A health care question...

to lazland:  You would not have been able to find a national poll in support of this legislation and most polls weren't even all that close.  Also, the election was the result of a perfect storm: outgoing President from the opposition party with an extremely low approval rating, an opposition nominee despised by the core of his own party (this being the result of the parties moronic early primary set up), Obama running as an empty suit with no real clearly stated agenda, and the overwhelming majority of media outlets giving Obama a free pass every step of the way.  His approval ratings now and the results of the elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and Mass. along with all the poll numbers on this massive power-grab bill should indicate that passing this was in no way in accordince with the wishes of the majority of Americans.

 

to Epignosis: As a voter under the age of 27 I would tend to agree with you.  We are living in an "American Idol" society of appearance over substance with an shameful public school system that teaches little about this nations founding and screws it up royally when it attempts to.  The sense of entitlement a ton of voters have isn't new to my generation though and has been encouraged by Democrats, and many Republicans, since the New Deal (a bit earlier than that, but this was the major event).  The New Deal bought the national electorate for FDR and national elections have been a process of buying the uninformed and "moderate" voters ever since.  It fills me with some hope though to see the anger over this health care abomination as it shows that there is still a large portion of the American public still cares about retaining what liberties haven't already been taken.  That is to say, they have not agreed to trade Constitutional freedoms for government cheese this time.  The federal governments lust for power and control has never been stronger than it is now and it is going to take the continued and vocal outrage of the American public to simply preserve the Constituion itself.  This administration and the congressional majority have made it very clear that they will work around the system and ignore the Constitution for as long as they are allowed to.  It is my hope that James Madison, in the form of Judicial Review, will save us this time but we must be ever vigilant if we still wish to preserve (and in many instances regain) individual liberty. 

 

thellama73: Grover Cleveland is indeed an underrated President from an era in which Presidents understood their role as little more than a steward of the Constitution.

 

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood." ~ Grover Cleveland on his veto of the Texas Seed Bill

 

Presidents like Cleveland and a favorite of mine, Calvin Coolidge, are not remembered today simply because they refused to exceed the limits of their office.  Seeing that the government operated within the limits of the power granted by the Constitution was understood as their job and that is what they did.  It is a tragedy that not long after the turn of the last century that Presidents forgot their role and sought to alter the nation in ways befitting their own visions.