Principles and Power

I am an optimist.  I know the outcome–that all things will work together for good for those who love the Lord.  So, I am an optimist.  Yet, I am not optimistic about Obamacare ever being overturned.  I hope it is.  I will support the repeal of this terribly invasive healthcare reform.  I don’t think it will be overturned.  Here is why.

Entitlements are never overturned.  Once people begin getting something for “free,” they don’t want to give it up, even if it restricts their freedom and burdens their neighbors.  Everybody likes a free lunch.  Don’t get me wrong.  I believe there is a huge backlash coming for Democrats in November, and I know people are angry right now.  But that will change.  Public opinion always does.  The Democrats know this, too.  Once things calm down, the Democrats will simply bring up all that will be lost by overturning this bill.  We will begin hearing stories of all the terrible suffering which will result from “taking away” these “free” benefits for needy people.  When that happens, public opinion will swing back to the middle.

When public opinion swings back to the middle, then the true mettle of conservatives will be tested, and it will be found lacking, in my opinion.  Why do I say this?  Not simply because I have seen conservatives cower in conversations concerning life, though that is reason enough for saying conservatives often lack mettle, but, rather, because I have been listening to the majority of conservatives express their outrage at the notion of a congress and a president going against the will of the people.  Granted, I am outraged, too, that this congress and this president have ignored the voices of millions–and they really have completely ignored large swaths of the American landscape in this.

However, I find a glimmer of principled conviction in the actions of the Democrats.  Their leadership has accomplished something that conservative leaders have not accomplished much.  They have led on principle–even if it costs at the polls.  Sadly, we once thought it was virtuous to stick to your guns and stick to your principles.  I remember President Bush (I think it was in his debate with Gore?) stating that he would not lead by opinion polls, but by principles.  I thought that was admirable then.  I don’t like it much now because it involves principles against which my mind and body viscerally revolt.  Yet, one cannot claim that the Democrats did what they did by merely sticking their fingers in the wind to see which way it was blowing.

The Democrats acted out of their belief that women should have access to abortions everywhere, and we all ought to pay for it.  They did it out of their firm conviction that the federal government should decide how to pay doctors and nurses.  They did it from their soft, socialistic outlook on life.  Oh, I know they violated protocols in the House and in the Senate, and I know right now people are outraged about that, but they acted out of principled convictions–even if the principles were horrendously wrong-headed.

Outside of Congressman Ryan and a few others, the Republicans responded that the Democrats should have listened to the will of the people.  So, in the course of repealing this repugnant set of rules governing my private colonoscopy, the Republicans must hope that public opinion remains strongly opposed to Obamacare.  Even though I hope it does, I doubt that it will.  I doubt that public opinion will remain strongly opposed because the radical new policies don’t take place until 2014, conveniently after the next presidential election.  In fact, around the time of this election in November, there will be $250 checks going out.  If public opinion were the reason for opposing Obamacare, then public opinion may in the future become the reason for keeping it.

What I wish would happen is that Republicans would become steeled in their resolve repeal Obmacare on principled grounds.  Let conservatives learn to be passionate and unapologetic about ending abortion on demand, taking a principled stand for babies even if public opinion swings against them.  What I wish would happen is that an unwavering regard for liberty would gain a foothold in the minds of conservative leaders.  Real leaders don’t lead by looking at polls.  They are fixed on eternal principles such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  I fear that–even though for today we are outraged–in the future we will accommodate (as Europe has) to suckling our existence from the breast of a federal nanny who increasingly kills her unwanted children.