The Washington Post today carries a great opinion piece by Democrats Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen that is a refreshing bit of sanity in an otherwise insane party:
In "The March of Folly," Barbara Tuchman asked, "Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?" Her assessment of self-deception -- "acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts" -- captures the conditions that are gripping President Obama and the Democratic Party leadership as they renew their efforts to enact health-care reform.
Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November. In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts, there was a moment when the president and the Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology, the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.
Read the whole thing for solid point after point.
Lest you think I'm concern trolling here, I don't give a damn about the fortunes of the Democratic Party. For the record, I'm not exactly enamored with much of the Republican Party either. But the self-delusion of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama is kind of fascinating to watch if you can get past the frustration at their arrogance.
The party line now appears to be that Democrats are "damned if we do, damned if we don't", so they might as well ram a health care reform bill through. As Caddell and Schoen point out though, those are not the choices that the brilliant maneuvers of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama have left the Democratic Party. The real choice is which circle of Hell the voters are going to place them in come November. There are degrees of unpleasantness at play here, even if the leadership wants to wish that fact away.
If they succeed in ramming health care through, I'm betting on the eighth.
Recent Comments