When President Obama held his conference call with leaders of the Religious Left last week I wondered if he was dressed as one of The Blues Brothers. The President, after all, seemed to be on a mission from God.
Obama told his religious supporters, “I know there’s been a lot of misinformation in this debate, and there are some folks out there who are, frankly, bearing false witness, but I want everyone to know what health insurance reform is all about.” Then with the fervor of a community organizer he implored his flock to rein in the heathens. “I need you to knock on doors, talk to your neighbors,” said the President, “I need you to spread the facts and speak the truth.”
After hearing the President’s sermon from the mount one could easily think that it was a sin to oppose Obamacare. One it appears that the President will not easily forgive. During his weekly radio/internet address, President Obama again cast aspersions on opponents of Obamacare albeit in more secular overtones.
The President called for “an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions.”
While President Obama never, in fact, specified any particular individual bearing false witness and engaging in willful misrepresentations and outright distortions by name; it seemed clear his remarks were directed at former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. “As every credible person who has looked into it has said, there are no so-called death panels – an offensive notion to me and the American people,” said Obama with more than a hint of defensiveness.
Yet a majority of the American people would seem to be more offended by Obamacare than by Palin’s assertions including feminist scholar and Obama supporter Camille Paglia. In an article, Paglia wrote at
Salon.com she notes Palin’s acuity in the health care debate:
When I first saw that phrase, headlined on the Drudge Report, I burst out laughing. It seemed so over the top! But on reflection, I realized that Palin's shrewdly timed metaphor spoke directly to the electorate's unease with the prospect of shadowy, unelected government figures controlling our lives. A death panel not only has the power of life and death but is itself a symptom of a Kafkaesque brave new world where authority has become remote, arbitrary and spectral. And as in the Spanish Inquisition, dissidence is heresy, persecuted and punished.
Simply put, it is not for the federal government to play God. President Obama might not agree with Paglia’s observation. But does this mean she is suddenly no longer a credible person? Has she fallen from grace in the eyes of The Anointed One?
Here’s another way to look at President Obama’s divine intervention. Suppose President Bush had a teleconference with representatives of the Religious Right to discuss a specific issue he wanted to implement such as reform of Social Security. Let us also suppose that President Bush had accused his critics of bearing false witness. Well, I think it is safe to say that liberals and progressives would have unleashed a response of biblical proportions. The Left would insist to the high heavens that America was well on its way to becoming a theocracy.
Come to think of it, in March 2005,
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, commenting about GOP efforts to save the life of Terri Schiavo wrote, “Oh my God, we really are in a theocracy.” Yet curiously Ms. Dowd has no objection to President Obama invoking The Ten Commandments when it comes to those who might not accept his teachings. Her scorn is unsurprisingly reserved for heretics like Palin who she dismisses as “dizzy.” Yet at the same time Palin “
managed to hijack the health care debate from Mr. Obama.” Will wonders ever cease?
While Dowd might believe President Obama has a monopoly on the truth when it comes to health care but most Americans aren’t prepared to worship at that altar. There’s no doubt President Obama believes his vision of health care is best for America. As such President Obama would be wise to tell us why he thinks Obamacare is better than the system that we have in place right now. It would serve him far better than casting aspersions against those who do not see a promised land at the end of the tunnel.
One would hope that a week of leisure in Martha’s Vineyard would enable him to see the light. Yet there is every indication
President Obama is looking to have his health care agenda passed in Congress even without Republican support. President Obama will leave the Cape with a full tank of gas and half a pack of cigarettes. It’s dark out, he’s wearing sunglasses and The First Lady will say, “Hit it.” In which case it would appear America is getting Obamacare come hell or high water.
Aaron Goldstein was a card carrying member of the socialist New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP). Since 09/11, Aaron has reconsidered his ideological inclinations and has become a Republican. Aaron lives and works in Boston. 
