TightyRighty.net

Although the battle for Health Care legislation is far from over, a review of the process to date can be very instructive with respect to understanding the tactics of the left.  What began as health care reform in the spring transformed into health insurance legislation in the summer and has morphed into a PR debacle in August which has put the Obama administration in full court defense in order to stem the tide of anger rising from the American people.

This debate has highlighted a few things (we already knew) about the President, his administration, the Democrats and their compatriots in the main stream media: they don’t care about bipartisanship, seeking input, playing fair, being hypocritical, who they trash or any other thing which may stand in their way.  They have such an elitist, statist attitude that they are convinced they know what is best for the American people so don’t get in their way.  A few examples:

How may times have we heard the President call for “honest” or “full and open debate” of whatever issue was at hand?  Why then the rush to pass the health care legislation before the August recess?  Specifically so we would not have full and open debate.  The townhall meetings affirm this fact.  Once the contents of the bills were made public (open) the discussion moved from a bunch of Dems pontificating in Congress to the American people strongly sharing their opinions (full).  The Obama administration knew the American people would not want this kind of legislation rammed down their throats so they did everything they could to have this legislation passed before the August recess.  They thought (correctly) that it would be easier for congressmen visiting their districts to get forgiveness rather than permission.

This highlights a continuing trend of the Obama administration – why the rush?  Why must the stimulus be done in a couple of weeks with minimal debate?  Why the rush to complete the Cap and Trade bill?  Why must health care legislation be enacted before the August recess?  We are told it is because the need is so urgent.  If that is the case, why is most of the stimulus $ spent after 2009?  Why has the Cap and Trade bill sat languishing in the Senate (thankfully!) for several weeks now?  (How much has the global temp gone up since that bill was passed?  Oh, it has been trending down for most of the decade.)  Why don’t we want our representatives to have the input of the American people before they vote to turn over 15% of the US economy to the control of the government?  Because we are stupid peasants and we don’t know what is good for us.  The left knows that government control of our lives is necessary for us, even if we don’t like it.  Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC stated this very eloquently when she said that American people opposed to health care reform “may not know what is good for them.”  What an arrogant attitude!

Why would an administration continually claiming its “transparency” create an email address (flag@whitehouse.gov) where you can snitch on your neighbor for being against the health care legislation?  I thought that “enemies lists” went out with Nixon, but perhaps not.  What happens to the information collected from this email address?  Can you say “big brother”?

How is it that the Speaker of the House, the 2nd in line to the President, can call American citizens who speak out at townhalls “un-American” after this same Speaker of the House told anti-war demonstrators that “your advocacy is very American”?  This is the height of hypocrisy.  To say that speech she agrees with is patriotic and that speech she disagrees with is unpatriotic is unbelievably elitist.  Who made her the patriot meter?

How many enemies have been demonized in this process?  First it was the insurance companies.  The Speaker of the House called these companies “immoral” and “villainous”.  Then it was the doctors.  The President himself implied that doctors would amputate diabetics feet rather than continue to treat them because there is much more financial return.  Finally, it was the aforementioned “un-American” citizens who protested this plan to their representatives in the public square.  This is right out of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals rule #12:  “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

Have you noticed the one group NOT demonized by the left in this process?  Clearly it is the Trial Lawyers.  The only discussion of tort reform related to this bill was when the President addressed the AMA and told them it was not going to happen – end of discussion.  Everyone knows that the cost of defensive medicine is a huge drag on the health care system, but there is no way the left is going to gore the ox that pulls its cart.

Finally, how many times has the President claimed this will not create a single payer system.  The public option is just to keep the insurance companies honest.  Is this the same Barack Obama who stated “I happen to be a proponent of the single payer universal health care plan”.  Unless he has had a major epiphany, he still favors a government control of health care and your life.  But he is willing to wait 10, 15, 20 years in order to obtain this goal.  But he needs the camel’s nose under the tent so the government can incrementally take over control of health care.  So when you hear the President say its about competition and you can keep your current insurance and doctor, know that he is not telling you the full story.  These things are true, FOR NOW, but are not in the long term plan – long term defined as no more than 5 years, the duration of “grandfathered plans” in H.B. 3200.

In summary, the left has gone deep into its toolkit on this battle.  However, the stakes are very high – 15-20% of the American economy.  I could claim they are liars, slanderers, hypocrites, elitist, statists and I don’t think that I would be overstating the facts.  But to the left, the ends justify the means and these ends are very, very important to them so telling a few (many) half truths, outright lies, obfuscating their mis-deeds by claiming the high ground, denigrating whole industries or professions, etc. is not a problem.

Let’s learn from this and recognize these tactics as this battle and many more continue to play out over the next few years.