Posted on 02/20/2014 3:05:44 PM PST by neverdem
As American voters watch ObamaCare continue its Godzilla-like rampage across the national health-care landscape, it's worth considering the collateral damage this political monster may be doing to the Democratic brand itself. What if ObamaCare's problems become a metaphor for the modern Democratic Party? Two portents emerged the past week.
The United Auto Workers suffered a humiliating defeat at Volkswagen in Tennessee. And days before that loss, voters in San Diego elected Republican Kevin Faulconer mayor after he teed up his opponent as a captive of the city's public unions. Two big constituencies sacked in a week.
The Democrats' problem is that we live in the brutal age of brand maintenance. Ask BlackBerry, Sony, Target or Lululemon. The horror of falling off the curve is that, seemingly overnight, enthusiasm for one's brand can evaporate. There is no reason why a political party should be immune to this new imperative.
Out in the world beyond what Washington manufactures and spins, no one would get away with putting out a product as flawed as ObamaCare. Today's public won't accept that kind of performance. From the largest consumer-product companies down to the local sandwich shop, you've got to deliver the goods at a sustained level of competent execution. Not everyone deserves a gold badge from J.D. Power, but by and large it has become very difficult to sustain a shoddy product in the marketplace anymore.
Working Knowledge—Self-Operating Napkin. © and TM Rube Goldberg Inc./rubegoldberg.com
Except the government. And the Democratic Party is nothing if not the party whose identity is bound up with government services and the public unions that deliver those services.
Good enough for government work was once just a joke. Some years ago I sat with a roomful of people in lower Manhattan's federal Social Security office for a half hour...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Seemed to have missed it, but what happened to Sony?
The Social Security office has guards. The Veterans Administration has guards. The National Parks have guards.
GOPe doing their victory lap before the ballots are cast. Don’t count your beltway GOP chickens before they hatch.
The monster federal government is like The Little Shop of Horrors - FEED ME, FEED ME.
The thing is how can we dismantle it when the opposition is fractured between the GOPe and the Tea Party and the rats continue for adhere to their scripts?
Seems the rats are holding the better hand unless we can reach the likes of the Reagan Democrats.
First time we ever went into a social security office there was a guard stationed (sitting) by a table near the entrance. He seemed to be asleep. Or maybe dead.
Don’t they all have SWAT teams too?
Daniel Henninger might not be able to write the truth next year... let’s should enjoy him while we can...
The FCC Wades Into the Newsroom
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304680904579366903828260732
Yes, they do.
Part of Obama’s private army.
Thanks for the link.
Reaching God would work even better.
Probably. I can’t talk to the local VA employees. You can’t find a number for them in the phone book. So, I get to call an employee working who knows where? One time, and I’m not making this up, I called the national VA phone number. A machine answered and said, “Hello. Thank-you for calling the VA. Good-by” and it hung up. What other organization can treat people this way?
When my Father died, I had to go to the Social Security office. Not only were there armed guards, but the employees were behind bullet proof glass in a bunker. Is it any wonder that government employees steal and act as if they are our lords?
Well this is what we will get out of a nanny government.
The nanny might do what its current boosters want. But it won’t be guaranteed to keep doing it, once it has its wicked power granted by a “We The People” who have decided they want idols, having given up on God. (IF it gets that far. Which I hope does not get there, but God will let them be foolish and burn themselves through rebelling, rather than to force the unforceable love down their throats.)
I believe the boosters discount the presence of the supernatural. There’s not just a God to choose concerning. There’s also a devil. Which will walk away with what arbitrary, overweening, loveless thing you thought was securely in your hands. Then they will find that yes, Nazi Germany was a topical object lesson on a run away government, or communist USSR if criticizing the Nazis is not your cup of tea.
They’ve all but forgotten God, Unicorn.
“God” long ago became a name for a symbolic stand in for human aspiration, an aspiration which has grown steadily coarser.
The actual God never went away. The same old time promises and warnings remain true. But now we are in a reap-the-warning zone, of our own choosing.
You're in my prayer blueunicorn - must have been painful considering your recent loss. Again, you're in my prayers.
He made mention of the "Democratic Party" four times in this article.
From the article:
Dan Henninger is a smart, analytical guy and I love reading his articles. He fails to realize, or perhaps doesn't account for, that the Democrat party isn't a brand - it's a religion. Half of our country isn't going to give up their religion. Throw in the fact that the Democrats (American Socialist Party) have managed to stage a long march through all of our institutions, most notably our media, and relentlessly indoctrinate our youth and the LoFo's, and the Demons will never suffer the consequences they deserve.
Thank-you. He is a Christian, so I know where he is.
Very true.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
