Oh, the humanity!
In order to push Obama's health care agenda to the next step on Saturday, Democrats had to make a stunning concession:
Last night, 23 Democrats voted against providing 36 million Americans with health insurance while reducing the deficit, but in favor of the Stupak amendment to restrict reproductive rights for low-income women.
This brings us to Rule 4 of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this..."
Conservatives try in vain to make Democrats live up to their own rulebook, but the mainstream media generally give liberals a pass, allowing them to go totally ACORN 99% of the time. As far as the Democrats' friends in the press are concerned, there really aren't any rules. The ends always justify the means.
But lefties do have sacred rules — and their health care legislation is so multifaceted and so all-encompassing that it's forcing the Democrats to try to live up to the entirety of their own book of conflicting dos and don'ts.
Here are some of the liberals' most cherished beliefs and values:
- Health Care is a right (unless it's too expensive, or you're too old).
- Elective abortion is a right (no exceptions).
- It is immoral for government to undermine a woman’s ability to make her own life choices (except to force one one woman to pay for another woman's abortion).
- Government should ration health care (except abortion).
- Government should not place a bureaucrat between you, your insurance provider, and your doctor (except when regulating health care services not involving abortion).
It's a complicated maze of conflicting "moral" values, to be sure. But liberals have managed to stay out of trouble because they have never had the opportunity to take on a project that would put their convictions to the test to the extent that this health care legislation will.
In the wake of Pelosi's compromise with pro-Life Democrats, Abortion enthusiasts are seething. They feel that they've been thrown under the bus.
But what's a good Democrat to do? They might have the votes to pass sweeping health care legislation (their prime moral imperative), but not if they try to change the status quo on the use of federal funds for elective abortion procedures.
In trying to live up to their own book of rules, the Democrats are self-destructing.
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Excellent analysis of the pro-life Stupak amendment
