I’m not crazy about congressional Democrats right now.
As I write this, Congressional Democrats are engaged in a furious partisan battle to pass their idea of healthcare reform. Alas it is an idea the majority of Americans do not share. It is in fact an idea that the majority of congressmen do not share, which is why President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are twisting arms, bribing, cajoling and threatening all manner of mischief in order to eek out a majority vote – or non vote — on a bill the people have made clear they do not want. They may succeed.
I am not all that enamored of Congressional Republicans either. It is painful indeed to listen to the feigned outrage of so many Republicans who spent years in office redefining the meaning of concepts like “limited Government,” and “fiscal conservative”. Surely they must realize that their inept stewardship over so many years not only opened the door for the leftist now in power, but also rolled out the red carpet for them.
The contract we strike with government holds that citizens will give up certain of our rights in exchange for government protection of our liberty and property. The foundation of that bargain is trust. And that trust must be guarded jealously. Men must trust that their wishes will be respected and that government will not over step its bounds. When that trust dissipates due to the contraventions of officials within the government, the actions of government lose their legitimacy.
This view is one expressed by President Obama. In an interview with the “Concord Monitor” then candidate Obama decried the “50 plus 1 pattern of presidential politics.” It was Obama’s opinion that it made governance impossible. He was adamant that healthcare reform could not be passed with a simple majority vote. He did not mean to say that passing a healthcare bill was not possible with a one vote majority. Rather he was expressing the assured acknowledgement that passing such monumental legislation in such a manner and without the support of the minority party would rob it of its necessary legitimacy. It has become apparent that in this, as is clearly the case in so many things, Obama was merely blowing smoke.
Legitimacy can’t be had through backroom bribery, arm twisting and procedural maneuvers that corrupt and make a mockery of the spirit that enervates the principles of procedure, rule and law. Nor can it be had through default – by being the only other choice on the ballot. Legitimacy must be won the old fashioned way: it must be earned by nurturing the trust of the people.
Do Democrats truly believe that a government that rewrites the rules as they go along in order to inflict a policy on an unwilling public can be trusted not to rewrite the rules whenever it strikes their whim? Or is it, as I suspect, that they are convinced of the transcendent virtue of liberalism–that only the lefts motives are unimpeachable – that they are the good guys and in fact the only ones in government that can be trusted? They would be wrong. The passage of this healthcare bill will be a violation of that trust; it will be one more breach in a long series of abuses. I suggest it be the last.
How much longer will we be a party to promises that never come to fruition? How much longer will we listen to lies supported by evidence that has been cooked? How much longer will we allow the people’s representatives to run interference for private industry and expand the reach and power of federal bureaucracy? How much longer will we allow congressmen-for-life to mismanage the financial future of this nation- putting the security of her citizens at risk? How much more rope must we allow them before they finally hang themselves and us along with them?
If there is to be a second revolution then let it begin here and now! Let the political bloodbath begin in November followed closely by more bloodletting in 2012. No one will be safe. Neither a “D” nor an “R” following a name will be sufficient protection from the people’s blade! There is no time like now to begin the winnowing process; and there is no better reason than to dismantle a government that can’t be trusted to keep its part of the bargain.