On Repeal

There's a lot of fall-out from this whole DemCare debacle that will be fleshed out in the coming weeks, but here are a few things worth noting now. First is the fact that, just as we now know 'pro-choice' really means 'pro-abortion', we now also know that there's no such thing as a 'pro-life Democrat' in elected office today.

And, Al Sharpton gaffed and told the truth that anyone not hooked up to a Kool-Aid IV already knew:

Well, he told the truth about Obama bringing socialism, not about America actually voting for socialism. But let's give him credit for being at least partly honest. And yes, it really is socialism.

Furthermore, over the past year and a half, we've finally seen an unvarnished glimpse of who our enemy really is, and what they want:

For too many years, America has been attacked quietly - the serpent waiting patiently for his prey, striking only periodically. Starting primarily with the New Deal, incremental socialism as President Reagan famously observed, has been slowly eating away at the great American fabric of individual self-reliance, personal responsibility and limited government… Government program by government program, inch-by-inch, career politician-by-career politician… Democrat AND Republican. For decades, you have been losing your God-given and hard-fought birthright of freedom as surely as the vote that slapped you in the face yesterday.

But now… now, you know. Your enemy is clear. And the enemy has made clear their intentions - and that is the complete re-making of America.

Your enemy now is any Democrat - for it is a Party blinded by false notions of compassion, willing to trade liberty for self promotion and so devoid of a soul that innocent life is but a trivial instrument to barter. It is a Party lacking character and it is a Party that simply does not believe in the America of our founding.

But your enemy also is any Republican who is complicit in expanding government at the expense of liberty… Any Republican who would join hands with evil and continue to walk the road of denial, telling you he is fighting for America while he negotiates away her very foundation… And, specifically, any Republican who will not state clearly and succinctly that he will fight each and every day to repeal, de-fund, and otherwise eviscerate the healthcare bill.

There are some silver linings here, too, though. The most obvious thing is that now we can blame the government for everything wrong with health care:

Uncle Sam will be forcing us to purchase from a reduced number of policies, deciding on what benefits must be included and many (like Health Savings Accounts) which can't be, enriching insurers, doctors, and drugmakers by making more people buy insurance, deciding on "comparative effectiveness" and ultimately likely turning those assessments into mandatory national standards, cutting back on Medicare payments, forcing reductions in Medicare coverage, hunting down people who don't buy insurance, raising taxes, and more.

Our job will be to point out every negative consequence. Lose your HSA? Thank Barack Obama. Face higher Medicare levies (sorry, I mean"contributions")? Thank Nancy Pelosi. Have a harder time finding a doctor for Medicare? Thank Harry Reid.

Drugmaker profits increase? Thank the Democrats. Treatment options no longer available? Thank Health and Human Services. Health insurance premiums going up? Thank Uncle Sam. Health care costs going up faster than before? Thank President Obama & Co.

We need to make this point at every opportunity. Every new tax. Every new benefit cut. Every lost policy. Every inadequate treatment. Place the blame where it belongs, on Washington.

Dems, you made your bed...now you get to lie in it for a while. Until it's repealed, that is. And yes, as difficult as it may be to accomplish, that can happen:

Every single Republican must pledge to vote for repeal, year in and year out. And like the Democrats in passing it; by any means necessary. If it takes using reconciliation, DemonPass, etc. it would be repealed. Simple and short. No attempts to fix it, reform it, improve it or some other milquetoast language. Let the left-wing activists calling themselves journalists in the establishment media call it an unconscionable “litmus test” showing the GOP’s supposed “extremism”, lack of “tolerance” or “inclusiveness” or some other stupidity. Let them scream that it is hypocritical to use the same tactics they supported when they were being used by the other side.

Luckily (or unluckily) 2006 and 2008 purged the GOP of the compromise caucus (Johnson, Leach, Chaffee, etc.) that would have made this vote “bipartisan”, yet somehow, the GOP is winning Independents over at 2:1 rates in swing districts all over the contrary. According to another bit of Beltway conventional (un)wisdom, this was also supposed to be impossible.

So there should be no tolerance for any Republican, even if he or she has a 100% ACU career rating, who equivocates or attempts to sit on the fence with a finger in the air - all (Ayotte, Norton, Castle, etc.) must come out full-fledged for repeal. We need to make it clear to Michael Steele or whoever it is at the RNC that no Republican who is in any way conflicted about whether this should be repealed should receive a cent of GOP donor money.

A party must have some room for compromise, but even more importantly, there must be some principle that is inviolate and not subject to any deal-making. This is it.

If you're feeling discouraged, that's okay. But Moe Lane posts this list of things that we have also been told we couldn't accomplish:

• I was told that there was no way that we could win a runoff Senate election in Georgia, in the immediate wake of the President’s historic victory nationwide.
• I was told that expecting the GOP House caucus to Hold The Line on the President’s ’stimulus’ package was a fool’s errand.
• I was told that it would be a generation before liberal dominance of politics would be effectively challenged.
• I was told that conservatives don’t go to protests.
• I was told that the protests over the ’stimulus’ bill would splutter away.
• I was told that the Tea Party movement would never become more than an annoyance to the ruling party. Which would be running the show for a generation, remember.
• I was told that the House GOP would only Hold The Line once, then cave.
• I was told that cap and trade was inevitable.
• I was told that nobody was going to really care about the health care monstrosity, besides a few cranks in the Tea Party movement.
• I was told that the inevitable result of the massive protests over the health care monstrosity would be to create a popular backlash against the GOP, against conservatism, and ensure the speedy passage of the Democrats’ health care bill. As in, within a month.
• I was told that the GOP couldn’t hope to win both the NJ and VA governorships.
• I was told that the President would never drop in popularity - even to a level commensurate with a man, rather than a God.
• I was told - over, and over, and over, and over, and over again - that God Himself could not win a Massachusetts Senatorial election if He ran on the Republican ticket.

The list goes on, but this gives you a start. The bottom line is that at this point DemCare isn't inevitable...not if we immediately start stoking the flames of repeal with a fierce determination that can only be found in the core DNA of true, patriotic, red-blooded AMERICANS. Toss out the Euro-weenies who want a nanny state to take care of them, throw overboard the mealy-mouthed 'moderates' who enabled DemCare with their spineless compromises, and plant the cross-hairs firmly on those who deserve it. As Dr. Zero suggested, there's no reason Barack Obama couldn't become the last President ever fielded by the Democrat party.

But it's going to take time, hard work, persuasiveness, and a determination we haven't mustered up since World War II. Is our generation up to it?

The good news is that we've made a good start over the past year:

If there is one good thing about the past year—one in which we have witnessed unprecedented horse-trading, press stunts, midnight votes and political manipulation in both houses of the U.S. Congress—it is that the American people have come away educated as never before about the differences between these two visions for America. Americans are strongly opposed to this bill not because they have been hoodwinked but because they understand this bill both in its particulars and at an instinctive, gut level.

They understand this health care bill forces individuals and employers to buy insurance policies designed by government bureaucrats. This intrusion is intended to follow us from cradle to grave.

Instead of empowering families and individuals to make their own choices, Obamacare empowers the bureaucracy to make those decisions for them. It is this unelected bureaucracy, unanswerable to the electorate, that will determine the content of health benefits packages, including medical treatment and procedures, and how much will be paid for those services. Yesterday’s legislation brings us one step closer to fully government-run medicine, with expanded government power over the financing and delivery of medical services that is sure to ration care in the name of cost control.

...

Americans will not stand for it. The American love for liberty prevailed in our founding, and will prevail once again.

In December of 1773, to protest unjust taxation, a group of American colonists dumped tea in Boston Harbor. The punishment for that first Tea Party was a series of intrusive laws passed by Parliament that were so oppressive that they could only be described as the “Intolerable Acts.”

Obamacare is today’s Intolerable Act. And just as the colonists banded together to enact change after those acts were passed, so should America respond to Obamacare. This law must be repealed.

Much of the fight against this bill will be led by the individual states, a process we encourage. All told, 33 states have already taken steps to challenge various aspects of Obamacare, including its unprecedented mandate that every American purchase health insurance or face a steep penalty for noncompliance. Four additional States will have this question on the ballot in November.

It's time to learn our lessons and move forward:

Last night was bad. The law passed by the Senate and House really is that horrible.

But it's the morning after, and your mourning should be over.

The mainstream media and the nutroots will try to demoralize you, and there will be plenty of gloat to go around.

But remember how we got to last night.

...

For over a year Obama has not been able to push through other destructive aspects of his agenda, and the clock is running out before the mid-term elections.

The hard work must continue through the November elections because Democrats know they have just a few more months.

So shake off the gloom, get your asses in gear, get over it, and get to work continuing to fight the worst government policies "since the Great Depression."

We have no other choice.

Not if we are to grasp the fading threads of the real American dream, that is.

Gird your loins. This ain't done yet, and it won't be done until Americans like you and I give up.

There's my two cents.


Related Reading:
Can ObamaCare be repealed?
Up next: court challenges
A CNN poll shows 59% of Americans oppose the DemCare bill the Dems just passed
86% say what people eat is none of the government's business (but it will be now...)

PS - for the record, here are the Dems who voted against DemCare; they deserve credit for standing up to the tremendous pressure of their own leadership.