Never thought I’d see that

For the past week, I’ve been watching the Democrats in Washington lurch and stumble, zombie-like, toward…”he-a-a-ath…ca-a-a-re…re-e-e-fo-o-orm”. It’s been fascinating.

It’s obvious that our elected betters aren’t listing to the people who put in these jobs in the first place. Most polls hover around the sentiment that 2/3 of the American public does not support the current moves toward “reform”. Reasons vary from “I’ve seen public housing; I don’t want to see public health care” to “It must be single payer and the government must be the payer”.

Realistically, this pile of steaming crap just needs to be buried so that it stops drawing flies. No one wants it, most people think it stinks, and anyone with any sense knows that delay will not improve the situation.

However, I have seen one thing that I never thought I’d seen. I have always firmly believed that if a politician could do nothing else reliably, they could count votes. I have also firmly believed that no politician would do something in broad daylight that would likely result in losing that position that they have so long lusted after. (In a back room with a page or staffer, sure. But not in front of the media–fawning or not.)

But this time, I’m seeing dozens of Democrat politicians who are willing to sacrifice their seats and probably their political careers on the alter of “health care reform”. They’re not only going to vote for it, By God they’re proud to say they are going to vote for it.

Now it’s possible that they cynically (a possibly correctly) believe that the American public, which in general has the attention span of of a kid with ADHD on an unmedicated day, will simply forget about a “yes” vote before the next election. Given that the next election is in November, I’m not too fond of this explanation. I think that, on truly big issues, people will remember it a least a year, and that will be long enough for politicians opposed to the idea to gin up a healthy case of voter outrage.

I’ve had at least one person tell me that it was because they all know that their retirement is a done deal, and they don’t care if they lose their seats or not. I tend to discount this because it goes against everything I ever observed about the species politicus americanus.

What it looks like to me, and what sincerely terrifies me, is that our elected betters actually that this is the right thing to do, no matter the price. In other words, they are “true believers” in “health care reform”. That is a frightening possibility, and one that, if true, does not bode well for us in the future.

Because it’s a long time to November.