I’m getting so tired of hearing Republicans being called, “the party of no.” Let’s just get this nonsense cleared up once and for all. Words such as no or yes are neutral. They only take on moral meaning when we decide what we are saying yes or no to. After all, we as a society, decided long ago that we would say no to all kinds of things. We say no to slavery. We say no to segregation. We say no to murder. We say no to rape. And some of us also want to say no to government mandated health care and other programs which could easily take down the private sector in favor of a constraining nanny state.
For the record, Republicans throughout 2009 suggested many alternatives to reforming health care without undermining freedom. Obama never listened to them, neither did he invite CSPAN into the negotiations as he promised eight times during his campaign.
Now, in the aftermath of recent elections and negative approval ratings, Obama is once again calling for “bi-partisanship” and “transparency.” He even told us again that CSPAN is welcome. Of course he’ll follow through this time. He has to. He has also invited Republicans to show up with their ideas.
Nothing about our president’s track record inspires belief in his sincerity. This will mostly be another opportunity for him to give a speech on television. If the justifiably skeptical Republicans fail to show, it will look bad. If they do attend, Obama will listen to their ideas and then throw them a bone or two along the lines of tort reform. Then, he will ask them to accept the high majority of the two thousand plus health care bills that crawled out from under the House and Senate rocks. If Republicans feel they cannot in good conscience go along with these creepy things, Obama will say, “See? I tried. I extended the olive branch.”
Republican senators and congressmen; I implore you: Don’t fall for this box trap. One or two conservative tweaks will not turn a pumpkin into Cinderella’s horse drawn carriage. If you compromise, your constituents will abandon you in November when you were expecting them to turn out in record numbers to vote Democrats out of office. If you do not compromise, Obama will claim that his opinion of your non-cooperation is vindicated. Obama wins either way.
What then is the Republican alternative? Show up at the meeting but only with preconditions. Demand equal time at the podium. Pick your best, most charismatic speaker to carefully go through the history of last year’s suggestions and remind Obama over CSPAN that he never considered your point of view for even a second. Remind him also that right now most Americans reject his health care bill and that he is not in much of a position to bargain. Then, promise to work on a brand new project only after the current one is buried. If you wish, I’d be happy to come to the funeral and perform a lovely eulogy. Make it clear you only support a bill which fixes health care problems within the private sector. Decide ahead of time that you do not care what the New York Times says about you the following morning. Neither should you lose sleep over the opinions of Keith Olbermann or Joy Behar. Please explain to the audience that if no means no when a woman is telling a man to back off, it also means no when freedom is telling Socialism to back off.
Oh, one more thing; Please don’t say, “We are doing this for the American people.”
That last suggestion is not as important. It would only be a personal favor to me. If I hear a politician say, “the American people” one more time, I may just be sick to my stomach whether I have free health care or not.
Bob Siegel is a weekend radio talk show host on KCBQ and columnist. Details of his show can be found at www.bobsiegel.net. Comments to posts are discussed by Bob over the air where anyone is free to call in and respond/debate. Call in toll free number: 1-888-344-1170