Liberal Elitism in Obamacare

There are two things about the Democrat's attempts at health care reform that stand out. First, their approach to the problem relies on the federal government doing many things it has not previously done. Second, as the public gets louder in its rejection of their approach, the Democratic party prepares to run roughshod over public opinion and the traditional legislative process.

Both are symptoms of liberalism.

The first presents no surprise; liberalism believes that the solution to most problems and the appropriate holder of power is the centralized government. Conservatives, on the other hand, believe power should be kept as close to the people as possible both because of our federalist constitution and because it's just wise.

The second should be more of a surprise. Liberals bill themselves as the ultimate populists. They believe in the basic goodness of people (e.g., society makes criminals do bad things vs some people being just bad). They believe they give a voice to the little guy.

And they believe they have to protect the little guy. That is where the trouble appears.

Liberals love the little guy, but they don't respect him. They see themselves as smarter or wiser than the general public. If the little guy agrees with them, that's great, but if he doesn't, they're going to do what they have to for the little guy's sake.

In health care reform, that means passing the bill they think is best (centralized control) even though the public hates the idea. The fact that the public hates the idea is proof that they are smarter than the public.

As the ObamaCare struggle goes on, its liberal proponents have tended to one of two responses to public opposition. One group (usually politicians) says, "How can they oppose a bill that doesn't exist?" They imply, of course, that the public is upset over nothing; they're just lemmings following the latest email they got.

The other group (usually liberal pundits) say, "People don't really understand the issues." The less charitable say, "Americans are stupid, and we should push this down their throats for their own good." That really doesn't require interpretation.

So if we had to boil liberalism down to two simple phrases, this is how it would look: "Government is good" and "people are stupid."

This is about to be played out in Washington. The Democrats appear willing even to lose control of Congress to push through a bill the public hates because they know what's best. And they hope maybe, just maybe, after ObamaCare is imposed upon us we'll realize they were right.

If the Dems do go through with this plan, we all need to realize that every yes vote is calling us stupid and respond accordingly.