A Bit of Good Cheer

If you are feeling pessimistic about the prospects for health care reform, here is something from Gary Hubbell - that's the Gary Hubbell who is a hunter, rancher, fly-fishing guide, ranch real estate broker, and self described redneck tree hugger - who says that Barack Obama is "the savior of America's future" because he has allowed Americans to see what life under true "progressive" government can be like: Barack Obama Has Awoken A Sleeping Nation

Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest approval ratings among recent presidents, history will see Barack Obama as the source of America's resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country into levels of debt that we could not have previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize health care have been met with fierce resistance nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending have shown little positive effect on the national economy; unemployment is unacceptably high and looks to remain that way for most of a decade; legacy entitlement programs have ballooned to unsustainable levels, and there is a seething anger in the populace.

That's why Barack Obama is such a good thing for America.

Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism that has infected our society like a cancer for the last 100 years. Just as Hitler is the face of fascism, Obama will go down in history as the face of unchecked liberalism. The cancer metastasized to the point where it could no longer be ignored.

There's been a lot of commentary along these lines lately, and certainly there has been a real change in the political landscape over the past year. You never used to see people marching on Washington in the name of limited government, for example. We've seen a budget-cutting Republican elected governor of budget-busting New Jersey. We've seen a Republican take the "People's Seat" in Massachusetts previously held by the Kennedy clan. And so on.

But, we should never lose sight of the fact that there are millions out there for whom liberalism is the source for all things good in this world, and they are not likely to go anywhere anytime soon. For one thing, they have the resources, organizational tools, and media savvy to continue to exercise outsized power for years to come. Not only that, Democrats have a proven record for gathering votes, putting together coalitions, and *ahem* finding votes where they had not exactly been cast. If America really has "awoken," she will need to stay engaged long enough so that liberals lose not just elections, but also their grasp on the many levers of power they presently control.