Professor Laura Hollis of Notre
Dame ... A MUST READ!
Laura Hollis is a professor at
the University of Notre Dame
November 20, 2013/10:42 AM
The unveiling of the dictatorial
debacle that is Obamacare absolutely flabbergasts me. It is stunning on so many
levels, but the most shocking aspect of it for me is watching millions of free
Americans stand idly by while this man, his minions in Congress and his
cheerleaders in the press systematically dismantle our Constitution, steal our
money, and crush our freedoms.
The President, Nancy Pelosi and
Harry Reid (with no small help from Justice John Roberts) take away our health
care, and we allow it. They take away our insurance, and we allow it. They take
away our doctors, and we allow it. They charge us thousands of dollars more a
year, and we allow it. They make legal products illegal, and we allow it. They
cripple our businesses, and we allow it. They announce by fiat that we must
ignore our most deeply held beliefs – and we allow it.
Where is your spine, America?
Yes, I know people are
complaining. I read the news on the internet. I read blogs. I have a Twitter
feed. So what? People in the Soviet Union complained. People in Cuba complain.
People in China complain (quietly). Complaining isn't the same thing as doing
anything about it. In fact, much of the complaining that we hear sounds like
resignation: Wow. This sucks. Oh well, this is the way things are. Too bad.
Perhaps you need reminding of a
few important facts. Here goes:
1. The President is not a king. Barack
Obama does not behave like a President, an elected official, someone who
realizes that he works for us. He behaves like a king, a dictator – someone who
believes that his own pronouncements have the force of law, and who thinks he
can dispense with the law's enforcement when he deigns to do so. And those of
us who object? How dare we? Racists!
And while he moves steadily
"forward" with his plans to "fundamentally transform" the
greatest country in human history, he distracts people with cheap, meaningless
trivialities, like "free birth control pills"! (In fact, let's face
it: this administration's odd obsession with sex in general - Birth control!
Abortion! Sterilization! Gay guys who play basketball! -- is just plain weird.
Since when did the leader of the free world care so much about how people have
sex, who they have it with, and what meds they use when they have it? Does he
have nothing more important to concern himself with?)
2. It isn't just a failed
software program; it is a failed philosophy. People are marveling
that Healthcare.gov was such a spectacular
failure. Well, if one is only interested in it as a product launch, I've
explained some of the reasons for that here. But the larger point is that it isn't a
software failure, or even a product failure; it is a philosophy failure.
I have said this before: Obama is
not a centrist; he is a central planner. And this – all of it: the disastrous
computer program, the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, the lies, the
manipulation of public opinion, the theft of the public's money and property,
and freedom (read insurance, and premiums, and doctors) -- IS what central
planning looks like.
The central premise of central
planning is that a handful of wunderkinds with your best interests at heart
(yeah, right) know better than you what's good for you. The failure of such a
premise and the misery it causes have been clear from the dawn of humanity.
Kings and congressmen, dictators and Dear Leaders, potentates, princes and
presidents can all fall prey to the same imperial impulses: "we know what
is good the 'the people.'
And they are always wrong.
There is a reason that the only
times communism has really been tried have been after wars, revolutions, or
coups d'état. You have to have complete chaos for people to be willing to
accept the garbage that centralized planning produces. Take the Soviet Union ,
for example. After two wars, famine, and the collapse of the Romanov dynasty,
why wouldn't people wait in line for hours to buy size 10 shoes? Or settle for
the gray matter that passed for meat in the grocery stores?
But communism's watered-down
cousin, socialism, isn't much better. Ask the Venezuelans who cannot get toilet
paper. Toilet paper. ¡Viva la Revolución!
Contrary to what so many who
believe in a "living Constitution" say, the Founding Fathers
absolutely understood this. That is why the Constitution was set up to limit
government power. (Memo to the President: the drafters of the Constitution
deliberately didn't say "what government had to do on your behalf.")
They understood that that was the path to folly, fear, and famine.)
3. Obama is deceitful. Just as
the collapse of the computer program should not surprise anyone, neither should
we be shocked that the President lied about his healthcare plan. Have any of
you been paying attention over the past few years? Obama has made no secret of
his motivations or his methods. The philosophies which inspire him espouse
deceit and other vicious tactics. (Don' t take my word for it: read Saul
Alinsky.) Obama infamously told reporter Richard Wolffe, "You know,
I actually believe my own bullshit." He has refused to be forthcoming
about his past (where are his academic records?). His own pastor, Rev. Jeremiah
Wright, told author Ed Klein, that Obama said to him,
"You know what your problem is? You have to tell the truth."
Did Obama lie when he said dozens
of times, "If you like you plan, you can keep it. Period!"? Of course
he did. That's what he does.
4. The media is responsible. And had
the media been doing their jobs, we would have known a lot of this much, much h
earlier.
The press is charged with the
sacred responsibility of protecting the people from the excesses of government.
Our press has been complicit, incompetent, or corrupt. Had they vetted this man
in 2008, as they would have a Republican candidate, we would have known far
more about him than we do, even now. Had they pressed for more details about
Obamacare, Congress' feet would have been held to the fire. Had they done their
jobs about Eric Holder, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal, NSA spying
- or any of the other myriad betrayals of the public trust that this
administration has committed, Obama would likely have lost his 2012 reelection
campaign. (A fact that even The Washington Post has tacitly
acknowledged. Well done, fellas! Happy now?)
Instead, they turned a blind eye,
even when they knew he was lying, abusing power, disregarding the limits of the
Constitution. It was only when he began to spy on them, and when the lies were
so blatant that the lowest of low-information voters could figure it out that
they realized they had to report on it. (Even in the face of blatant,
deliberate and repeated lies, The New York Times has the audacity to
tell us that the President "misspoke.") They have betrayed us,
abandoned us, and deceived us.
5. Ted Cruz was right. So was
Sarah Palin. The computer program is a disaster. The insurance exchanges are
a disaster. What's left? The healthcare system itself. and this, of necessity,
will be a disaster, too.
Millions of people have lost
their individual insurance plans. In 2015, millions more will lose their
employer-provided coverage (a fact which the Obama administration also knew,
and admitted elsewhere).
The exorbitant additional costs
that Obamacare has foisted on unsuspecting Americans are all part of a plan of
wealth confiscation and redistribution. That is bad enough. But it will not end
there. When the numbers of people into the system and the corresponding
demand for care vastly exceed the cost projections (and they will, make no
mistake), then the rationing will start. Not only choice at that point, but
quality and care itself will go down the tubes. And then will come the
decisions made by the Independent Payment Advisory Board about what care will
be covered (read "paid for") and what will not.
That's just a death panel, put
politely. In fact, progressives are already greasing the wheels for acceptance
of that miserable reality as well. They're spreading the lie that it will be
about the ability of the dying to refuse unwanted or unhelpful care. Don't fall
for that one, either. It will be about the deaths that inevitably result from
decisions made by people other than the patients, their families, and their
physicians. (Perhaps it's helpful to think of their assurances this way:
"If you like your end-of-life care, you can keep your
end-of-life-care.")
6. We are not SUBJECTS. (Or, Nice
Try, the Tea Party isn’t Going Away). We have tolerated these incursions into
our lives and livelihoods too long already. There is no end to the insatiable
demand "progressives" have to remake us in their image. Today it is
our insurance, our businesses, our doctors, our health care. Tomorrow some new
crusade will be announced that enables them to take over other aspects of our
formerly free lives.
I will say it again: WE ARE NOT
SUBJECTS. Not only is the Tea Party right on the fiscal issues, but it appears
that they are more relevant than ever. We fought a war once to prove we did not
want to be the subjects of a king, and the Boston Tea Party was just a taste of
the larger conflict to come. If some people missed that lesson in history
class, we can give them a refresher.
The 2014 elections are a good
place to start. Call your representative, your senator, your candidate and tell
them: "We are not subjects. You work for us. And if the word
"REPEAL" isn't front and center in your campaign, we won't vote for
you. Period."
Laura Hollis is an attorney and
teaches entrepreneurship and business law at the University of Notre Dame
And this comes from Notre
Dame. What a powerful and true letter!
