Some pundits are drawing comparisons between our current political
climate and that of America just before the civil war. They’re wrong.
This isn’t 1859. It’s 1775.
A government is a reflection of its people. At the founding, Americans saw freedom as a birthright. To protect that freedom, they designed an accountable government tethered by negative rights and constrained by competing powers. For the past century, Americans have been surrendering, little by little, their freedom for a little promised comfort. A century from now, the emergence of the tea party movement will be seen as one of two things: the death throes of liberty or the moment when Americans began to remember who they were.
If Obamacare is implemented in a second Obama administration, America will never recover. Once an entitlement is granted, it’s impossible to take away. By 2016, the word “repeal” will be considered politically toxic. Some insufferable moderate Republican of the future will label our current insufferable moderates as “right-wing.” Somehow the new normal is always to the left of where we were yesterday.
So what happens?
Two American versions of socialized medicine already exist. We can take a peek into our future by looking at the Veterans Administration and Indian reservations. Despite wonderful, faithful volunteers, the VA is forever undermanned and underfunded. Soldiers get worse waiting in long lines for essential surgery and treatment. Every few years, Americans are horrified by stories revealing how poorly we treat our vets. As for our Native American friends, they have a saying on the reservation that encapsulates their dilemma: Don’t get sick after June.
In brief, neither system can meet its patients’ needs, so they have to ration care. And with government-run anything, bigger is worse.
This isn’t 1859. It’s 1775.
A government is a reflection of its people. At the founding, Americans saw freedom as a birthright. To protect that freedom, they designed an accountable government tethered by negative rights and constrained by competing powers. For the past century, Americans have been surrendering, little by little, their freedom for a little promised comfort. A century from now, the emergence of the tea party movement will be seen as one of two things: the death throes of liberty or the moment when Americans began to remember who they were.
If Obamacare is implemented in a second Obama administration, America will never recover. Once an entitlement is granted, it’s impossible to take away. By 2016, the word “repeal” will be considered politically toxic. Some insufferable moderate Republican of the future will label our current insufferable moderates as “right-wing.” Somehow the new normal is always to the left of where we were yesterday.
So what happens?
Two American versions of socialized medicine already exist. We can take a peek into our future by looking at the Veterans Administration and Indian reservations. Despite wonderful, faithful volunteers, the VA is forever undermanned and underfunded. Soldiers get worse waiting in long lines for essential surgery and treatment. Every few years, Americans are horrified by stories revealing how poorly we treat our vets. As for our Native American friends, they have a saying on the reservation that encapsulates their dilemma: Don’t get sick after June.
In brief, neither system can meet its patients’ needs, so they have to ration care. And with government-run anything, bigger is worse.
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