Obamacare Should Remind Us We Are Not 'Subjects,' We Are
People
Laura Hollis is a professor at the University of Notre Dame
November 20, 2013|10:42 am
Laura Hollis is an attorney and professor at Norte Dame University. The unveiling of the dictatorial debacle that is
Obamacare absolutely flabbergasts me. It is stunning on so many levels, but the
most shocking aspect of it for me is watching millions of free Americans stand idly
by while this man, his minions in Congress and his cheerleaders in the press systematically dismantle our Constitution, steal our
money, and crush our freedoms.
The President, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (with no small
help from Justice John Roberts) take away our health care, and we allow it.
They take away our insurance, and we allow it. They take away our doctors, and
we allow it. They charge us thousands of dollars more a year, and we allow it.
They make legal products illegal, and we allow it. They cripple our businesses,
and we allow it. They announce by fiat that we must ignore our most deeply held
beliefs and we allow it.
Yes, I know people are complaining. I read the news on the
internet. I read blogs. I have a Twitter feed. So what? People in the Soviet
Union complained. People in Cuba complain. People in China complain (quietly). Complaining
isn't the same thing as doing anything about it. In fact, much of the
complaining that we hear sounds like resignation: Wow. This sucks. Oh well,
this is the way things are. Too bad.
Perhaps you need reminding of a few important facts. Here
goes:
1. The President is not a king. Barack Obama does not behave
like a President, an elected official, someone who realizes that he works for
us. He behaves like a king, a dictator someone who believes that his own pronouncements
have the force of law, and who thinks he can dispense with the law's
enforcement when he deigns to do so. And those of us who object?
How dare we? Racists!
And while he moves steadily "forward" with his
plans to "fundamentally transform" the greatest country in human
history, he distracts people with cheap, meaningless trivialities, like
"free birth control pills"! (In fact, let's face it: this
administration's odd obsession with sex in general -
Birth control! Abortion! Sterilization! Gay guys who play
basketball! – is just plain weird. Since when did the leader of the free world
care so much about how people have sex, who they have it with, and what meds
they use when they have it? Does he have nothing more important to concern
himself with?)
2. It isn't just a failed software program; it is a failed
philosophy. People are marveling that
<http://healthcare.gov/> Healthcare.gov was such a spectacular failure. Well, if one is only interested in it
as a product launch, I've explained some of the reasons for that here. But the
larger point is that it isn't a software failure, or even a product failure; it
is a philosophy failure.
I have said this before: Obama is not a centrist; he is a central planner. And this all of it: the disastrous computer program, the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, the lies, the manipulation of public opinion, the theft of the public's money and property, and freedom (read insurance, and premiums, and doctors) -- IS what central planning looks like.
The central premise of central planning is that a handful of
wunderkinds with your best interests at heart (yeah, right) know better than
you what's good for you. The failure of such a premise and the misery it causes
have been clear from the dawn of humanity. Kings and congressmen, dictators and
Dear Leaders, potentates, princes and presidents can all
fall prey to the same imperial impulses: "we know what is good the 'the
people.'
And they are always wrong.
There is a reason that the only times communism has really
been tried have been after wars, revolutions, or coups d'état. You have to have
complete chaos for people to be willing to accept the garbage that centralized planning
produces. Take the Soviet Union, for example. After two wars, famine, and the
collapse of the Romanov dynasty, why wouldn't people wait in line for hours to
buy size 10 shoes? Or settle for the gray matter that passed for meat in the
grocery stores?
But communism's watered-down cousin, socialism, isn't much
better. Ask the Venezuelans who cannot get toilet paper. Toilet paper. ¡Viva la
Revolución!
Contrary to what so many who believe in a "living
Constitution" say, the Founding Fathers absolutely understood this. That
is why the Constitution was set up to limit government power. (Memo to the
President: the drafters of the Constitution deliberately didn't say "what
government had to do on your behalf.") They understood that that was the
path to folly, fear, and famine.)
3. Obama is deceitful. Just as the collapse of the computer
program should not surprise anyone, neither should we be shocked that the
President lied about his healthcare plan. Have any of you been paying attention
over the past few years? Obama has made no secret of his motivations or his
methods. The philosophies which inspire him espouse deceit and other vicious
tactics. (Don't take my word for it: read Saul Alinsky.) Obama infamously told reporter
Richard Wolffe, "You know, I actually believe my own bullshit." He has refused to be forthcoming about his past (where are his
academic records?). His own pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, told author Ed Klein,
that Obama said to him, "You know what your problem is ? You have to tell
the truth."
Did Obama lie when he said dozens of times, "If you
like you plan, you can keep it. Period!"?
Of course he did. That's what he does.
4. The media is responsible. And had the media been doing
their jobs, we would have known a lot of this much, much earlier.
The press is charged with the sacred responsibility of
protecting the people from the excesses of government. Our press has been complicit,
incompetent, or corrupt. Had they vetted this man in 2008, as they would have a
Republican candidate, we would have known far more about him than we do, even
now. Had they pressed for more details about Obamacare, Congress' feet would
have been held to the fire. Had they done their jobs about Eric Holder, Fast
and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal, NSA spying - or any of the other myriad betrayals of the public trust that this
administration has committed, Obama would likely have lost his 2012 reelection
campaign. (A fact that even The Washington Post has tacitly acknowledged. Well
done, fellas! Happy now?)
Instead, they turned a blind eye, even when they knew he was
lying, abusing power, disregarding the limits of the Constitution. It was only when
he began to spy on them, and when the lies were so blatant that the lowest of low-information
voters could figure it out that they realized they had to report on it. (Even
in the face of blatant, deliberate and repeated lies, The New York Times has
the audacity to tell us that the President "misspoke.") They have
betrayed us, abandoned us, and deceived us.
5. Ted Cruz was right. So was Sarah Palin. The computer
program is a disaster. The insurance exchanges are a disaster. What's left? The
healthcare system itself. And this, of necessity, will be a disaster, too.
Millions of people have lost their individual insurance
plans. In 2015, millions more will lose their employer-provided coverage (a
fact which the Obama administration also knew, and admitted elsewhere).
The exorbitant additional costs that Obamacare has foisted
on unsuspecting Americans are all part of a plan of wealth confiscation and
redistribution. That is bad enough. But it will not end there.
When the numbers of people into the system and the
corresponding demand for care vastly exceed the cost projections (and they
will, make no mistake), then the rationing will start. Not only choice at that
point, but quality and care itself will go down the tubes. And then will come
the decisions made by the Independent Payment Advisory Board about what care
will be covered (read "paid for") and what will not.
That's just a death panel, put politely. In fact,
progressives are already greasing the wheels for acceptance of that miserable
reality as well. They're spreading the lie that it will be about the ability of
the dying to refuse unwanted or unhelpful care. Don't fall for that one,
either. It will be about the deaths that inevitably result from decisions made
by people other than the patients, their families, and their physicians.
(Perhaps it's helpful to think of their assurances this way: "If you like
your end-of-life care, you can keep your end-of-life-care.")
6. We are not SUBJECTS. (or, Nice Try, the Tea Party Isn't Going Away). We have tolerated these incursions into our lives and livelihoods too long already. There is no end to the insatiable demand "progressives" have to remake us in their image. Today it is our insurance, our businesses, our doctors, our health care. Tomorrow some new crusade will be announced that enables them to take over other aspects of our formerly free lives.
I will say it again: WE ARE NOT SUBJECTS. Not only is the
Tea Party right on the fiscal issues, but it appears that they are more relevant
than ever. We fought a war once to prove we did not want to be the subjects of
a king, and the Boston Tea Party was just a taste of the larger conflict to
come. If some people missed that lesson in history class, we can give
them a refresher.
The 2014 elections are a good place to start. Call your
representative, your senator, your candidate and tell them: "We are not
subjects. You work for us. And if the word "REPEAL" isn't front and
center in your campaign, we won't vote for you. Period."
Laura Hollis is an attorney and teaches entrepreneurship and
business law at the University of Notre Dame. And this comes from Notre Dame. What a
powerful and true letter!
Source: Christian Post 11/20/13 http://www.christianpost.com/news/obamacare-should-remind-us-we-are-not-subjects-we-are-people-109165/
http://law.nd.edu/directory/laura-hollis/
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