Humility

Published November 22, 2013

by Carter Wrenn, Talking About Politics, November 22, 2013.

The train wreck hit so unexpectedly and with such force that, after standing his ground through the opening chaos, the President retreated which turned out to be like pouring gas on the fire – the partisan bickering soared. And Obama’s poll numbers tanked. And now listening to the wise men in Washington that was all that mattered: The President’s poll numbers dropping and Republican poll numbers rising.

 

But beyond the ruins of Washington politics the demise of Obamacare may be a sign of a subtler miscalculation: Not too long ago, from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, Utopian (or, yes, Communist) governments filled rooms with geniuses who dutifully gave birth to Five-Year Plans and Ten-Year Plans and Great Leaps Forward which grey-faced apparatchiks, without pity or remorse, promulgated to build a workers' paradise – then they learned a terrible lesson: Government-run economies didn’t work. Geniuses, even with the best of intentions, were frail vessels when faced with the unexpected, the unseen, and the ghost in the machine.

 

President Obama, with all good intentions, started out with a vision of a kind of health care paradise and had his own rooms filled with geniuses who dutifully plan the first step down the yellow brick road – and now he finds himself scrambling to turn back the hands of the clock.

 

So perhaps the lesson to be learned from Obamacare’s rollout isn’t a three-point swing in a generic ballot question in a poll – it’s humility. And a reminder that geniuses are still no match for the ghost in the machine.

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November 22, 2013 at 9:07 am
TP Wohlford says:

"The train wreck hit so unexpectedly..."

It wasn't unexpected, for the reason Carter uses. The American economy spends about 4% of the world's economy in health care. That is about the same size of the centrally managed economy of the USSR.

There, in the USSR, they could simply shoot their TEA equivalents, or at least force them out of the country -- no need for re-writing Senate rules there, correct? But we all know how that worked.

Liberals have an uncritically accepted idea that all woes of humanity can be fixed by a huge, expensive, and powerful government agency at the highest level of government. Conservatives, by contrast, know that isn't true, and in the end we lose far more than we gain.

So, my dear liberal friends, welcome to reality. Some of us saw the train wreck coming the minute the train tracks were planned.

November 22, 2013 at 9:10 am
Hampton Brady says:

You write "The Republican poll numbers are rising..." Other than citing a Republican pollster, can you site me one legitimate and verifiable poll to support your claim?

Here, by way of a figure and type,is what's happen in DC. If two or three skunks get into the farmer's henhouse, their stink gets all over the chickens and the farmer when he goes into the henhouse to expel the skunks. If the Republicans are the skunks (and I'm inclined to think they are in the scenario), they have stunk-up the whole damn city of DC and the President, (and the American people) with their bull shit. No wonder "all" the polls reflect a decline.

November 22, 2013 at 12:17 pm
TP Wohlford says:

That the entire DC thing stinks is undeniable.

That you believe that the only reason your side's s*** stinks is BLAME THE REPUBLICANS is laughable. Seriously.

As in, not even the delegates to the DNC convention would agree with you. Betting my last dollar that, for the past 5 years, dark mumblings about Obama have been muttered in the DNC Headquarters, in the Dem offices of the Congress, even the CBC meeting. What you wanna bet?

(Note to editor, look at Brady's post, the "S" word is okay obviously? Please remove this comment if you'd like.)

November 22, 2013 at 10:45 am
Norm Kelly says:

As TP notes, this train wreck was not unexpected. I presume Carter knows this but chose his words 'carefully' so as not to offend lefties.

What Heir Obama fails to recognize, what socialists in Washington (typically called Democrats) fail to recognize is exactly what Carter points out in his article. This is the important point that must not be overlooked. It doesn't matter what gyrations the lefties go through in Washington, or even in Raleigh. It's their goal that is important.

The goal of lefties across the country, and concentrated in Washington, is to build the perfect socialist society. One that's never been accomplished before. One that Democrats can be proud of. And, of course, run.

But what lefties refuse to do is look at two things. First they refuse to look at history. Second they refuse to look at current facts.

History: just because some other group of socialists weren't able to make socialism succeed doesn't mean our lefties aren't smart enough to pull it off. We just need the right group of smarties on the left side to make the rules, then the utopian goal will succeed. People like K Hagan, David Price, Hairy Reid, Nancy Pelosi, King Obama all believe they are the brilliant ones that can pull it off this time and change history.

Current facts: just because step 1 of the implementation of socialized medicine hasn't worked out exactly right, their response is that they just haven't tweaked it properly yet. Give them another shot & they will get it right. They promise they can do it this time. Look at student loans for an example. It wasn't working when banks were involved in the program processing the loans. The cost of higher education was too high and growing fast. So the only solution available to the socialists was to take over the program completely. With the right group of socialists in charge of student loans, the cost of a higher education will actually decrease. Just you watch. Their plan for socialized medicine will be exactly the same. They will believe that tinkering around the edges has failed, so the only way to get the program actually fixed is for a complete takeover by the central planners. The history of failed central planner programs, the facts of recent failures, are completely irrelevant because they just hadn't found the right formula, the right group of 'experts' or brainiacs to implement it properly. Recent history shows that Washington programs fail dramatically. But socialists get to ignore this because it doesn't fit their view and goals.

Some, like Hampton, are completely drunk on the cool-aid. They wish to force the rest of us to drink their cool-aid also. The problem they see isn't that socialism fails every time. The problem they see is that conservatives do not wish to join them. People like K Hagan and Hampton believe the problem is that conservatives (and sometimes Republicans) are standing in their way of utopia. Rather than accept that we are warning them that this has been tried before & failed, they believe we wish them harm. Sorry Hampton, I'll tell you the same thing I tell K and Price. I'm an adult and am perfectly capable of taking care of myself and my family. You contribute your money to the causes that you choose to support. Just allow me the choice of which causes I contribute MY money to. I know you won't accept this. Good liberals/socialists insist that everyone support the causes that the lefties choose, refusing to give anyone a choice in the matter. Good lefties choose to eliminate choice as well as debate. Witness the recent vote in the Senate. Good lefties chose to eliminate debate and ramrod/force their choices down the throats of all Americans. But remember, it's MY life, MY family, and MY money. Expect me to fight your desire to take it all from me by force. Just because it's the central planners forcibly taking it away doesn't mean its the right thing to do and doesn't mean I'm willing to accept it.