Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
In an erudite post below, Richard Epstein writes on the "Political Dimensions to the Obamacare Challenge."
But I was thinking about a much more basic political dimension to the Obamacare challenge. As the ruling came out, many of the liberals I follow on Twitter were mocking its references to the founding documents, the Boston Tea Party and the Constitution. One White House journalist reported:
Senior administration official on conf call: Fla health-reform ruling: "an outlier...odd ...We're quite confident it won't stand...peculiar"
Who knows exactly what the senior administration official was referring to, but many of my liberal friends thought it "odd" or "peculiar" that the judge would reference mandatory, if small, tea taxes on our country's founders.
Republican strategist Josh Trevino (imagine a tilde over that n) noted:
We've gotten to a point where it's assumed that rhetoric on the American Founding and Constitution is pro-Republican. I'm okay with that.
Is that where we are? That can't be good news for Democrats, can it?
- Comment (13)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (5)
Comments :
Oct '10
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
The fact is our nation was founded on the principles of federalism, a form of covenentalism, by Federalists, not a Jacobin republicanism inspired by the "social contract" and incarnated in the failed"republican" French Revolution. Today's democrats are the modern reincarnation of the Jacobin Republicans who inspired Thomas Jefferson. Today's Republicans are the latest reincarnation of classical liberalism. They are beginning to look more like Federalists, which is all well and good, IMHO.
Edited on Jan 31, 2011 at 10:04pmJul '10
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
The Democrats embody all of the glorious promises of John Dewey's Positivism, guaranteed wealth, guaranteed healthiness, guaranteed equality, yadda, yadda, yadda, and all of the vice and corruption and broken promises and brain dead policies and unforeseen consequences that have haunted that mad movement since Lenin (much less Lennon) read a book on Marx.
But it would all be just as we promised you except for that evil (Ronald Reagan|Newt Gingrich|W|Sarah Palin|...). Beings so infernal that they are all that stand between us and heaven on Earth, or so they say.
May '10
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
I feel sorry for the Left. They must practice for hours, biting their lips bloody to keep from laughing as they intone on about the Constitution, middle-America, and Patriotism.
Then, something unexpected pops up and they break character in droves, ruining all that hard work. Tough break, guys.
Edited on Jan 31, 2011 at 10:31pmMay '10
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
The left seemed only to be concerned with the Constitution when they thought they could score points against Bush by accusing him of "shredding" it.
Their vocal, derisive contempt they have expressed for those who have called again for us to be faithful to our founding documents is stunning and very telling.
The Constitution was always an impediment to progressivism. This probably won't stick to the Democrats, though. People nowadays by and large don't want its freedoms, with all the risk that entails, they want to be taken cared of, sadly.
Jan '11
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
Indeed. During the kerfuffle over the Giffords shooting, George Packer wrote a truly despicable column for the New Yorker accusing conservatives of "relentlessly hostile rhetoric," including this tortuous argument: "Even the reading of the Constitution on the first day of the 112th Congress was conceived as an assault on the legitimacy of the Democratic Administration and Congress."
Not only have They decided that referring to the Constitution is, so, like, totally uncool; not only have They decreed that the document is incomprehensible because it's, like, over a hundred years old or something; They can actually interpret reading the Constitution in public as a hostile act.
May '10
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
Most of us knew that when the Democrats felt safe mocking the reading of the USC in the House. Too many on the left have the attitude of the politician who mocked it as confusing because it was over 100 years old. You have scores of students who know African-American history and read about how the Native American tribes were victims of genocide and yet have essentially zero knowledge of the US Constitution. After all, it was written by "slave owners" and must be out of touch with today's society. /sarcasm.
I do my part to try to rectify this in my classroom...but it sometimes feels like a drop in a bucket.
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
It is good to keep in mind that progressives have been attacking the Constitution since the presidential campaign of Woodrow Wilson in 1912. FDR had the good sense to pretend otherwise. Today's progressives are impatient. That is their Achilles heel and our great advantage.
Jul '10
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
That wasn't a politician who decried the Constitution for being so old as to be emptied of meaning for today's cool people, it was a blogger for the Washington Post. Ezra Klein is also a rising star on MSNBC, the Saul Alinsky network, and was a founding member of the JournoList conspiracy to manage the news.
Jun '10
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
"You have scores of students who know African-American history and read about how the Native American tribes were victims of genocide and yet have essentially zero knowledge of the US Constitution."
It's worse than that. When my brother was student teaching in NJ many years ago, he couldn't get over the fact that his inner city students knew the major rivers & their tributaries in Africa, but did not know that NJ was a state. Seriously --- They didn't know that the US was a union of 50 states. They had no knowledge of the 13 colonies. He was astounded.
I'd like to see the Constitution read at the start of each new Congress. Not just for symbolic reasons, either. I'm convinced many of our representatives ahve never read it.
Jan '11
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
That the the modern left is impatient is somewhat true, but we shouldn't exaggerate it. We must continue to remember that the left - no matter how impatient - still controls most of the major instititutions in this country: education, media, and regulator agencies, etc. Even our social norms are left-center (generally speaking) and increasingly just left. Those institutions not dominated by the left, such as marriage, are under continual withering attacks by the hard left as well. I don't mean to rain on the parade of criticizing the left, especially after the good news of yesterday, but we small "c" conservatives are still fighting rear guard actions. The tide is far from turning on most issues (although abortion might be an exception), so the fight must continue. Yesterday's great news on tyranicare is a small skirmish in a much larger and more important conflict.
Jul '10
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
Mollie Hemingway:Republican strategist Josh Trevino (imagine a tilde over that n) noted:
Is that where we are? That can't be good news for Democrats, can it? ·
I see what you and Josh are getting at Mollie, and in the short term you're right. But I think it's bad news for America.
It's bad enough that prog ideologues disparage & undermine the Constitution at every opportunity. It will be worse if (over time) half the political participants in the country come to reflexively view the document as a bad thing.
As others on this thread have rightly noted, a growing proportion of Americans can't tell the Constitution from a soccer ball. If speaking positively about the Constitution becomes viewed as a partisan endeavor, that's a big win for the leftists.
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
Palaeologus,
I agree. I think it's bad news for Democrats but portends something worse for the country.
Jul '10
Re: Other Political Implications of Obamacare Ruling?
My memory is shakey on this one, but I believe it was Ciecero who Defended a Roman Soldier against charges of Sedition.
It seems the Soldier was causing a rukkus when he was heard quoting some Anti Roman Propaganda.
Turned out he was quoting the Roman Constitution.
Shall History Repeat Itself???