Sunday, March 28, 2010

FINALLY!

All right, so it was just about a week ago.  Still, it's hard to believe that it actually happened.

Something close to genuine health care reform actually made it all the way through Congress, and became law.  It's far from perfect.  It will leave a lot of people without insurance.  And the process that produced it left so much to be desired, all of which has been commented on endlessly elsewhere.

Still, 32 million people who could not get health care now will be able to do so.  And that fact alone will help to drive down the cost of health care for everyone (more patients + same basic delivery system = lower cost per patient).

Perhaps more importantly, Barack Obama has learned how to act like a president.  And perhaps, just perhaps, Congressional Democrats have learned that if you can't use an overwhelming majority to act on a core principle, you don't deserve to have the majority in the first place.

How is this going to sort out, politically?  Time will tell, but I'm guessing that, if the entire Republican premise behind all of this was an attempt to lay the groundwork for another 1994, they're going to be disappointed.  Because, unlike 16 years ago, they're not facing a compromised, plurality president and a Congress that will let the right-wing fear machine take them by surprise.  Most of all, they will have to dispel the bad memories they created through their own years in power--and there will be millions of people (including yours truly) who will not let them get away with it.

IMHBDAO, the Republicans' single biggest mistake is in believing their own preconceived biases about Barack Obama.  He is neither the naive dummy nor the insecure tyrant that every right-wing word and deed over the past two years has been designed to destroy.  Rather, he is an intelligent, articulate leader who knows when he's been played long enough, and refuses to give in when something he believes in is at stake.

In short, he is the GOP's worst nightmare.

Well, keep tossing and turning in the midnight of your despair, O melancholy conservatives.  Your sleep may become even more restless in the coming months.  But, above all, keep sleeping.  At least then, hopefully, you won't disturb the people you've done so much to hurt.

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