Political Hay
Democrats’ Terminal Decline Confirmed
Can the Democrats pass Parkinson’s Law?
Among the many astute observations in Parkinson’s Law, British historian C. Northcote Parkinson noted that institutions always build their grand, monumental palaces designed to house all their greatest efforts at the exact point when they are going into terminal decline.
“Perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse,” Parkinson declared in his wry manner:
This apparently paradoxical conclusion is based upon a wealth of archaeological and historical research, with the more esoteric details of which we need not concern ourselves. In general principle, however, the method pursued has been to select and date the building which appear to have been perfectly destined for their purpose. A study and comparison of these has tended to prove that perfection of planning is a symptom of decay. During a period of exciting discovery or progress there is no time to plan the perfect headquarters. The time for that comes later, when all the important work has been done. Perfection, we know, is finality; and finality is death. [Emphasis added.]
The Democrats’ perfectly planned edifice of Universal Health Care as embodied in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 fits squarely into this mold.
Right now Republicans are energized by the possibility that Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown is going to upset Democrat Martha Coakley for Teddy Kennedy’s old Senate seat and stop Obamacare just inches short of the goal line. I confess, I sent my $50 and am just as excited as anyone.
Still, some small part of by brain keeps saying, “Look, we’ve come this far. Let’s go ahead and let the Democrats hang themselves.” Somehow I can’t help but think that Obamacare is going to be America’s equivalent of the British Colonial Office — another of Parkinson’s gems — which reached its apogee just as its Colonial Empire was disappearing beneath its feet. ObamaCare may be the Great Pyramid of Liberalism, which is to say, its mausoleum.
President Obama and historically minded Democrats always trace their inspiration to the Roosevelt Revolution and the New Deal — and they are entirely correct. The spirit of that era can be summarized in a single phrase: “Bring it all down to Washington.” Data collection, administration, and decision-making would be centralized at some grand bureaucratic headquarters in the nation’s capital. The FPC, the NRA, the CCC, the WPA — all would command and control the economy. Most of these “alphabet soup” agencies didn’t survive but live on in the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy or the Department of Health and Human Services.
National healthcare reform is the last gasp of this centralizing spirit. In truth, Democrats have no idea what results their bill is going to produce. They haven’t read it any more than anyone else. Their only intent is, “Bring it all down to Washington, we’ll figure it out later.”
One of the practices criticized for making health insurance expensive, for example, is the regrettable tendency of state legislatures to pile up coverage mandates in response to marginal providers who want patients to be able to afford their special brand of medicine. As a result, chiropractors, holistic therapists and foot massagers all end up in the policies. Now we’ll solve this problem by having Congress write the mandates — without the input of special interests, of course.
Another Democratic complaint is that in many states insurance providers have achieved near monopolies. As Health Care for America Now!, an ad hoc group formed by the unions, ACORN and all the usual groups, expressed it last May:
The American Medical Association reports that 94 percent of insurance markets in the United States are now highly concentrated. In Hawaii, Rhode Island, Alaska, Vermont, Alabama, Maine, Montana, Wyoming, Arkansas and Iowa, the two largest health insurers control at least 80 percent of the statewide market.
Senator Chuck Schumer, perhaps the biggest “Bring-it-all-down-here” cheerleader in Washington, proclaimed. “A public plan will push down health care premiums by injecting competition into the health insurance market, which right now has too few players and they have a stranglehold over consumers.”
What neither Senator Schumer nor Health Care Now! seem to understand is that these monopolies have been deliberately created by state insurance commissions. The commissioners are still operating on the 1990s paradigm that large, monopolistic insurance providers (usually Blue Cross/Blue Shield) can provide the market leverage to bargain down doctors and hospitals. (That’s why the AMA is so negative about them.)
These state-sponsored monopolies could easily be broken by allowing insurance companies to sell policies across state lines. That would create choice, decentralization and competition — the very things most people want. But it takes power out of the hands of government bureaucrats, which exactly what the Democrats don’t want. So it’s “Bring-It-Down-to-Washington” instead.
No evidence or historical trauma can persuade Democrats that most people want something different. By far the most spectacular miscalculation of the healthcare debate has been former President Bill Clinton’s conclusion that his administration lost the House of Representative in 1994 is because it had failed to pass healthcare reform. Clinton delivered this message to Congressional leaders back in November and they haven’t forgotten it. That’s one reason they’ve been ready to strike any deal, concede any giveaway, as long as something gets passed.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (46) | Leave a comment
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Howard| 1.19.10 @ 8:44AM
Excellent article. The Democrats suffer from two failures: 1. A driving with the rearview mirror complex on domestic issues. That is, they still look at FDR models of government as a template for today. Large agencies running a "top down" methodology. It reminds me of the famous "1984" Apple commercial. A "Brave New World" statis model. Totally denying all of the changes that have happened over the last four decades.
2. Since the 1972 McGovern fiasco, the party has abandoned its Internationalist foreign policy credentials. It is ashamed of American power, and takes pleasure in our defeats and humiliations.
Read David Horowitz books to see the impact that the New Left has on the Democratic Party. Obama is just the tip of the iceberg. I look forward, albeit sadly, to the death of a once great party.
Son Of Sam | 1.19.10 @ 8:45AM
Kudos to you Mr. Tucker, for pointing out what SHOULD be an obvious truth: that ObamaCare means removing all that nasty collusion between state governments and big insurance companies, and transforming it into "positive" collusion between the federal government and big insurance companies. For all their talk about "choice and competition", they conveniently forget that the easiest way to achieve this is to allow health insurance companies to operate across state lines, just like life and car insurance companies already do.
But then again, if they did that, they wouldn't be able to cook up 1000 page bills that no ones read, pile up more mega-bureaucracies that cost trillions, and get their fat heads on TV, now would they?
stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com
St. Thor| 1.19.10 @ 8:46AM
And just how is Obamacare going to be repealed if the Republicans don't get a 60 vote majority in the Senate in 2010? By 2012 you will have all the slimy lobbyists in place to make sure it never gets repealed. Better to shoot this monstrosity in the head now and let the Democrats die of shame and humiliation.
Deborah D | 1.19.10 @ 9:41AM
I'm with you, St. Thor. Kill this baby in the cradle. Once a tax, always a tax. Once a government program, always a government program. That's what the Dems are counting on.
Although, Mr. Tucker, I totally enjoyed this article and the thrust of gaining perfection being the end of something. Let's hope that near-perfection is just as good. I just don't know if Democrats ever learn lessons, however. The live in some kind of fantasy world...reality intrudes rarely. Case in point -- Clinton's idea that they lost the House in 1994 because they failed to pass Health Care. I honestly don't think he believes that -- he just wants "follow me over the cliff" Democrats to believe it.
danny| 1.19.10 @ 9:37AM
absolutelt right st. thor. when deer hunting i always take the first shot i get at that big buck for fear i might not get another.
Dan Hirsch| 1.19.10 @ 10:46AM
Mr. Tucker;
Consider this: Maybe the construction of the final edifice is not the symptom, but the cause of the decline. Has the Democrats' collective healthcare nationalization effort caused them to lose their last, tenuous connection with the 'of the people, by the people, for the people' America? I think yes.
God speed, sir.
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.19.10 @ 10:49AM
Mr Tucker, thank you for that.
I have been hacking around the edges of that idea for months, but you nailed it.
My thoughts have been circling around the idea that the worse things get...the more powerful the pushback.
St. Thor
We in the small business community combined with military veterans can "de facto" repeal it by saying "Hell no, I won't go" in a million ways.
Sit back and watch!
Northern Rebel| 1.19.10 @ 11:17AM
The most important words in this article Mr. Tucker:
Sell insurance policies of all types, across state lines!
As someone who at one time held 3 financial service licenses in Connecticut, I know first hand the hoops customers must jump through, and the monopolies that hold the hoops.
They run their empires like Lordal Feifdoms, and hold the state commisioners right in their wallets.
Do a little research on a company called A.L. Williams, and see the lengths they went to, as they attempted to destroy the founder, because he dared cross them up, and actually be customer friendly.
You will become illuminated, but I doubt you'll be suprised.
We must break up these state Fiefdoms, if we are to make insurance a competitive business.
Pingback| 1.19.10 @ 11:27AM
The American Spectator : Democrats' Terminal Decline Confirmed | Drakz Free Online Se links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 1.19.10 @ 11:27AM
The American Spectator : Democrats' Terminal Decline Confirmed | Drakz Free Online Se links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
D. Ch.| 1.19.10 @ 11:43AM
Perfection? Obamacare is a mess, so I don't see how it can be called metaphorically "the perfect edifice" signallnig terminal decline. If you want a metaphorically perfect edifice signalling the Democrats' decline, I would go for the Obama inauguration. Think about it: first black president just elected to handle the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, all the MSM so deep in the tank for the Democrats that they needed scuba gear during the campaign, 60 vote majority in the Senate, control of the House of Representatives, formerly red states turning blue in the election, and on and on. Analyzing things this way, the botch that is Obamacare is just the "handwriting on the wall" making it obvious to all that the terminal decline is now underway.
Oldefarte| 1.19.10 @ 11:47AM
Me thinks that most everyone THINKS TOO MUCH! This healthcare legislation is the Democrats' typical attempt to provide WELFARE to their constituents and to have the American taxpayers provide the money to pay for same. Democrats have been doing this garbage for decades, and the American people sadly have been too stupid to understand that. Anyone now/previously wanting healthcare insurance either DOES have it already through their jobs [if they have one after a year of Obamanomics], or CAN purchase same [instead of 5 new cars and a too expensive home]. Once again, folks, it's W-E-L-F-A-R-E; and Democrats' constituents are screaming that it's their RIGHT to have same [they just don't want to pay for it themselves]!!!!
Jobe| 1.19.10 @ 3:37PM
The bottom line is that the democratic party has been and will continue to be buying votes, enthralling the voters it buys, and raping taxpayers in order to be able to pay the freight. They will continue to do this until there is some kind of a forceful response to their self-serving dishonesty.
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Jim | 1.19.10 @ 4:45PM
Does this monstrous health bill at a time of huge, uncontrolable deficits signal the decline and fall of the Democratic Party or the terminal decline of our once great Nation? I think this bill will take all of us down with them. Obama and the leftists will not be too disappointed because they are embarassed by the United States and its sucess relative to the rest of the world. Jim
Ron| 1.19.10 @ 9:39PM
Cancelling this abomination will happen, but it will be also be necessary to completely defund the left. I hope they pass it. The leadership will appear and we will completely finish them off. The only thing that matters is what is going on in the minds of the American people.
Ron| 1.19.10 @ 9:39PM
Cancelling this abomination will happen, but it will be also be necessary to completely defund the left. I hope they pass it. The leadership will appear and we will completely finish them off. The only thing that matters is what is going on in the minds of the American people.
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