Maggie's Farm

The Senate vote for cloture on the Reid-negotiated and bought version of ObamaCare will shape the coming decades’ politics as surely as the Congressional votes to virtually abandon South Vietnam shaped its’ following decades.

For the past three and a half decades, the clearest dividing line and predictor of how we and our leaders would approach issues, ranging from the social to the geopolitical, is the position – contemporaneous or in retrospect -- held about the US Congress’ votes to not meet US pledges to supply and aid South Vietnam in the face of North Vietnam’s heavily Soviet and Chinese supplied continued armed and logistical build-up and massive invasion.

In the reaction to President Nixon’s deserved fall, an overwhelmingly Democrat and anti-Vietnam war Congress was elected in 1974, determined to overturn US foreign policy. Polls were equivocal, at least providing some cover or excuse. In the wake of President Obama’s undeserved credence to govern from the center, an overwhelmingly Democrat and liberal Congress was elected in 2008, determined to instead legislate from the left and overturn US domestic policy. This time, polls are decisively opposed, but ignored, and there’s no cover or excuse.

Basically, in both cases, we went from a nation following a course – as befuddled as it may be – of determination to pursue freedoms to a nation that waffles freedoms away. Basically, our “conservative”, “liberal” and “moderate” postures toward most issues over the past decades have been in line with how we view the causes and outcomes of our Vietnam involvement. So, too, will our future divides and postures be determined by how we now or come to view the causes and outcomes of reshaping almost a fifth of the US economy and almost 100% of our personal and fiscal health.

The divides over Vietnam were partisan but, also, crossed political party lines. The results, however, increased later realignments and partisanship. The straight party-line vote in the Senate on ObamaCare is a consequence, and will lead to an even sharper divide in how the political parties are and will be viewed.

There are no Profiles In Courage to be found in the tactical refusal to propose a fleshed-out free market Republican alternative to the statist approach by the Democrats. There are no Profiles In Courage to be found in the refusal by the controlling Democrats to allow anything but capitulation or purchased whoredom from critics.

At this point, there’s been so much damage to our faith in Washington, regardless of our dispositions on health care or political affiliation, that there’s cause for all who would be honest about it – or will come to be -- to be in despair.

However, there’s real reason to not be in despair, indeed to be quite hopeful.

Whatever version of ObamaCare emerges from conference between the Senate and the House, the core deceptive tactic by the Democrats to hide true costs creates the means of their ultimate defeat. With added reflection on what the Democrats have steamrolled, and various new taxes that kick in before most of the statist “benefits”, the reaction of voters in 2010 will likely be an increased Republican membership in the Congress. At that time, Republicans in Congress will be – and should be – held fully accountable to stop ObamaCare cold in its tracks, and to really fight for free-market reforms that actually increase choice while reducing costs. If not, look for the emergence of a new political party actually representing the majority of Americans. Either way, Americans who believe in personal freedom will win.