Laura
Hollis is an attorney and teaches entrepreneurship and Where is your spine,
America ?
Where is your spine, America ?
November
20, 2013|10:42 am
The
unveiling of the dictatorial debacle that is Obamacare absolutely flabbergasts
me. It is stunning on so many levels, but the most shocking aspect of it for me
is watching millions of free Americans stand idly by while this man, his
minions in Congress and his cheerleaders in the press systematically dismantle
our Constitution, steal our money, and crush our freedoms.
The
President, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (with no small help from Justice John
Roberts) take away our health care, and we allow it. They take away our
insurance, and we allow it. They take away our doctors, and we allow it. They
charge us thousands of dollars more a year, and we allow it. They make legal
products illegal, and we allow it. They cripple our businesses, and we allow
it. They announce by fiat that we must ignore our most deeply held beliefs –
and we allow it.
Where is
your spine, America ?
Yes, I know
people are complaining. I read the news on the internet. I read blogs. I have a
Twitter feed. So what? People in the Soviet Union complained. People in Cuba
complain. People in China complain (quietly). Complaining isn't the same thing
as doing anything about it. In fact, much of the complaining that we hear
sounds like resignation: Wow. This sucks. Oh well, this is the way things are.
Too bad.
Perhaps you
need reminding of a few important facts. Here goes:
1. The
President is not a king.
Barack Obama does not behave like a President, an elected official, someone who
realizes that he works for us. He behaves like a king, a dictator – someone who
believes that his own pronouncements have the force of law, and who thinks he
can dispense with the law's enforcement when he deigns to do so. And those of
us who object? How dare we? Racists!
And while he
moves steadily "forward" with his plans to "fundamentally
transform" the greatest country in human history, he distracts people with
cheap, meaningless trivialities, like "free birth control pills"! (In
fact, let's face it: this administration's odd obsession with sex in general -
Birth control! Abortion! Sterilization! Gay guys who play basketball! -- is
just plain weird. Since when did the leader of the free world care so much
about how people have sex, who they have it with, and what meds they use when
they have it? Does he have nothing more important to concern himself
with?)
2. It
isn't just a failed software program; it is a failed philosophy. People are marveling thatHealthcare.govwas
such a spectacular failure. Well, if one is only interested in it as a product
launch, I've explained some of the reasons for that here. But the larger
point is that it isn't a software failure, or even a product failure; it is a
philosophy failure.
I have said
this before: Obama is not a centrist; he is a central planner. And this – all
of it: the disastrous computer program, the hundreds of millions of dollars
wasted, the lies, the manipulation of public opinion, the theft of the public's
money and property, and freedom (read insurance, and premiums, and doctors) --
IS what central planning looks like.
The central
premise of central planning is that a handful of wunderkinds with your best
interests at heart (yeah, right) know better than you what's good for you. The
failure of such a premise and the misery it causes have been clear from the
dawn of humanity. Kings and congressmen, dictators and Dear Leaders,
potentates, princes and presidents can all fall prey to the same imperial
impulses: "we know what is good the 'the people.'
And they are
always wrong.
There is a
reason that the only times communism has really been tried have been after
wars, revolutions, or coups d'état. You have to have complete chaos for people
to be willing to accept the garbage that centralized planning produces. Take
the Soviet Union , for example. After two wars, famine, and the collapse of the
Romanov dynasty, why wouldn't people wait in line for hours to buy size 10
shoes? Or settle for the gray matter that passed for meat in the grocery
stores?
But
communism's watered-down cousin, socialism, isn't much better. Ask the
Venezuelans who cannot get toilet paper. Toilet paper. ¡Viva la
Revolución!
Contrary to
what so many who believe in a "living Constitution" say, the Founding
Fathers absolutely understood this. That is why the Constitution was set up to
limit government power. (Memo to the President: the drafters of the
Constitution deliberately didn't say "what government had to do on your
behalf.") They understood that that was the path to folly, fear, and
famine.)
3. Obama
is deceitful. Just
as the collapse of the computer program should not surprise anyone, neither
should we be shocked that the President lied about his healthcare plan. Have
any of you been paying attention over the past few years? Obama has made no
secret of his motivations or his methods. The philosophies which inspire him
espouse deceit and other vicious tactics. (Don't take my word for it: read Saul
Alinsky.) Obama infamouslytold reporter Richard Wolffe, "You know, I
actually believe my own bullshit." He has refused to be forthcoming about
his past (where are his academic records?). His own pastor, Rev. Jeremiah
Wright, told author Ed Klein, that Obama said to him, "You know what
your problem is? You have to tell the truth."
Did Obama
lie when he said dozens of times, "If you like you plan, you can keep it.
Period!"? Of course he did. That's what he does.
4. The
media is responsible.
And had the media been doing their jobs, we would have known a lot of this
much, much earlier.
The press is
charged with the sacred responsibility of protecting the people from the
excesses of government. Our press has been complicit, incompetent, or corrupt.
Had they vetted this man in 2008, as they would have a Republican candidate, we
would have known far more about him than we do, even now. Had they pressed for
more details about Obamacare, Congress' feet would have been held to the fire.
Had they done their jobs about Eric Holder, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS
scandal, NSA spying - or any of the other myriad betrayals of the public trust
that this administration has committed, Obama would likely have lost his 2012
reelection campaign. (A fact that even The Washington Posthas tacitly acknowledged. Well done,
fellas! Happy now?)
Instead,
they turned a blind eye, even when they knew he was lying, abusing power,
disregarding the limits of the Constitution. It was only when he began to spy
on them, and when the lies were so blatant that the lowest of low-information
voters could figure it out that they realized they had to report on it. (Even
in the face of blatant, deliberate and repeated lies, The New York
Times has the
audacity to tell us that the President "misspoke.") They have
betrayed us, abandoned us, and deceived us.
5. Ted
Cruz was right. So was Sarah Palin. The computer program is a disaster. The insurance exchanges
are a disaster. What's left? The healthcare system itself. And this, of
necessity, will be a disaster, too.
Millions of
people have lost their individual insurance plans. In 2015, millions more will
lose their employer-provided coverage (a fact which the Obama administration
also knew, and admitted elsewhere).
The
exorbitant additional costs that Obamacare has foisted on unsuspecting
Americans are all part of a plan of wealth confiscation and redistribution.
That is bad enough. But it will not end there.
When the numbers
of people into the system and the corresponding demand for care vastly exceed
the cost projections (and they will, make no mistake), then the rationing will
start. Not only choice at that point, but quality and care itself will go down
the tubes. And then will come the decisions made by the Independent Payment
Advisory Board about what care will be covered (read "paid for") and
what will not.
That's just
a death panel, put politely. In fact, progressives are already greasing the
wheels for acceptance of that miserable reality as well. They're spreading the
lie that it will be about the ability of the dying to refuse unwanted or
unhelpful care. Don't fall for that one, either. It will be about the deaths
that inevitably result from decisions made by people other than the patients,
their families, and their physicians. (Perhaps it's helpful to think of their
assurances this way: "If you like your end-of-life care, you can keep your
end-of-life-care.")
6. We are
not SUBJECTS. (or,
Nice Try, the Tea Party Isn't Going Away). We have tolerated these incursions
into our lives and livelihoods too long already. There is no end to the
insatiable demand "progressives" have to remake us in their image.
Today it is our insurance, our businesses, our doctors, our health
care. Tomorrow some new crusade will be announced that enables them
to take over other aspects of our formerly free lives.
I will say
it again: WE ARE NOT SUBJECTS. Not only is the Tea Party right on the fiscal issues, but it
appears that they are more relevant than ever. We fought a war once to prove we
did not want to be the subjects of a king, and the Boston Tea Party was just a
taste of the larger conflict to come. If some people missed that lesson in
history class, we can give them a refresher.
The 2014
elections are a good place to start. Call your representative, your senator,
your candidate and tell them: "We are not subjects. You work for us. And
if the word "REPEAL" isn't front and center in your campaign, we
won't vote for you. Period."
And this
comes from Notre Dame What a powerful and true letter!
