Thursday, June 9, 2011

Wait Till Medicare Crashes

The upshot of NY-26 and the Democratic successful demagoguing of Medicare reform, featuring the delicate cinematography of The Agenda Project's commercial of Rep. Ryan pushing grannie of a cliff, is simple, according to John Derbyshire. It means that we can't reform Medicare. "There's nothing for it but to wait for the crash."

And that means, if you weren't paying attention, we can't reform Medicare until Medicare crashes the federal government's finances. Greek City, AZ, in other words.

It's tempting to accuse the Democrats of shameless demagoguery on Medicare, but I think we should give them credit for believing in their belief system.

Democrats believe that the way to help the poor and the marginalized is with comprehensive and mandatory government programs inspired and directed by the educated class.

They honestly look at the premium subsidy program of Rep. Paul Ryan and say: well what about the people who can't afford any Medicare premium? What about seniors, e.g., with dementia, who can't even rationally decide what Medicare option to choose?

The liberal conceit is that, given the fact that someone is going to fall through the cracks, a government program is the answer, a government program inspired and directed by evolved, educated people like themselves.

This is the central faith of our liberal, educated elite. Liberals are the most educated, evolved people in America. By virtue of their education and their advanced social views and their rational ethics they are the only people with the standing to decide all social and political matters, and to design rational and equitable programs to implement their advanced and evolved views.

That is why John Derbyshire's remark rings true to me. We Americans are not going to be able to resolve the central political questions of our time until our liberal friends have crashed in ruins. They may--they probably will--still cleave to their liberal faith after the crash. But nobody else in America will believe.

Conservatives never did believe in the liberal faith, but moderates weren't sure. Up to now these go-along-to-get-along folks have picked up the liberal faith as the default option. You go with the belief system implied in the TV news, on your worker's rights published on the bulletin board at work, and in your government schooling because that is what you do as a practical, conforming, social animal. And anyway, if the government is offering free stuff, why not?

But when you, as a moderate, find that you life is ruined, your savings account wiped out, your job evaporated, your Social Security capped, your Medicare rationed, then you look around for someone to blame. You do more than that. You lash out and you go after the first person that looks like they could be to blame. When that happens, any rational person will know who to blame: Greedy bankers.

Yeah. That's the great task of conservatives in the next few years. It is to make sure that liberals don't find some convenient scapegoat and dodge the blame for national bankruptcy and the failure of all their government-centric welfare state programs.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you. These liberals think nothing else but the benefit of themselves, the government, and the name of the country. But they do not care about the abiding citizens which should be the prime benefactors of their services since these citizens are the ones who put them in their government position.

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