The American Spectator : Democrats' Terminal Decline Confirmed

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Democrats' Terminal Decline Confirmed

By William Tucker on 1.19.10 @ 6:09AM

Can the Democrats pass Parkinson's Law?

(Page 2 of 2)

Yet Clinton's analysis could not be more wrong. Does anyone who was of sound mind and body in 1994 seriously believe that Newt Gingrich and the Republican Congress were elected because people were disappointed Clinton hadn't passed health reform? HillaryCare was exhibit A of how Clinton was trying to concentrate too much power in Washington. The Tea Party Movement, which Democrats still dismiss as some kind of "special interest," is simply a bigger and more robust reincarnation of the same concern. The real "special interests" were the ones who were on hand last week in Washington when Massachusetts Democratic candidate Martha Coakley showed up for her fundraiser.

When David Mamet made his "I'm a conservative" confession in The Village Voice two years ago, he said something quite memorable: "Thomas Sowell is our greatest philosopher." Wow, I've been reading Sowell since 1980 but it never occurred to me -- he is our greatest philosopher. The point of Knowledge and Decisions, Sowell's magnum opus, is that in a complex modern society, knowledge is decentralized. It can't possibly be assembled in one place. Anyone who tries to do this loses information. (Ask any software engineer.) And when you lose information, you make wrong decisions and make a whole lot of people unhappy.

That's the trajectory Obamacare is going to follow. All medical decisions will be routed through the nation's capital. Nobody will have the faintest idea what's going on. The President will appoint a phalanx of "health czars" to try to get control of the situation -- maybe even split off a new Department of Health and Health Insurance from the Department of Health and Human Services. (Parkinson's Law # 2: "Bureaucrats make work for each other.") Meanwhile, any supposed benefits won't kick in for four years, while the taxes and confusion will all become apparent immediately. The whole bill is also riddled with unconstitutionalities. The government can order people to buy insurance? Citizens of Nebraska and Florida get much better care than citizens of the other 48? Does anybody think this stuff will ever get through the courts, let alone past the 2010 Congressional elections?

So let the Democrats pass their crowning edifice, their perfectly planned national healthcare system, the last gasp of the 1930s. Its rejection by the electorate may even convince Democrats that things have changed since Herbert Hoover left office.

You can already feel the nostalgia setting in. Last week Ira Shapiro, a former Clinton Administration official, wrote an amazingly backward-looking elegy in the New York Times about how the Senate has never been the same since the Democrats lost control in 1980.

That night, they were all defeated as Ronald Reagan won a crushing victory over Jimmy Carter. Additionally, Abraham Ribicoff, one of the liberal stalwarts, had retired, as had Adlai Stevenson, while Ed Muskie had left the Senate in May to become secretary of state. It was the greatest exodus of talent and experience in Senate history... In the weeks that followed, we Democrats were virtual zombies, numb with grief and shock. It didn't help that the Republicans celebrated boisterously and endlessly... The 1980 election was more than just a change of party control from Democratic to Republican. Gone was the Senate that had been experienced, progressive and bipartisan; 30 years have passed, and the decline has only accelerated. The Senate today is bitterly divided, frequently paralyzed and borderline bizarre. Olympia Snowe offered this sad observation: "We have been miniaturized."

If that doesn't sound like the end of an era, I don't know what does.

Page: < 12

topics:
Health Care, Democratic Party

About the Author

William Tucker is the author of Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America's Energy Odyssey.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (17) | Leave a comment

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.

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.

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

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