremble on the verge of becoming wise enough to realize the Democrat Party doesn’t “own” its position as one of the two major parties, any more than it owned the “Kennedy seat” in Massachusetts. When Barbara Boxer says every state is now in play, believe her. She knows what she’s talking about.
It’s been a hundred and fifty years since a major American political party was erased. I’ve often wondered what it would look like, if such a thing happened in the modern era. I imagine it would take a combination of widespread voter anger, the messy death of a failed ideology, an energized opposition, and hopelessly out-of-touch leadership. Whatever remains of the “moderate” wing of the Democrat Party should consult their own imaginations, before arrogantly passing a bill that can only be rolled back over their dead bodies.
Cross-posted at Hot Air.
[...] read the whole thing. Oh, and one more great post from Dr. Zero on the counterpoint: Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Senator to public: [...]
I have to admit, I’m not sure I see downside in the minds of the Dems that are determined to pass this bill. Many of them would be prime candidates to run the new agencies that they voted to set up. Or they can join a lobbying firm to get more stuff tacked onto this mess.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some congresspeople will be wooed with a cushy job promise just to vote for this.
Kent Conrad says it won’t fly but then the Dems could just cheat.
The problem with the democrat freaks is that neither their heads nor their hearts reside anywhere in REALITY.
It’s time people wake up and realize that these treasonous bastards mean to do us great harm. They do not care about the American people, they care only about their AGENDA.
We must defeat them the first chance we get and never, ever let them close enough to harm us again!
Ha! very powerful wards, really gets the true believers stirred up. But realistically
who is this America that wants to get rid of the Democratic Party? Last pole says there are 44% for healthcare reform. Not a majority, true, but definitely not a fringe leftist element.
The democrats may lose the next election, and the one after that, but you see the problem is that there are always going to be AMERICANS who are for the ‘Obama agenda’ So I don’t know who is this American people that are going to throw the Democratic party out. The democrats will be here to stay, and one day, maybe when my children grow up we will be living in a more compassionate and innovative society.
Either that or China (ahaha)
Good luck, and god bless America
Yes a star was born at the summit. I was really impressed with Paul Ryan. He is someone to watch. It was fun to watch the conservatives roll out the facts and figures while the liberals rolled out the cliches and paltitudes. For the longest time I was convinced we had two parties in America – the stupid party and the dangerous party – well the stupid party did a nice job at Obama’s get together.
“It could end with the complete destruction of the Democrat Party.”
Doc…are you FLIRTING with me??
Once upon a time it was fantasy that 13 ragtag colonies could break from the plitical and military hegemon of the 18th century. If the democrats deign to force Obamacare upon us, then let’s make this vision of the anihilation of the corruptocrat party into reality also.
That essay had more pop cultures references than a typical Dennis Miller column. And I LOVED it.
While I doubt we will see the true end of the Democratic Party in our lifetime, it will certainly be on life support and worse should they managed to pass ObamaCare.
Here is hoping that cooler heads will ultimately prevail, thus beheading that monster, or at least the GOP retakes the Congress on the premise of rolling back the passed legislation.
The complete destruction of the Democrat Party? Bring it on, baby! I dislike the Republicans but I despise the Democruds. BURN BABY, BURN!
The Democrat’s reckoning is coming: The fervor with which the liberals have pronounced their dedication to the well-being of the oppressed masses is going to be put to the ultimate test: Nancy Pelosi is trying to encourage them to sacrifice their political career to the epic realization of the long-awaited dream of euro-style Nanny state.
So, if you are a Democrat in congress, you can either save your (political) skin, or jump over the cliff for the ultimate sacrifice in the name of overarching principles contrary to the American spirit. If you find this fork in the road, you will take it, won’t you?
Meanwhile, the citizenry is saying “We the lemmings”? Hell No!
Let’s say any form of Obamacare is passed, does anyone really believe the Republican-(who-hate-the-Conservative-base) Establishment will overturn any part of Obamacare when they take congress in 2010?
Further; if the Republican Establishment elects Mitt Romney as President does anyone really believe he will not MANDATE further Obamacare?
I am a newbie to Conservatism (Reagan’s Conservatism specifically) and I must observes that if either CPAC or the Cult of WF Buckely were effective at ‘standing thwart history yelling stop’ there would be no need for a Tea Party Movement.
@ Jim Fister:
Well, one potential downside – depending on what the ‘narrative’ turns out to be a generation from now – is the Cold Civil War the Democrats are fomenting that may turn hot if they don’t ease off. They won’t be thanked for the results, no matter what the type of government that exists afterward.
We are about to witness the greatest political reversal in history. And if the Democrats ram through Health Reform through reconciliation they are doomed as a competitive party.
The Democrats are taking a huge gamble and the odds are entirely with the ‘house’. As Doc points out, should this pass, the economic damage will be massive. Seniors are going to be apoplectic over the rise in their Medicare premiums and the reduction in their coverage.
Plus Doc didn’t mention the greatest, by far, landmine for Democrats with reconciliation. Though it presently be low on society’s ‘radar screen’, more than any other issue, forcing financial support for abortion, upon everyone is the powder keg that can actually ignite active economic insurrection. Democrats are playing with fire on this one and their ideological blindness has them clueless to the danger.
But even should it fail, Democrats will be out in 2010 and then in 2012. Obama is going to keep doubling down because he’s an ideologue. ‘Cap and Trade’ will be next, especially if he succeeds in ramming through his Health Reform Bill.
At this time in history, the state of the economy, the number of unemployed, the precarious state of global financing, the coming resurgence of Al Qaeda… and Iran certain to gain the bomb with the increase in nuclear proliferation among unstable third-world regimes that will create… all these conspire to make imposing radical liberalism upon Americans ‘a bridge too far’ to cross.
In another generation or two they might well have pulled it off, but it’s simply too much, too soon.
Radial liberalism forcibly imposed upon Americans will electrify and awaken them in numbers never before contemplated, resulting in a political firestorm that will be impossible for the Democrats or the media to extinguish.
Remember that the ‘Reagan democrats’ were created in reaction to Jimmy Carter… and Obama, Pelosi and Reid are about to create a ‘reaction’ far greater than Carter ever accomplished.
I find myself in the position of John Adams but a few years before the American revolution. A loyal subject of the crown, he could not stomach the forcible reduction of Americans from freeborn citizens to indentured servants and economic slaves.
So too, am I a loyal American but I will not yield up my unalienable freedoms to the State, nor will I agree to pay for another’s abortion.
If transformation to socialism is what they seek to forcibly impose, rebellion is what they shall have.
Love it. Hope it comes true (assuming the bastards manage to pass it.)
But…it’s not likely. In fact, it’s barely plausible.
There are people out there (I’ve met them), probably millions of them, who couldn’t tell a liberal from a libertarian, but who know that they hate the Republicans and always vote Democrat.
The Democrats could stand for almost ANYTHING – any position(s), any ideology – and as long as it was different from what the GOP proposed, they’d still get 30-40% of the vote.
There was much talk of the Dems being dead after 2002. There was much talk of the GOP being dead after 2008.
But neither happened. And neither will.
Maybe the GOP will become more like the Libertarian Party, and co-opt their platform. But the GOP isn’t going to go anywhere.
Maybe the Dems will become more like the Green Party, and co-opt their platform. But the Dems aren’t going to go anywhere.
We need to defeat ObamaCare NOW. Once it’s passed into law, it’s simply too late. The gutless DC Republicans won’t have the stones to repeal it, and the Dems will continue to be a major party, awaiting their next opportunity to seize complete control.
Excellent post (saw it first at HotAir). You articulated what has been kind of nagging at the back of my mind for a while now.
Thanks for clearing up my muddled brain.
American Too says: “Last pole says there are 44% for healthcare reform. Not a majority, true, but definitely not a fringe leftist element. ”
If that’s really the question asked, then that’s pretty meaningless. Hell, ***I’m*** for “healthcare reform”, just not *Obama’s* healthcare reform.