Liberalism not going away any time soon

By Chris Adamo

Obamacare continues to manifest itself as a complete fiasco, with the number of people losing their medical coverage vastly outpacing those who have acquired Obamacare insurance. And for those few who have actually signed on, drastically increased costs and severely reduced coverage are the most common rewards for their efforts. It is extremely telling that so many people are genuinely surprised that this is their fate. Have they no grasp of history, and the inescapable failure of the collectivist state? Or is it more likely that they never considered any possibility other than the rosy promises, now proven so fraudulent and hollow, made by Barack Obama and his fellow champions of socialized medicine.

The immediate effects of Obamacare's "Phase One" are so dire that most have been too caught up in the moment to consider just how much worse things can become if this disastrous venture is not immediately halted, and a deliberate course back to sane, working medical treatment instated in its place. Those tragic stories of self-employed individuals whose insurance policies were suddenly cancelled represent only the initial signals of far larger and more grievous problems eventually affecting Americans. With the medical insurance business now in a shambles, and many more regulations and mandates yet to be handed down from ham-fisted Washington bureaucrats, not only insurance, but all facets of medicine in America risk being negatively impacted.

Doctors are opting for early retirement, and taking with them years of experience in dealing with sick people. It is dangerously naive to expect that they will simply be replaced by a new generation of Obamacare physicians. With such chaos inflicted on medical practice, university costs skyrocketing, and the guarantee of more choking federal regulations overtaking the profession, the notion of young talented people lining up to fill the vacancies of aged practitioners is simply not reality. Nor can the many advances of medical equipment and therapies be expected to continue unabated. While a free-market medical industry once resulted in this nation's healthcare being the envy of the world, the monstrous dispassionate bureaucracy that has supplanted it only portends stagnation and atrophy for the field of medicine.

Considering the magnitude of the catastrophe, it is indeed telling evidence of liberal medical "expertise" within the Administration that Obama and his cronies are still desperately attempting to undo their errors by putting a band-aid on this cadaver. It also further highlights their mindless devotion to the mirage of collectivist utopia, despite a miserable historical track record of failure. The verdict is in. America can only expect more of the same from this political cabal.

It is noteworthy that a previously unanticipated optimism is effervescing on the right, even as Americans are forced to confront the grim reality that always lurked behind those glowing assurances of liberalism's promised land. In the past few weeks, several prominent conservative voices have speculated that Obamacare may actually represent a death blow to the entire liberal agenda. But although this scenario may be tempting to contemplate, especially as it contrasts so starkly against the ugly realities of the day, it is risky for Americans to entertain such a possibility. The window of opportunity for a resurgence of conservatism may indeed be open, but many pieces must be put in place in order for our circumstances to result in something good.

America will not merely revert to its former glory in a vacuum, and despite public abhorrence with the current situation, those forces who worked so tirelessly to bring it to this point will not merely dissipate into the mists after having been thoroughly discredited. Rather, they see their predicament as an obstacle to be overcome. Though the former veil of deceit has been removed, they will merely redouble their efforts to concoct a new in its place so as to continue their transformation of America.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1990s, international "experts" made similar assertions on the prospects for a glorious and unalterable future for the world. The threat of worldwide communism had suddenly vanished, essentially leaving the United States as the world's lone superpower. Former jockeying for position on the world stage had ostensibly been replaced by conditions of such profound constancy that some high level academics were actually declaring "The End of History."

It should have been obvious to those deep-thinkers that, the human condition being what it is, any fleeting appearances of stability have always been a mirage. Far too few anticipated, back in the last years of the Twentieth Century, the enormous looming groundswell of militant Islam, and how it would eventually proliferate not only within its middle-eastern cauldron, but in every land where it could project itself. Post-Soviet Europe quickly became preoccupied with its own idealistic pursuit of a "European Union." Now, those once glowing forecasts of harmony and prosperity in Europe have been choked out by the realities of socialism, and lacking its own identity or vision for a worthy future, the cradle of Western Culture faces the prospect of eventual extinction.

Similarly, forecasts of liberalism going into permanent remission in this country are dangerously short sighted. While the debacle of Obamacare has indeed been an enormous setback for the left, its devotees have no intention of giving up the fight. Obama's non-apology of last week should serve as ample proof. Forced to engage in damage control, once his many promises that "If you like your present policy you can keep it" proved to be so many lies, he stalled and obfuscated, and eventually offered a faux "apology" for what the American people had experienced, as if he had only been a spectator the entire time.

This is indeed a momentous opportunity for conservatives to seize the moral and philosophical high ground, offer real measures by which the foul tide of liberalism can be driven back, and tirelessly confront those liberal Democrats who would stand in the way of doing so. It is most certainly not the occasion to "rise above the rancor" or "seek common ground with the left. Such efforts would only amount to throwing liberals a lifeline by which they can rebuild their facade of beneficence and salvage their prospects in next year's mid-terms.

Passivity or a half-hearted symbolic effort will rightly be perceived by the American people as typical GOP posturing. Election Day 2014 is barely eleven months in the future. Americans need to be clearly shown who is endeavoring to preserve Obamacare in all its ugliness, and who possesses sufficient character and spine to face the leftist political machine and its media minions, and prevail over them for the sake of the nation.

© Chris Adamo