Malevolent Alchemy: The Real Question Behind the Healthcare Debate

WhenWeAreQueen ^ | August 8, 2009 | Queen1

[pharmamom]

This isn’t about the healthcare system and who can run it best. This is a question of personal liberty: Who is going to control your body? We couldn’t be asking a more profound question than this, and we are going to lose this fight unless we get Americans to see that having the government “take care” of our health is an irreversible and fatal blow to our most inalienable rights—the right to life and self-determination.

Obama has recognized this; of course, diminishing individual liberty for the sake of the community is his whole schtick. Democrats in general are fine with decreasing the freedom of the individual in order to promote the common good; Obama is a true-believer. Somewhere I read (was it in an article about his speech on single-payer care in Illinois? I can’t remember; I’ll look for it) that he acknowledged (paraphrasing) that Americans are deeply committed to the value of individual liberty and that part of his agenda is to shift that commitment to “concern for the community.” In other words, socialize the American psyche, in the political sense of the word.

Right now, as we can see from the townhall protests, Americans are not persuaded that their individual good is served by a government dealing with a vague, statistical “community good.” But I have heard few people, from average Americans to sophisticated conservative pundits, express the issue succinctly: the question at hand is whether you are willing to relinquish your personal liberty.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

for later