RS McCain in his Spectator piece this morning:
"They're obviously not doing this for policy reasons," one GOP operative who worked on the Brown campaign said last night. "This is political, but nobody can figure out the politics of it."Call it the politics of personal self-destruction.
How the Democrats must be privately cursing Obama right now. Things could have been so different. If he had had more political sense and less personal hubris they could have passed a healthcare bill with bipartisan (read RINO) support that would have served as a nifty foundation for an American NHS. Instead, he has squandered his political capital and imperiled his party's majority. How can they not be blaming him for the gathering tsunami of 2010?
It would be diverting to read some of their minds as the president makes his appeal for their suicide based on the need to save his presidency. True, some House members, perhaps not our sharpest minds, have gone along with Obama's formulation that there is still something to be saved:
"Would be damaged"? Obama has already totaled his presidency and his majority, regardless of what happens with healthcare reform. Thanks to him, there is no "good" way for House Democrats to vote. Either choice leads to heartache, and, though he had ample help from Pelosi, Reid, and friends, Obama is the one to blame. Passing healthcare now will not hit the reset button for the Democrats and transport them back to January 20, 2009, when they were riding the giant wave instead of waiting to be swept away by it.One caucus member told POLITICO that Obama won him over by “essentially [saying] that the fate of his presidency” hinged on this week’s health reform vote in the House. The member, who requested anonymity, likened Obama’s remarks to an earlier meeting with progressives when the president said a victory was necessary to keep him “strong” for the next three years of his term.
Another caucus member, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), said, “We went in there already knowing his presidency would be weakened if this thing went down, but the president clearly reinforced the impression the presidency would be damaged by a loss.”
Added Serrano: “He was subtle, but that was the underlying theme of the meeting — the importance of passing this for the health of the presidency.”
White House officials said Obama’s recent remarks aren’t intended to personalize the debate or rally undecided Democratic members with an egocentric, “win one for Barry” message. They said Obama’s point is to hammer home the idea that all Democrats would benefit from a health care win and that the party’s larger policy agenda would be damaged if the president were to lose.
And what's worse, in addition to ruining his own party, Obama has created a backlash, a populace hypersensitized to and willing to fight against government overreaching. We're taking part in a national civics lesson -- call it No Citizen Left Behind. We're reviewing how a bill becomes law (because the new way just doesn't sound right). We're reading the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, Hayek and Milton Friedman. This isn't what the statists expected from Barack Obama. And a "win" on healthcare reform, if it happens, will only make matters worse for them as the reality of this violation sets off its own waves of protest.
Cross-posted in the Green Room.
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6 comments:
Obama's counting on the ratchet effect--bureaucracies once launched do not disappear, they only grow. I think Mark Steyn was right:
"Why is he doing this? Why let 'health' 'care' 'reform' stagger on like the rotting husk in a low-grade creature feature who refuses to stay dead no matter how many stakes you pound through his chest?
"Because it's worth it. Big time. I've been saying in this space for two years that the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture. It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible. In most of the rest of the Western world, there are still nominally 'conservative' parties, and they even win elections occasionally, but not to any great effect (Let's not forget that Jacques Chirac was, in French terms, a 'conservative').
"The result is a kind of two-party one-party state: Right-of-center parties will once in a while be in office, but never in power, merely presiding over vast left-wing bureaucracies that cruise on regardless."
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/health-237719-care-government.html
Mark Steyn is absolutely correct. And let's not forget that this involves a huge element of ideology as well - this is a Marxist takeover in every sense of the word. That fact alone is what has taken everyone in America by surprise, except for those few who saw this in him in the years leading up to the election. And of course it didn't help that the media was complicit in all of it.
Most people don't expect that their President will actively work against everything America stands for. What really needs to be done now and far, far in the future is to fight this Marxist scourge on all levels. The jury is still out as to whether we can do it - it will not be over in one or two election cycles. It will be a constant battle and we can't afford any more of "too little, too late."
I think the explanation is very simple. Human pride will make people go to insane lengths. Here we have a Congress locked up by the Democrats and their Golden Grail is within grasp. These people will do anything, absolutely anything to keep from losing to their hated enemies the Republicans. Just think about it. They have literally gone insane because they cannot face the possibility of being handed their asses by the supposedly helpless, hapless Republican minority.
When you push the "Reset" button, you discover the word actually is "Overcharge."
Once cautiously optimistic, I am now sadly convinced that Obamacare is going to happen. There is no way we can count on a few "no" democrats to remain. It's done, game over.
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