The political calculus of the president’s health care agenda is revealed:
ObamaCare serves the twin goals of “making the United States a more equitable country” and furthering the Democrats’ “political calculus.” In other words, the purpose is to further redistribute income by putting health care further under government control, and in the process making the middle class more dependent on government. As the party of government, Democrats will benefit over the long run.
This explains why Nancy Pelosi is willing to risk the seats of so many Blue Dog Democrats by forcing such an unpopular bill through Congress on a narrow, partisan vote: You have to break a few eggs to make a permanent welfare state. As Mr. Cassidy concludes, “Putting on my amateur historian’s cap, I might even claim that some subterfuge is historically necessary to get great reforms enacted.”
Daddy just wants to take care of you. For your own good.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good
of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live
under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.
The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may
at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good
will torment us without end for they do so with the approval
of their own conscience.” — C.S. Lewis
You mean Glenn Beck and all the wackos are actually right??? Who knew….???
Oldt6/
Speaking of Glen Beck and the manner in which the left castigates him, I’m reminded of a comment George Orwell made in Parliament as MP immediately post WWII when a blowhard Tory MP was laying out the details of Japanese atrocities performed on British POWs when everyone was weary of war and just wanted to ignore such facts and move on–using the “lightweight” reputation of the MP as an excuse.
Orwell rose to his defense and said:
“What one has to understand is that these things actually DID INDEED happen DESPITE the fact that Lord (can’t remember his name) SAYS they happened.”
It’s bothered me lately to see some sites that used to have a majority of center to right thinking, and thoughtful people becoming populated with shrill “GLENN BECK IS AN A$$!” screamers. Even when a pointed, politely stated comment goes up, the poster gets hammered for not buying in. Very same thing was a joke a year ago about DKos and HP constituents.
I’ll say this: Some political strategist(s) have managed to get the moderate middle to look right and yell how they are useless and the ones wrecking the nation and the world and taking the freedom…while The WON and his inner circle actually is dismantling, now in less than a year, major components of this nation that have been a force for good (not just the US Navy), and an economic powerhouse, that passes along it’s advancements to the rest of the planet. They are winning at convincing the iPod generation the republicans need to close up shop and the Dems will be here to help them with their every whim.
I wonder…who will carry the water to the fire for these who will no longer even sit and actually debate issues any longer?
Worst news: There is no where to go. Sort of like a fire at sea. Not much chance of survival in the rafts….
xformed/
The Beck example is but one in a long line of character assassination/sliming of conservatives as “extremists” that began with the attack on Richard Nixon as VP by those who never forgave him for his role in the Alger Hiss affair and his defeat of his Calif opponent Helen Gahagan Douglas (who had an affair with LBJ) in his successful Senate race by labeling her a “pinko” (which she was–Nixon used mainly quotes from her own Democrat opponents who ran against her in the primaries) and was thus accused of smearing her when all he did was cite the historical record–much as recently when Teddy Kennedy considered it a “smear” when Limbaugh played old tapes of JFK’s own public statements in favor of lower tax rates. And who can forget LBJ and Bill Moyers trying to make Barry Goldwater look like the mad bomber who would start a nuclear war?
And when the “extremist” bit fails, just paint them as stupid, uncultured and unread louts as they are now attempting to do with Beck. That has a long lineage too, beginning with Eisenhower thru Ford and Bush II–or, alternatively, as out of touch as was the case with Bush I and Reagan.
And of course, all, ALL of these charges were blatantly untrue. (Time/space doesn’t permit outlining the untruths in detail, but
I’ll be glad to do so in each example if challenged.) But as the MSM maintained a choke-hold at the time on the public’s imagination and attention the left largely succeded by the incessant 24/7 drum-beat of their message reaching all levels of society. With the deck so stacked against conservatives by the lefts’ control of the MSM, academia and Hollywood, it’s a minor miracle that conservatives EVER get elected.
I will be voting for whomever is most likely to win in every election, so long as that person is not a democrat.
99% of Democrats make the other 1% look bad!
I absolutely fail to understand how one person’s wealth is ANY business of anyone else! Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s: Wife, Occupation, House, Car, Medical Insurance, Hairdo, College Degree, Beer, Airplane, Skills, Dog, Lawn, Rose Bushes, Cuisinart, Vessel Sink, Table Saw, Lemon Tree, Coach Bag, Breitling, or any other frippery!
Just Stop It!!!
The Democratic Party, reducing us all to the ‘Lowest Common Denominator’!
Ok… you can covet the airplane!
-JC
“99% of the Democrats make the other 1% look bad.”
LOL, not only is that a great line, JC, but it can be applied equally to our Muslim brethren if one uses the time-honored standard of “silence is consent.”
…“But the greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between giant organized systems of self-righteousness—each system only too delighted to find that the other is wicked—each only too glad that the sins give it the pretext for still deeper hatred and animosity.” Herbert Butterfield
Your point on self-righteousness is well taken even if I’m not quite sure what it is. The point I was alluding to in my earlier reply was that Glen Beck and a number of commentators have been accusing the Administration of exactly the kinds of thing that Mr. Cassidy claims in the WSJ piece and have been roundly condemned as being one toy short of a Happy Meal by just about everyone having a media vehicle to spout off in.
Is it self-righteous to point this out? I don’t think so and I’m not looking to score points saying “I told you so…”. I just wish that we had enough political honesty in this country to debate the issues straight up. If wealth redistribution is the goal and using a new bloated entitlement program the narcotic to addict the middle class with such they can never go back to having to actually not have the government do everything save change their Depends in old age then why doesn’t the Left come out and just say so? The games, on both the left and right need to end, lest there not be anything worth quibbling over as we cede everything great about this country to the dustbin of history.
Maybe I’m being self-righteous – who knew?
The left is beyond doubt loaded with self-righteousness. Alas, they tend to look in the mirror and describe how all the others are so evil.
It’s quite interesting to read “Wealth of Nations” and then contrast those points with the leftists. What do leftists do for a living? It’s not mining or agriculture or manufacturing, those jobs that create wealth or add value to newly-obtained wealth. They siphon off wealth for their daily bread, contributing nothing new to the GDP. In my present job I do this as well, so I’m not above throwing stones here.
At some point the service sector brings in nothing new, it will be an interesting day when the rest of the world refuses to pay them for providing nothing.
It will be a more interesting day when government workers reach the same status.
– Max
John Carmichael … I love your comment! Hairdo [?], Coach bag, medical insurance, beer, [or Guinness],skills, dog, wife [getting serious here], airplane, etc. Just stop it!
Like that’s ever going to happen. But good try, my friend. Growing up is a long, hard process. Some folks grow old without ever growing up. Some never make it at all.
But thanks for a great chuckle on a difficult day.
Marianne
As some have previously pointed out, Beck has been pulling the mask away for quite some time. Glad some of you are getting aboard. Better late than never.
Due diligence folks.
The stuff Cassidy, or Glenn beck for that matter, says isn’t new, it’s been there since before the primaries. At least in enough pieces that many people who looked at them drew a clear picture.
If you look at what he said, who he said it too and who he listened to, you have your picture of the man, not to mention the objective of the socialists if it came to an Obama win (as it did).
Many here had done that, many had not. I recall having political discussions at work with one of our paralegals. We both saw what was coming down the pike, and people thought we were nuts. Not any more.
I once had a discussion with a political science prof telling him that I vote the man while he insisted that I had to vote party. He told me that “you vote the party because no one has the time to research the man” (and this was in the 70′s before internet research was available).
This thinking is rectal cranial inversion at its worst.
If you vote, effort and research is required of you……Due diligence.
Sadly, I disagree with Lex from an earlier post….I fear the republic (such a republic as it is) may not survive. Between the socialists in the democrat party, the left wing right wingers, ACORN, the unions, and the 2010 census, I believe that the fix may be in. I mean, just look how viable conservatives have been in the California legislature over the last few decades…..
Sure, I agree, we must fear that the republic won’t survive. But, only to spur you on to doing your level best to inform those around you of the perils our republic does in fact face (David M. Walker, Beck, Peter Schiff, all of ‘em have outlined the perils). But, this you must know, Americans are a very unique breed of people. We will survive. The republic will survive. The Constitution will survive. It has to. Don’t give in to thier wishes. The “fix… is in…” only if we let it be.
VERY nice usage of Clive Staples Lewis’s work there Lex. That man was wise beyond this age of time; maybe he had some “inside” help?
Hmmm. Happy Birthday Marines. Semper Fi.
CPLGolden/
That quote from Lewis reflects the distinction Hanna Arendt made between the typologies represented by Authoritarian governments and Totalitarian ones. Central-American Caudillos and their like the world over leave large swaths of the polity relatively untouched by their hand–as compared to a Stalin, Mao or thee Iranian Imams. That is why Cuba’s
Battistia, corrupt as he was, in retrospect was an exceedingly benign dictator even if corruption ran rampant throughout society. Or take modern Italy–an exceedingly corrupt, “loose” society where bribes are commonplace for everything from a good table at the night club to the tax collector. But no one would trade living in today’s Italy for Burma, where public/pvt corruption is almost unknown.
Unfortunately these regimes promise the siren song of elimination of corruption–often rampant in developing, “3rd world” countries–and weary publics often fall for it–not realizing that its elimination is simply the act of of one thug eliminating the competition and that corruption is not really totally erased anyway, only shifted out of sight inside the newly dominate nomenklatura.