There are those, certainly not me, who are very qualified to handicap the voting scheduled for this Sunday on the health care bill, like John McCormack at this link. All I know is that they don’t have the votes now in the House of Representatives, and that it’s not passed until and unless it actually is passed. There is still a mountain to climb and the real hope, from my point of view, that some rocks will fall down on those clambering their way up.

But on a broader level, there’s this fact, which even I, from my perch in the People’s Republic of Manhattan, seem to be able to understand much better than a whole lot of Democrats from the heartland: Should they get the votes for this on Sunday, it will not be anything like the end. If you think things have been divisive to date (under our moderate, reaching-across-the-aisle, unifying young President) then you have not seen anything yet. This federal takeover of the health care system is something a majority of the American people simply do not want, for reasons both specific and general, as the polls have repeatedly confirmed. More important than that, however, is the fact that a very large subset of those who don’t want it are also completely determined not to take it. This bill, if passed, is going to be opposed and fought on so many levels, and at such an intensity, that it will make the Vietnam War protest-era look like a children’s game (which for some it probably was). There will be legal challenges from everyone imaginable, starting with the states. There will be war, figuratively speaking, in Congress, where all precedent and pretense of collegiality has been thrown under the steamroller. And there will be actions by citizens of all kinds, from protests to civil disobedience to almost any extreme you can think of. For many out there — and I am in substantial agreement with them — this really is everything; it’s the whole shebang, in terms of politics and in terms of freedom. By that I mean that this is effectively an overthrow of the kind of constitutional government which we thought we had, and the not-so-thin-end of the wedge of genuine tyranny and socialism. This country began its fight for independence over taxes. What’s taking place now is that and so much more. Passed (if it is passed) in this illegitimate way, with bribes and threats and dishonesty and a trashing of the rules, it will simply not be accepted by many in America, and they will not sit quietly and swallow it.

I don’t look forward to ugliness. Things aren’t supposed to get that ugly in America. That’s why we have the kind of government the founders gave us, with checks and balances and brakes so that you need some kind of shadow of consensus to enact the really big things. That existed with Social Security and Medicare. Sure, there were those who opposed those things vociferously (and still do) but there was enough bipartisanship so that their passage could not be seriously considered as illegitimate or tyrannical. That crucial element is what’s missing here. A mind-bogglingly important change to everyone’s life and freedoms in America is being rammed through by one political party over the anguished howls of the nation as a whole. If passed, it will not ultimately stand. It will get very ugly along the way. It will be a terrible shame. It will also be (and, as he himself would say, “let me be clear”) President Obama’s fault. He is the precise opposite of what he portrayed himself to be in the election (as some knew then). He cares nothing for consensus, bipartisanship, moderation, or anything along those lines. This is his moment to use his big majorities in the House and Senate to attempt to impose an ideologically based transformation on America, and he is determined to do it at any cost.

He either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care what’s coming down the line in the form of consequences.

From section: Commentary, Politics / 4 Comments »