Like the villagers in Mary Shelley’s horror classic who recognized that abominations need undoing, the US House of Representatives voted 244-185 Wednesday to repeal the Obama Healthcare monster. The events of Shelley’s classic horror story and the current debacle bear more than a passing resemblance.
First, there is the issue of overstepping the bounds of propriety and decency. Victor Frankenstein may have begun well in using his medical training to help better the human condition, but somewhere along the way hubris clouded his judgment horribly. As a result, he set in motion some very sinister and irreversible events, with tragic results for all involved. Some things are better left untried, constrained by the limits of common sense, humility and nature.
The President’s ambition to “provide” guaranteed healthcare to everyone in America is a goal that sounds lofty and compassionate, much like the tenets of socialism sound appealing in a utopian sort of way. But people are people, and sooner or later the stick comes out to handle those who eschew the carrot. I didn’t use the term “every American,” because although that’s what Barack Obama may have said, it certainly isn’t what he means. His position on granting illegal aliens and even international terrorists the same rights as American citizens is well documented throughout his administration, and this would logically include universal healthcare.
The most offensive of the bill’s many problems was the provision forcing people to purchase healthcare from the government if they opted out of other sources. This monster of compulsory compliance was looking more dead than alive under Supreme Court review, until Chief Justice John Roberts provided the lightning necessary to animate it by relocating the misplaced body part stitched in under the Commerce Clause to the Taxation section. “It’s alive!!” the decision trumpeted to a shocked public.
Frankenstein’s monster was compiled of purloined body parts from questionable sources. The Obama Healthcare bill suffers the same identity crisis, with even Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally admitting that we’d ultimately find out what was actually in the 1500-page juggernaut AFTER it was passed. That statement should have scared everyone with a brain (their own, not a stolen one). To make matters worse, Frankenstein then had to compound his error by attempting to make another abomination to be a companion to his first mistake. Lack of foresight usually leads to more complicated dilemmas, which then spiral increasingly out of control. I offer you the European economy as Exhibit A.
In the classic story, the villagers finally rise up in revulsion at what Frankenstein has done, and destroy it. In the end it was merciful for the monster, who never should have existed in the first place. It was also merciful for Victor Frankenstein, because somebody else had the decency to clean up his mess when he wouldn’t.
Lastly, the villagers were spared any further suffering, shock and loss from Frankenstein’s evil mistakes.
Even though the Senate will probably thumb their noses at the lowly House and sustain the President’s abomination, it may come at the expense of a shift of power in their halls. Let’s hope that in the immediate future the plug finally gets pulled on this monstrosity and the people’s rights and freedoms are restored once again. The longer this thing survives, the harder it will be to kill.
