Saturday, December 01, 2007

Hating Health Care for Americans: It's the Principle of the Thing

The lead article in this week's National Review prophesizes doom for Republicans in the ’08 elections. The authors point out that voters are leaving the party in droves and do not support it on any of the most critical issues facing the electorate. Combine these facts with vastly superior fundraising by Democrats, and you can’t escape the conclusion that the Democrats will likely gain the Presidency and more House and Senate seats in 2008, and that this will likely translate into the appointment of several new progressive judges on the Supreme Court in the next few years.

I find myself in agreement with the authors. That’s not what makes this article remarkable. Here’s the passage that has people talking this week:

a national health-insurance program that would irrevocably expand government involvement in the economy and American life, and itself make voters less likely to turn toward conservatism in the future.”

Got that? According to the conservative viewpoint, insuring the uninsured in America would not be a bad thing because it wouldn’t work and people wouldn’t like it. On the contrary, the authors forecast that people would like national health insurance. The reason why it would be bad is because it would turn people away from conservative principles.

As progressive journalist and author Paul Krugman points out, conservatives will do anything to stop a re-vitalization of New Deal principles no matter how much progressive policies accomplish.

To be fair to the authors, they do seem to genuinely believe that “Republican policies will help people keep and control their own health care.”

Whom do the authors think controls their own health care in this country? The one-sixth of the population with no insurance at all? The majority of working people who pay into HMOs that ration care and routinely deny treatment?

If this kind of stuff is what passes for deep thought on the conservative side, they really will be out of power for a long time. I won’t miss them.