Green Eggs & Prayer

So we had another Filibuster. Although this one is a little “f”. It didn’t stop a vote. It stalled it. The blabby-blab-blabathon clocked in at over twenty-one hours. Technically, not a big “F” filibuster but…did it work? No. The intention was missed and the Republican Party is being called all sorts of nasty names round the InterWebs. But was it worth it? I’m not rhetorically asking Senator Cruz. Kudos to his effort. One person can make a difference. But I’m pretty sure, unlike Senator Paul’s demand over the Drone issue, Senator Cruz knew this wasn’t going to work. In the end, surely he knew he was engaging in showmanship. But maybe that was the point. Maybe it was to draw attention to the issue, much like the homeless guy, Ricky, does at an intersection I go through daily – doing the robot, circus tricks with his “PLEASE HELP” sign. Maybe Senator Cruz is scoring points with his base for a presidential run. Who knows, but what it did do is show everyone’s cards. It showed who was a Republican willing to appease versus a Republican willing to do something, anything, for smaller government, knowing the next day he’s going to be Twitter fodder. The line got drawn and the McCains lined up to say, “There, there..let’s get along and play scat with our principles” and the Liberty-Minded Republicans who stood with Cruz said, “No, this is worth it”. By watching who declared Cruz’s performance a waste of time and who called in wishing the soles of his shoes stay firm, we were able to identify who was who. The Republican Party shows it’s split ends.

It’s been said you are defined by the company you keep. As well as your actions too, but the company you keep can influence your actions. You could find yourself acting out behaviors you wouldn’t otherwise do if it wasn’t for the group-think. This is the only way I can rationalize a liberty-minded individual turning big government once in office. Either that or power does indeed corrupt absolutely.

Over the past few years, stories of parents letting their children die of rather curable afflictions have become more common than rampaging lunatics swinging AR-15 rifles. Parents who, instead of taking their children to the hospital, take them to a house of worship, or pray over their bodies as they lay in very avoidable pain in the discomfort of their own beds. These parental units are very loving parents, no doubt. They are just stupid. They’ve probably at least heard of medicine yet choose to let their children suffer from disease and virus because they’d rather pray instead of use what proves to work. They do not intend on hurting their children, quite the contrary, they love their children so much they’re hoping God will answer said prayers and cure their light of the world. Yet, when the inevitable fails, they’ll shed a tear but claim it is God’s Will. On occasion, the State will step in and file charges of neglect or indirect murder. Regardless of the outcome, a collective head shake of shame is shared throughout the land and life goes on. Until the next one.

When the government shuts down, I see it as a dead child that didn’t have to be. I see it along similar grounds of knowing what you should do but doing the wrong thing. I see the politicians telling us they love the child so much, they must pass just one more bill – one more prayer. Both halves of the parental unit (Democrats and Republicans) engage in illogical behaviors, hoping and wishing, yet the child dies. That child is the United States Government and the people it hurts. Yet, unlike the ignorant parents who use prayer over their human offspring, we can resurrect the government.

The primary reason for the Shutdown has to do with a dispute over Obamacare. The Republicans want to defund it and the Democrats want to let the Obama Adminstration’s most shining moment wave high. Is this really worth holding so many other government services hostage? Well, only if you like the services you’re getting. But this is how government works. And this is why the politicians practicing this all encompassing, parental form of governing find themselves with their babies on life support.

Everything it controls becomes a political football to be held hostage or taken out behind the shed and shot. Maybe you want Obamacare. And what if it turns out to be awesome despite my own reservations? Well, it’s still a government program. It’s always going to be in danger of modification or defunding or over-complicating the next round of politicians that take over. If, as now, one party or a majority dislike something, they may taketh away or change to their liking. Never yours.

You’ll never get what you want if you continue to ask government to take care of your problems. The problem here was an alleged poor health care system and the government instituted Obamacare as an answer. If you could implement your own government program, your idea may start out as a wonderful solution but when you make it a government program, it’s bound to not be what you thought it would.

Before you can turn your idea into law, you have to gather a group of people who feel the same way about your plan and promote it. But since no one person is exactly alike as the other, you’re bound to make a few compromises to retain your support. Then you’re required to bring it to your Congressmen’s attention and if they wish to work with it, you’re going to end up with even more compromises and changes.

Once in government, your idea will go through various committees and debates. All participants in the plan will modify and change it to suite their needs. Your idea is slowly becoming someone else’s and will no longer represent your intentions.

When and if it gets past this point, you will not be the one to write the law, the politicians will. They will be the same politicians who made the many failed programs you object to now. Then once law, you will not be the one to enforce it, bureaucrats will. They will enforce only the parts they agree with and end up using it to appease their political cohorts.

Of course the new law will have its opponents, so it will end up before the courts which will have their way of interpreting it as well.

By the time your idea ends up running the gamete of government, it will not be what you intended it to be. It will now be another political football for the politicians to use against each other and to satisfy their political supporters. And you’ll look back on all that time you wasted asking government to solve your problem.

I don’t dislike Obamacare because it comes from the Democrats. I dislike Obamacare because it’s another government program. You’re stuck with it. And the above process is how it came to be. Cruz’s stand didn’t have any affect but to bring happy faces to his supporters and draw up lines within the Republican Party (which I consider to be the greater good of it).

So you have a choice. You can either associate yourself with the Free Market, liberty-minded peoples, looking for free and non-coercive ways of solving problems, otherwise known as “What Works”. Or you can associate yourself with hoping and wishing that just this time, this government program will work, that Obamacare is different. Praying that the child lives. Because this time, with government involved in health care, YOUR child is right along with Isaac. And I wonder, will God retract Abraham’s hand a second time?

Incidentally, Senator Rand Paul is a doctor.