Pharaoh's New Pyramid
February 27, 2010 5:36 PM
As I write this most of the media pundits are predicting that Congress will pass a gargantuan health care "overhaul" bill via the reconciliation process, meaning that if passed at all, it will be passed by a slim majority vote and not by a filibuster-proof supermajority. Do I think it will pass? I think the chances are high. What are the consequences? Ultimately, I think they will be the same whether it passes or not.
Who is behind this bill and what do they hope to get from it? In my opinion, there are three categories: the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Barack Hussein Obama, and the great mass of Obots, which includes the "Democrat Party right or wrong" crowd and the starry-eyed Obama groupies who believe that whatever their historic first "Black" president does is wonderful, because he is wonderful. The Obots are the only one of the three groups who believe that the monster health care bill is about health care. The Congressional Progressive Caucus knows it's about power, and power alone, and power, ever more power, is what they are seeking.
What about Obama? I don't think it's really about power; at least that's not his top priority. I also think that for him health care is not the top priority either. In my opinion, the top priority for Obama is that the bill has the same significance that the Pyramids did for the pharaohs of ancient Egypt: they are burial monuments, and they are believed to represent the pathway for the pharaoh to the abode of the gods.
For Obama, of course, his pyramid does not represent his physical death so much as his political death. His days are numbered. Will he have a second term? Only, in my opinion, if the "Democrats" succeed in splitting the Republican Party into two sizable competing parties voting in the 2012 election. As a politician, Obama is a walking dead man.
The Great Pyramid of Egypt was ordered built by another dead man, the Pharaoh Khufu (aka Cheops), whose name is known by a few, but whose pyramid is known by almost everybody. Obama clearly hopes that his "health care overhaul" plan will be known forever in American history. He may get his wish: read on.
It's common knowledge that the Egyptian pyramids were built by, and at the expense of hordes of slaves, including the Children of Israel, and Obama's pyramid will have its own slaves: the doctors who toil under its provisions, the premium-payers (every adult American?), the patients who will have to submit to the whims of Pharaoh, and finally the dead slaves. In the days of Khufu they didn't have death panels, but slaves died by the thousands or tens of thousands, worked to death.
If Pharaoh Obama gets his pyramid, what will the consequences be?
1. If the bill passes. The early consequences will be a firestorm of public protest and outrage, hopefully reflected by elected Republican officials. There will be attempts to repeal or nullify some aspects of the bill, but probably not the whole bill. The initial consequences will probably be more devastating to the "Democrat" party than the Republicans or the nation as a whole. In this respect, Obama will be remembered for years. The later consequences depend whether the Republicans roll over and the nation does too. I will give more detail in a few paragraphs.
2. If the bill does not pass. Since the "Democrats" have the power of reconciliation and a majority in both houses, the Republicans cannot stop the bill, but it is possible that some Democrats will balk and the bill will not pass. The consequences will be that the "Progressives" try to pass the same measures piecemeal, that they wait for a more opportune time, even for a few generations, or they escalate the use of unconstitutional means to reach the same ends, such as executive orders.
3. Either way. This is perhaps the most important thing to consider. There are three weaknesses which the Democrats will exploit in both the conservative and libertarian movements in opposition to the bill. The first is groupthink. The risk is that individual rights will be swept under the rug, when "moderates" in the conservative movement argue that it's "just not worth" fighting for repeal because the bill was written for society, not for individual rights. In the words of Bill Clinton defending "affirmative action" (which is very much still around), "mend it, don't end it." If it sounds far-fetched that a conservative could argue that way, bear in mind that Theodore Roosevelt, considered by many to be a conservative Republican president, brought a large measure of Europe's socialist policies to the USA while denying they were socialist.
The second weakness is fuzzy thinking, a trait of both conservatives and libertarians. (Liberals tend to minimize thinking altogether and act on the basis of their feelings.) How will we survive under the yoke of the new health care bill? "Somehow," will be then answer. The details will not be addressed, the consequences of the details will be ignored, and the results will be the same kind of baffled confusion and pessismistic resignation that conservatives have right now about how Obama got elected in the first place.
The third weakness is the generosity of the average American, which can easily be manipulated by politicians calling for sacrifice for the sake of the less fortunate. For some conservatives, this is a moral value which trumps clear, rational thinking, a life goal in the "pursuit of happiness," and the self-esteem necessary to stand up the the moochers and looters. This is also an approach taken by many libertarians who are willing to put up with state-supported tyrannies (such as the Massachusetts and Hawaii state-controlled health care programs) because they do not violate the Tenth Amendment.
Kipling said it another way: "if you can keep you head when those about you, are losing theirs and blaming it on you…" Keep your heads, America.