Paul Jacob has an excellent column on the tactic that the despots who are in power are resorting to now that widespread opposition has emerged to their plan for a government takeover of the health care system.
There might be a great silver lining in this knee-jerk fascistic response: a lot of Americans may come to realize that this stuff about democratic politics, where the elected politicians “represent” us and pursue “the public interest” is a load of baloney. People like Price, Miller and Etheridge (thanks for that great prarie dogs cartoon, Jon!) don’t represent us. They don’t even want to listen to reason. They’re eager to vote on a prodigious bill they haven’t even read, much less fully understand, a bill that hundreds of books and articles by people who are not neo-nazis have argued will make health care less available and more costly, just out of party loyalty. If that’s democracy, what good is it?
What would happen if large numbers of Americans came to think of the government as Albert Jay Nock did — My Enemy the State? What if their default response to anything Congress or the state legislature proposed was, “How is this going to hurt me?” I don’t know, but it’s fun to think about.
