What the Heck is the Problem?

Here’s what I don’t get.  The Democrats rode in, triumphant, in January, after dealing the Republicans a crushing defeat last November – nearly a year ago, in fact, although – depending on one’s point of view – it can seem like either ten years or ten minutes.  And yet we now have the spectacle of health care, AKA ObamaCare, struggling and bogged down in the process of becoming the law of the land because of… Republicans?  But they lost – they were soundly defeated – the Democratic program is veto-proof, filibuster-proof, completely supported by the media and by all the important Hollywood personalities (who, after all, count for much more than a bunch of silly health-care professionals).  There is absolutely nothing standing in the way of full and prompt implementation – the world of Cuban-style universal health care, so admired by liberals, is just around the corner.  So what can the matter possibly be?  Oh, I get it – it’s that gaggle of cowardly Democrats who lie awake nights thinking that Obama & Co. are doing too much, too fast – and that their constituencies might just be getting a bit skeptical and uneasy with the spectre (a little Halloween lingo, there) of Cuban, or Soviet, style health care replacing all that we have now.  And these reactionaries – these dupes – these “haters” – might even decide to vote their nervous-Nellie Congressmen out of office next election.  But wait, isn’t that what “democracy” is supposed to be about?  You don’t like the horse you’re on, so you fire it and hire another – even if you are in the middle of the mythical stream (which we always seem to be in the middle of – I mean, we’re never on dry land any longer).  Well, but – heh heh, say the power elites when they survey all of this political naivete – what “democracy” really means is that people pretend to vote for candidates who pretend to have certain points of view… but once in office, those candidates then proceed to do as they damn please, because they are, after all, smarter than any of those foolish people who voted them into office.  Surely the greatest liberal program of our time – the sine qua non of the first year of the Obama administration (the second year will involve the nationalization of Starbucks, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, and Netflix -- you know, the only outfits left that are still making money) – is not going to be defeated by a coalition of “the people”, is it?  I mean, “the people” is an abstraction which is honored in song and story, and in liberal political rhetoric, but every liberal politician knows that they are really lost sheep, steeped in reactionary superstition and prejudice, who need guidance in order to gain the Promised Land.  And they will embrace, and follow, that guidance if they know what’s good for them; isn’t that right?  And any doubts will be quickly overtaken by a flood of media propaganda, with only a few isolated losers left to bleat plaintively while the rest of the populace marches off into the rising sun of ObamaCare.  Yes, that is the plan all right… but it’s amazing how halting and awkward the process of implementing it seems to be.  Why, if Obama were FDR, the plan would already be implemented – agencies would have been created and staffed – palatial buildings on the Mall would have been built to house them – movies would have been produced to sing their praises (think:  Grapes of Wrath, except for hemorrhoids), and collective amnesia would have set in as to whether things had even ever been any different.  The rough places would have been made plain, and another very large piece of the Brave New World would have been firmly in place.  But Obama is not FDR, apparently… and even members of his own party aren’t so sure they want to be on his jet-propelled bandwagon.  They have been made uneasy by the “tea parties” and “town hall meetings” – they have been confronted -- argued with, even! -- by the unwashed and the unworthy.  Clearly, this is a residual and atavistic remnant of pre-Obama, or even pre-FDR, democracy, that has to be severely dealt with – but how?  Maybe we’ll find out once Uncle Sam becomes everyone’s doctor… but in the meantime it’s more than a little satisfying to see that a few bumps in the road have developed en route to Utopia.