David

Karki

Read David's bio and previous columns here

August 12, 2009

Health Care: The True Obama, Pelosi and GOP Revealed

This last week has been a rather disturbing one for America. We have seen and heard things that most of us thought could not ever happen in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

As the left tries to ram its dictatorial “health care” bill down the nation's throat, the citizenry speaks back to their insolent public officials. Exercising their First Amendment right to free speech and to petition government for redress of grievances, they show up in unprecedented numbers at town halls, telling (and often yelling) at congressmen, who have no real interest in listening, that they absolutely don't want authoritarian government rationing care.

What is the response? Do the Democrats acknowledge the hornet's nest they've stirred up and back off? Do they understand that they are supposed to represent these folks and their opposition to the annihilation of private medicine and insurance?

Not quite. The White House set up an e-mail address for supporters to rat out opponents, advised Democrats to “punch back twice as hard,” and President Obama arrogantly told these folks to shut the hell up and get out of the way. The Speaker of the House labeled them Nazis, claiming they were carrying signs with swastikas. And the next day, union thugs were sent in to physically intimidate people at packed town halls in places like Tampa, and St. Louis. One man in the latter location was beaten so badly he had to be hospitalized.

If this doesn't speak volumes about what Obama, Pelosi and the left are about, and what they intend to do in order to force their world view upon every last one of us, nothing does. And it should scare the hell out of us all.

We have holders of national office, when faced with widespread opposition to their proposals, whose first instinct is to openly slander the America people, view the people as an enemy to be defeated by any means necessary, and tacitly endorse violence to repress them. (None of these town halls, as vocal as they were, turned the least bit violent until the day after the White House said to "punch back twice as hard" and the SEIU union goon squad started showing up. Coincidence?)

Think about how radical and extreme this is. This sort of thing was supposed to only happen in third-world banana republics in far-flung corners of world. Thanks to Obama and Pelosi, it now happens in America. It's like they're channeling Sean Connery in The Untouchables:

"They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!" (Obama actually did say this on June 14, 2008: WSJ: Obama – ‘If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun’)

This is a reckless and dangerous escalation of the conflict. It raises the stakes to where one fractious event could cause things to quickly spiral out of control. It actually increases the chances of such an event occurring, as someone who's been given the finger by his own government figures he has nothing left to lose. And once that Rubicon gets crossed, it may be impossible to go back.

A president with real experience and real leadership skills would know better than this. But all Obama has to fall back on is his rabble-rousing, radical Marxist street thug past. Excuse me, I meant “community organizing.” (Funny how he despises the community organizing against him.) Thus you get exactly the arrogant words he spoke and reckless actions he took. And with them, gasoline may well have been poured on the dry tinder. All that's left is the spark to set it ablaze.

Think about that as well: He'd rather risk America coming apart than not get his way. Instead of temporarily accepting political defeat and regrouping, he'd rather take us down a path of conflict wherein the end must necessarily be one side defeating the other, cost and damage incurred in the process be damned. The closest comparison to this I can think of is an abusive husband who'd rather kill his wife than have her escape his control.

As for the Vichy Republicans, the ostensible “opposition,” who ought to be a veritable megaphone channeling all the citizens' outrage into one unmistakable voice, they are inexplicably nowhere to be heard. Their gutless cowardice apparently knows no limits, and they too are responsible for the escalation of this conflict and whatever deleterious consequences to which it may lead, as they are derelict in their duty to provide a proper political outlet into which all the outrage can be funneled.

One doesn't go outside the system so long as they have an effective way to oppose within it. The GOP steadfastly refuses to be a public voice of real opposition, and as such they are just as much a part of the problem. It's said that all that's need for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing, and that's exactly what the GOP is doing – nothing.

The only one who is clearly calling Obama and Pelosi to account is Sarah Palin. I close by linking to her statement on the health care debate, posted last Friday on her Facebook page. If not for her, there would be no Republican opposition at all.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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