Over at Armavirumque, the weblog of The New Criterion, my colleague James Bowman has some thoughtful reflections on why ObamaCare seems poised — as of this writing, anyway — to crash and burn. Why, to employ Sen. Jim DeMint’s colorful image, does the “reform” (i.e., the government takeover) of health care seem to be shaping up as Obama’s “Waterloo”? After all, as Jim Bowman points out, the American people may have grumbled at Obama’s earlier incursions, but in the end they were willing to swallow multifarious assaults: the take over of G.M., the famous patent-pending, non-stimulating stimulus package, Obama’s World Tyrants Tour, replete with a bit of obeisance to sheik what’s-his-name, as well as what Jim accurately describes as the “fashionable anguish about global warming and the absurd, job-killing ‘cap and trade’ legislation designed to deal with it,” not to mention the “grandstanding over Guantanamo and the coddling of terrorists,” etc. etc.
Why has the issue of health care summoned people from the La-Z-boy to townhall meetings all over the country? Jim’s answer, in a word, is fear. The arrogance of politicians may have something to do with it — there have been some spectacular exhibitions of that: my personal favorite Rep Sheila Jackson, who took a call on her cell phone as a constituent was asking her a question. But the revulsion against arrogance only seasoned an already boiling stew of revolt. People look around and they sense the ground shifting under them. On the issue of health care, Obama’s promise to “fundamentally transform the United States of America” suddenly seems to promise not hope and change, but change and deprivation. People don’t like it. They are afraid — rightly so — and they react according. “The lesson,” Jim writes, “is one of the healthy respect any politician owes to people’s fears. Anyone who tries to accomplish things by making people ashamed to fear more than they hope is bound to come up against the natural limitations of that strategy — and, it seems, sooner rather than later.” Amen to that.
Fear, doubt, and anger have “summoned people from the La-Z-boy to town hall meetings”. Many have figured out they cannot take Obama at face value, the gap between Obama’s words and deeds is too wide. Many wanted to give him a chance, to believe he was post-partisan and post-racial. How many times has Obama disappointed them this summer on these two measure alone? Now many feel foolish for supporting him and they aren’t willing to believe his ever-changing, vague rhetoric on health care. The talk of “death panels” and “rationing care for the elderly to give it to illegal immigrants” starts to sound plausible.
Obama went to the “fear well” too many times and now some people fear him and his agenda. I’m skeptical that he will be able to resist the temptation to continue going there.
Watch for the narcissists rage and blaming everyone else for his failure if he does.
President Obama–who wants to be a god–seems to be the spawn of the Greek god, Phobos, the god of fears & phobias & Eris, the goddess of discord, given incarnate form of a man who cannot function without his teleprompter. Obama created his own political destruction while the chaos he so dearly wanted has turned on its head toward while he’s still trying his best to blame the Republicans when all the discord lay with the liberal Democrats, Socialists, & the conservative Blue Dog Democrats.
“Why has the issue of health care summoned people from the La-Z-boy to townhall meetings all over the country?”
Yeah, Rog, it’s a real mystery, isn’t it? Maybe it has something to do with the barrage of lies about “death panels,” etc. Maybe it has something to do with FreedomWorks flyers detailing how to disrupt town meetings. Maybe it has something to do with nut cases throwing around words like “treason.” Time to water the ol’ Tree of Liberty, right, Rog?
Whoa. Let’s cool it with the fear talk. While emotion should play a part, it does not replace the central reason: Barack Obama’s health proposals do not pass the test of logical analysis. They first, last, and foremost do not make any sense. The available evidence clearly indicates that the cost overruns will be staggering and the patient’s choices severely limited. Those countries that have implemented similar programs have paid an awful price. Moreover, Obama is utterly unable to defend these plans in a rational manner. He seems to prefer urging the American citizens to make an act of faith. We are simply supposed to trust the Enlightened and Benevolent One.
Health care control is essential to Obama’s future! There are thousands of ACORN operatives who have been making minimal salaries and have been promised high paying, easy government jobs with lots of opportunities for making additional money in “gifts.”
Under ObamaCare, barely literate former ACORNers will simply have check a chart to see if the requested health care is warranted or not. If there has been no “gift” offered in support of the request, then it is a simple response.
The Attorney General (and his appointees) will guarantee that there will be no problems associated with the “gifts.” And, “to avoid political interference,” the medical decisions of these former ACORNers will have no appeal.
Of course, no federal employee will be subject to this process.
“…people from the La-Z-boy….”
Gee, Rog, do I detect a little elitism here?
Interesting that the Hurricane causing concern at the moment is named “BILL.”
Slight disagreement on the chain of events. The “Tea Parties” started in January and the first attempt at a national effort occurred on April 15th. This was before health care became a major issue.
I think that if Obama does not produce as expected there will be bigger trouble. The unions, not just Chicago, but cullinary, hotelworkers etc will be on him…these people helped get him elected and expect results for more freebies!! And what about all those illegals!!
There will be trouble at the voting booth come ’10.. like Minnesota had..hhmmmm
“They came on in the same old way, and we sent them back in the same old way.” – Wellington
#6 Thomson – Let’s not temper the fear talk. The article is right… and fear focusses the mind. It is a healthy thing.
Say what you want about Palin’s “Death Panels”, they were a wonderful example of refuctio ad absurdum, and the fear they sparked focussed people on this issue more than any other thing. It was dead-bang center-of-mass. It served to get people to really pay attention, and the bill started getting real scrutiny. Citizens (not Congresscritters) started taking the time to get informed and scrutinized the massive, legalese-filled bill.
Now, they ask questions which the elected elites cannot answer, and this leads to more fear and resistance, because now the People know they are being sold a pig-in-a-poke and are being sold down the river.
Fear is a wonderful thing. It makes one pay attention and gets one “out of one’s La-Z-Boy”.
How things have turned.
It was only April 3, 2009 that Obambi threatened bank CEO’s with: “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”
Those fake pitchforks were Astroturf.
What’s between this incompetent president and our genuine pitchforks?
Does getting off a BarcaLounger and going to townhalls count?
“#6 Thomson – Let’s not temper the fear talk. The article is right… and fear focusses the mind. It is a healthy thing.”
OK, I will meet you halfway. The fear did get people off the couch and down to the meetings with their elected officials. But now we must emphasize the logic of our position. Barack Obama and his allies are trying to con the general public into believing it is being deceived by “uninformed” fear tactics. They explicitly assert that the president merely needs to explain the actual facts—and the masses will rapidly convert to the utopian promises of government-controlled health care.
Nothing like a Death Panel to focus one’s concentration — Samuel Johnson (well, er, sort of…)
They have flush toilets in D.C.?
For the most part it’s the advocates of ObamaCare, not its opponents, who characterize the popular revolt against it as “fear.” It’s an instance of the common propagandistic technique of characterizing those opposed to your position as motivated by emotion, and casting yourself as an exponent of cool reason. It’s also crap.
It’s emotion – and an irrational, irresponsible emotion – that Obama attempted to exploit when he tried to corral all Democrats to vote for a 1000+ page bill that they would not have read. It would have been a victory for partisanship, faction, triumphalism, Hope ‘n’ Change, and other idiot emotions.
When the American people put the breaks on that effort – by deciding that blind trust of our most intimate health care decisions to a bunch of preening jerk politicians and bureaucrats was not wise – it was a victory for rationality. And the emotional correlate of such rationality is not fear, but an entirely justified anger.
Czars and Life/Death Tribunals.
WTF country is this again?
David Thomson, amen on Obama being unable to make rational arguments on behalf of his policies. Obama’s incompetence is on full display.
May he be a dead weight anchor dragging the Democrat party down to the depths. They asked for this, in fact demanded it.
If this pig of a bill passes or not, I have a feeling the Dems in the House are toast.
It will be interesting to see how Obama governs when he no longer has a pliant Congress. If his ego is as fragile as I am beginning to suspect then things could get very strange.
I hate living in strange times. Never thought I would say it, but I almost miss Bill Clinton.
Delia – (20)
“Czars and Life/Death Tribunals.
WTF country is this again?”
You really hit that nail on the head. For all the anger at Congress and the talk of throwing the bums out, the fact is that here a Czar, there a Czar, and pretty soon it won’t matter who is actually elected to Congress. If the dimwits already in office don’t do something about the Czars running everything it may already be too late for elections 2010 or even 2012 to change things.
In a gallows humor way, it’s actually funny as hell.
Hansel and Gretel Boomer, spoiled by their “Greatest Generation” parents, toddle off into the cheerful, wonderful, woods. After following the path of least resistance for a long, long, time, their own sweet teddy bear says they must now go quietly into the night because their kids love the woods of unreality, too. Suddenly, they realize they forgot to leave a trail of bread crumbs; they’re trapped in The Deep Dark Forest of Reality!! How could this happen to sweet little Hansel and Gretel?!
Regards
“On the issue of health care, Obama’s promise to “fundamentally transform the United States of America” suddenly seems to promise not hope and change, but change and deprivation.” &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Change can be good or bad; deprivation can even be good for the soul, but a promise to “fundamentally transform the USA” should have sent massive waves of fear before the election. It may be a good thing that he did get in though as more and more Americans are thinking about what it really means to be an American! God save our country from the tyrants.
You nailed it Roger. The grassroots political dynamic is driven by fear. But consider one more point about why it’s so hot out there. We must take into account that people are reacting to an imminent takeover of health care by government shortly after the decimation of their home values and 401k’s. So Americans see Obama winding up to kick the last leg of the once-solid stool of their personal financial safety (home equity, portfolio & health insurance). That scares them, and makes them angry for themselves and for their children.
“If his ego is as fragile as I am beginning to suspect then things could get very strange.”
I have long suspected that Barack Obama will experience a nervous breakdown. He will also likely resign before his term is over. Obama is not “wrapped tight” and the responsibilities of the presidency are overwhelming him. The normal everyday work bores him to death. Obama only wanted to shoot his mouth off and pretend he was our national cheer leader. The present occupant of the White House is poorly read and intellectually shallow. The fact that he graduated from Harvard University is really not that big of a deal. He apparently did only enough to earn modest grades. I don’t think he possesses the ability to even read a serious book. Obama may very well be the most intellectually incurious president in American history.
Dear Mr. Kimball: There’s another crucial reason,which I think you will find relevant:AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.Tenured radicals,Soros,and his leftwing plutocrats,promoted this boob way beyond his skills and experience,Unfortunately for them, Obama cannot stay on telepropter mode permanently,and the more he ad libs, the stupider he looks;he is a microcosm of the ineptitude unleashed on society by affirmative action.It’s time to point AA as crucial to Obama’s failures,and raise the whole issue of reverse racism in the USA. Best Regards!
Even if everything Obama said were true, it wouldn’t make the least bit of a difference. People have stopped trusting him, so they won’t believe anything he tells them.
“If his ego is as fragile as I am beginning to suspect then things could get very strange.”
“I have long suspected that Barack Obama will experience a nervous breakdown.”
I think at some point, if things continue not to go his way, he definitly will crack. But, it does worry me about what his actions may be leading up to this “event”. I think, as he goes down, if he goes down, we will see an Obama that even Democrats will end up being afraid of. (Well…maybe not Pelosi and the rest of his group. They’ll have their excuses all ready in hand for him.)
I don’t think the eruption over health care is a sudden, out-of-the-blue thing. I think it’s the final straw. Everything Obama has done so far has been a blatant power grab, and this on top of two years of Congressional power grabs by the Democratic Party. People have finally stopped wondering when it would end. They know, now, that it won’t, and they’d better fight back while they still have a chance.
It is clear to those of us who are essentially politically neutral that in the case of the health care proposals, the issues and objections being raised are very reasonable and the responses from Obama and supportors are non-existent or non-compelling.
Our government would work better if laws and programs could only be enacted if the problems they solved or the benefits they could provide were painfully obvious to nearly everyone. A 51% majority with political or social agendas should not be allowed to wreak havoc on the entire country and economy.
Then we would get only the limited and essential services, programs and regulations that we really need. Freedom, self reliance and enforcement of basic laws will take care of the rest.
Frankly I don’t care whether its driven by fear or an awakened electorate. People are out there and the politicians are become more and more afraid for their future by the day.
Tea Parties today, Tar and Feathers tomorrow.
I have long suspected that Barack Obama will experience a nervous breakdown. He will also likely resign before his term is over… et al,
Mr. Thomson:
Respectfully, sir: WTF!!
Do you have some inside information that you’d like to share with us? If not, then please, sir, STFU!
Man, talk about projection.
Open Question to Mr. Obama:
You have made several promises about what Health Care Reform will and will not do.
The health care bill, as I understand it, is about 1,000 pages. Surely, you have not read it all. Further, their will likely be many changes to the text before any version is ready for your signature. So:
1) How can you promise what it will and will not contain, unless you promise to veto it under specified circumstances? (something you have not generally been doing); and,
2) Are you telling us that you will read the entire bill before signing it?
Hey, is that Keith Olbermann signing on as Kirk at #33?
> Mr. Thomson:
> Respectfully, sir: WTF!!
> Do you have some inside information that you’d like to share
> with us? If not, then please, sir, STFU!
> Man, talk about projection.
People spent the past eight years making up crap about Bush and starting outright insane conspiracy theories, but any speculation about “The One” rates an STFU from the faithful. Why don’t you start praying to “The One” for your daily bread? You sure have raised him to a level far beyond mere mortals; why not go all the way and just say he’s your god and that you’ll behead anyone who blasphemes him?
A healthy 48 year old (or, is it 52 years old?) doesn’t need to keep his medical records private unless there’s drug abuse or mental instability on them. Here’s a guy who wants to keep track of every medical record and anything that may “impact the health of” every single warm body in the country but wants to keep his own records secret. If you don’t see anything wrong with that double standard, then you “STFU” because you don’t even know who the Constitution says is the employer and who’s the employee in this country.
Have a nice double standard day
If you read the signs you will see it’s not just health care. I’ve been to two tea party events and the people there were frustrated with all our elected officials including Republicans. So Republican elected officials were not invited nor would they have been welcome. Between April 15 and the 4th of July the Tea Party movement was getting its act together. The Tea Party’s were too late, too disorganized, and the media was still too in love with Obama to stop RINO’s from supporting Obama any earlier but Obamacare and the August ‘Town Hall’ recess was a perfect storm.
P.S. I find the Lay Z Boy remark insulting.
Not a doc so can’t opine about his nerves, but I can certainly see his hair turning white and he’s still in his first year!
What are we fighting for this time? I hope enough of us realize the stakes.
This is for real and it is for all the marbles. If we lose this one, we are going to have to wait around for the former east-block countries to come rescue us in another 50 years or so. We have backed down too far and the edge of the cliff is nigh. Now is the time to fight back or get pushed over the cliff. And when we fight back, we must not fight to a standstill – we must secure ample ground on which freedom can flourish, not fight for survival. It is no condition of freedom to be perched on the edge of cliff.
The ground is rightfully ours, endowed by our birth and natural state, but has been usurped by the Collectivists and dominion-ists. We are the light and they are the dark — they don’t understand the simplistic truth and beauty and righteousness of this duality and reality. We shall not beg for our freedom from the government that works for us or from our misguided neighbors who believe they are empowered to take from us – freedoms and property – for that which they deem important or righteous. Their idea of charity is for us to give… at gunpoint.
Jonathon Swift succinctly captured our current plight with respect to the demented would-be autocrats who call themselves liberal or progressive – words that have lost their meaning — when he so accurately articulated: “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into. [Notice the refusal to be cowed into altering Swift’s apt quote to be “gender neutral” merely to hew to nonsensical constraints of speech, an act which would otherwise render recitation of the quote not just ironic, but cynical.] The left has no reason, no rationality, no reasonableness, no cause, no grounds, no intellect, no facts, no explanation and no justification on which they can found their incessant and existential assault on the very core constitution of our liberty – this assault defines their essence and being and, as such, they must simply be defeated, relegated to bitter wound-licking submissiveness, lest they relinquish their self-imparted blindness arising from their submission to darkness.
Our efforts to articulate our reasons for opposing them are completely lost on the hard left, but they do serve the purpose of continued self-diligence, moderation and introspection, as well as the conversion of independents, unable alone to articulate and confirm their own common-sense instincts. We need to quit using the term democracy – the United States is not supposed to be a democracy. It is supposed to be a Constitutional Republic. Democracy implies, for too many, that if there is a majority to support something, it should be so. Democracy has many different technical meanings and interpretations, but the current usage is a dagger that constantly wounds freedom; and it should be abandoned in favor of more precise terminology for the education of independents with adequate common sense but inadequate vocabulary.
With substantial matters of freedom, there is no compromise, only victory or defeat. How about this for a compromise? – Quit trying to take our freedoms by force (and farce) and we won’t have to use force to safeguard them. Quit trying to take our property at gunpoint – which is fundamental to our freedoms — and we will not have to point guns back at you to prevent you. Deal? Otherwise, ask yourself this question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do you, punk?
When they say, “we’ll let you keep [this or that]” meaning things that we already have, the appropriate response is: “Good, then we won’t have to fight to stop you.” What is it about: “Leave us the f**k alone!” you don’t understand?!” They didn’t give us our freedom, it is ours! We, as free people, gave the government certain duties to us – and it sure as hell is not fulfilling them. We need to stop apologizing or backpedaling or compromising or self-questioning. We don’t have to ask them for anything or be appreciative when they let us keep x or y!
Do not be afraid to speak boldly or intemperately of freedom. Ours is not to convince those who don’t understand freedom or those who want to oppress. Freedom is ours — tread on it at your peril. We have no one to answer to but the just cause of freedom; and we will be free only if we are willing to fight and die. Forget union thugs and community organizers — there have been worse usurpers that have been defeated; and we will defeat them too. Do not try to engage, just defeat. There is no room to compromise with the corruption and oppression and darkness that defines their being. We cannot control them, only let them know: “Back off or else.”
It is now, as has always been, our duty to abide by laws that do not infringe our freedom, but also to own and become proficient at multiple forms of self-defense –- knives, guns, etc. And we should be often armed, and always nearly-armed, vigilant and resolute – and, at the same time, restrained and moral and good and righteous and polite and caring and thoughtful and helpful. This is what is necessary to protect freedom.
(By the way, is there anyone else sick of hearing about how so-and-so is okay with guns for hunting? The constitution does not say that “A well regulated ‘pack of game-hunters’, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”)
For anyone on the left or confused-center reading this, don’t help yourself to fantasies about this being the ravings of a lunatic. We are not calling for revolution or armed insurrection (yet). We are calling for all freedom-loving citizens to become fully prepared for it. As Disraeli instructed: “Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.” We are stating a fact: If the left pushes too far and succeeds in taking our freedoms from us further, as history as shown, righteous freedom-loving people will fight and die to reestablish freedom. This fight would not be brought on by those exercising and protecting freedom, but by those who seek to take it. By the laws of nature, the oppressors get to choose first, we only get to choose whether to submit or fight.
What are we to do with those who have abandoned reason, truth, righteousness and, most importantly, respect for freedom when they come for us? What are we to do with the people claiming to represent a government, whose sole purpose is to secure our freedoms against those who would attempt to take them, become themselves the people attempting to take them? We are to do the same as always! Wishing it wasn’t so is honorable, but believing it isn’t so is foolish.
I don’t think anyone should take offense at the La-Z-Boy reference. It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to a Democrtic elitist stereotype, not a serious comment on real people.
Democrats may succeed in blowing off the protests as “astroturf” but that’s almost beside the point, by now. Thanks to those protests we have seen our elected officials insult, yell, patronize, and otherwise act like the public is supposed to serve *them* instead of the other way around. And there’s nothing the Dems can do to unring that bell.
I predict that 2010 will see a lot of incumbents thrown out on their ass.
I’ve been saying for some time now that Obama may have campaigned on hope, but he actually got elected, as many politicians do, on fear and anger (toward the incumbent and his party, that is). John Kerry did more or less the same thing in 2004, but there just wasn’t enough fear or anger toward the Bush administration from outside the Democratic Party to do him any good.
Well, now that same fear and anger is swinging back the other way toward Obama himself, and shows no sign of abating. Obama’s certainly not doing anything to diminish that, much less turn it around. And all that fear and anger has 39 more months to continue to fester before November 2012 rolls around.
Marc.#41. You have nailed it so anyone capable of reading at at least 6th grade level should have no problem understanding what you have stated. You really should be at the forefront of the coming confrontation. We need level heads and the ability to braek it down so anyone can understand. Thanks for your comments.
While the intensity of the sentiments displayed in those gatherings is clearly sincere (and legitimate), I’d rather describe it (them) as being caused less by the health reform issue per se, and more as the explosive fusion of many exasperations and anxieties which this administration has managed to generate in an impressively short time – and now project this current public, sour mood on the psychological background of a vastely shared feeling that the country IS NOT on the right track, defense, immigration, you name them.
So, again the health care reform is rather an opportunity to vent out these axieties than being the chief cause of their manifestation.
And adding to this situation, while Obama as a candidate surfed very well on last fall’s incertitudes, this year he (and his cohorts) proved themselves completely unable (if not arrogantly unwilling) to decipher the surf’s directions and undercurrents – and I see no lifeguards around.
#41. Well said. Next time, the 42% of the electorate who failed to vote better get their butts in gear. As we can see daily, YOUR VOTE MATTERS!!!!!!
From HR3200. [Page 143]
SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED
ALIENS.
Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.
==================================================
Does that mean that any alien on a valid visa is entitled to healthcare/insurance at our expense?