By David Bozeman
Typical case: a 49-year old male, non-smoker, excellent health currently pays $154 a month for health insurance. His nationally known provider recently informed him that, due to changes under the Affordable Care Act, an equivalent policy will now cost him $410 per month.
Clearly, this pivotal moment for our nation demands a united opposition defined by clarity and conviction. The conservative movement as a whole, though standing firm and keeping the wind at their backs, has yet to fully give voice to the angst and concerns of a majority of Americans as Obamacare becomes not just theory but hard reality.
In fact, the ill-informed could reasonably believe that the dominant cause for concern right now is Ted Cruz and his 20-plus hour filibuster on the Senate floor — and I’m not referring to the bile from leftists who routinely liken Senator Cruz to Joe McCarthy. I am lamenting the very individuals who should be championing the senator. Columnist Jonah Goldberg, for instance, likened Cruz to Obama, citing the supposedly empty and self-serving Senate tenures of BOTH men. Karl Rove has weighed in, and author and columnist Thomas Sowell has written that Cruz and other Republicans are wasting precious capital on a bill that has already become law.
That is a valid concern. No one has argued that we disregard strategy and precision in waging political warfare. Nonetheless, neither should we succumb to the lazy, long-range thinking of some that, if we just give statists their way, then the American people, alarmed at the disastrous results, will come running back to the right. That is risky, in part, because bad law begets bad law to fix the inherent problems in the original bad law. Statism feeds on itself, and the idea that the American people will flock back to the GOP in the wake of Obamacare, while not impossible, is, at best, no less fantastic than risking your political capital in a 20-hour filibuster.
Bad law, like bad candidates, should be opposed at every given opportunity. But to the chattering classes, it’s all about theory and political maneuvering — who will we be discussing on the air tomorrow? On Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough (a former Republican congressman), a guest, referring to Cruz’s mention of the lack of early German resistance to Hitler, opined that anyone who references Nazis to make a point has already lost the argument, to which the whole panel heartily agreed. So, we should just live with Obamacare and/or $400/month insurance premiums because Ted Cruz stated an historically provable fact? The panel failed to ponder if calling your opponent Joe McCarthy neutered your argument, but what does one expect from MSNBC, balance?
Radio talk show host and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee once stated that Obamacare advocates were well-intentioned but just unaware of the law’s practicalities. Yet we on the right seldom laud the good intentions of ourselves and each other. Liberals who fight bad laws against overwhelming odds are always ‘passionate’ and ‘idealistic.’ Conservatives who rock the boat are typically “extremist” and “unable to change with the times.” Such tripe we expect from the left-leaning media but not from the right at a moment that calls for clarity and unity.
Ted Cruz, as predicted, did not defeat Obamacare, but its ravages can never be laid at his feet. Whatever the senator’s shortcomings, he is neither an extremist (in the negative sense) or an empty suit. He is the man of the hour who has stood up not just for his side but for the American people. Now who will stand up for him?
David Bozeman, former Libertarian Party Chairman, is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer.
