Health Care Redux: Why Opponents of Obamacare Should Support the Libertarian Party

[mrjarrell]

The dems are jubilant about its passage and the gop has gone wobbly on Obamacare. They aren't against it, (as the article cited below points out many of the provisions in it are republican inspired) and they have no intention of repealing it. Ever. Even if they somehow managed to sweep both houses in November they'll just tweak it to suit their own tastes and we'll still be saddled with it. Even the staunches of gop supporters see it. So why bother wasting a vote on these cretins? To maintain your partisan creds? Not worth being part of the problem.

via Independent Political Report

Cross-posted from Poli-Tea. Under ten days after Obamacare was signed into law, leading Republican Senators began to downplay any talk of repealing the measure. On April 1st, Michelle Malkin didn’t “feel much like laughing” as she noted that the GOP was “already starting to go wobbly on repealing the health care reform monstrosity,” and directed readers to the Ace of Spades, where Drew M. wrote:

10 days! The GOP can’t even muster courage for two whole weeks before they start thinking that maybe, just maybe they are being too strident about the whole health care repeal thing. . . . If the path of least resistance is to nibble at the edges of this law, that’s what most Republicans will do. It’s our job to keep them focused on the task and more afraid of what happens if they go wobbly than not.
​

Of course, whatever they state in their campaign speeches, it is highly unlikely that many Republicans will actively work to repeal the measure, since they did not oppose it on principle, but rather opposed its passage by Democrats, who happily pointed out that many of its major provisions have long been supported by prominent Republicans. Unlike Republicans, whose position on this issue is determined almost entirely by a variable political calculus, Libertarian candidates for office stand united against it as a matter of course. Consider the following examples:

Lex Green, Libertarian candidate for governor of Illinois: “I strongly believe that the best way to control costs in any industry, health care include, is free markets. But health care is an industry that is one of the most regulated by our federal government. Therefore we must think of an alternate approach . . . The solution that I want to bring to the issue is to enforce competition such as should occur in a free market health care arena.”

James Brown, Libertarian candidate for governor of Colorado: “Healthcare Reform: Individual Diversity over Corporate/Government Monopoly. A government that has waged war on medicine should not dictate medical choice.”

Ken Matesz, Libertarian candidate for governor of Ohio: “It is our Constitutional duty to nullify federal laws passed which overstep the Constitutional limits. Ohio must stand firmly between the general government and the free citizens of Ohio. There is no authority in the U.S. Constitution for the general government to exert control over health care.”

Jake Towne, independent libertarian candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania: “Our health care is simply too important to be left to bureaucrats in Washington, plus it is unconstitutional. I strongly disapprove of the Democrats’ Obamacare and also the incumbent Republican’s “Medical Rights and Reform Act” as both are simply matching strains of the same disease – socialized medicine.”

Alex Snitker, Libertarian candidate for Senate in Florida: “the federal government is not authorized to condition funding to State or local governments on compliance with mandates which require them to do what the federal government is not authorized to do directly . . . When Congress enacts laws and regulations that are not made in Pursuance of the powers enumerated in the Constitution, the People are not bound to obey them . . . When the federal government exceeds its Constitutional authority, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy.”
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While Republicans are busy litigating Obamacare, Libertarians are calling for nullification and interposition. The Kn@ppster writes, “Don’t repeal/litigate, nullify/interpose!”

In litigation, the parties accept that the courts have jurisdiction over this or that issue, and walk away with whatever the courts give them. The Supreme Court of the United States, (including its “conservative” members in cases like Raich v. Gonzales) has already ruled that the Interstate Commerce Clause can mean pretty much anything Congress wants it to mean. Litigating ObamaCare is a dead-end road.
In nullification, the state governments say “we’ve determined — for ourselves, we don’t need any of you black-robed ninnies to do it for us — that this piece of legislation is unconstitutional on its face, and we’re not going to stand for it, at least within our own borders. Injunction? You can shove your injunction up your ass. If you attempt to come here to enforce it, our National Guard will do the shoving for you. Complimentary. No charge.”
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Sadly, many self-described conservatives and libertarians have allowed themselves to be convinced by professional propagandists that the Republican Party stands for something other than the indefinite reproduction of the global warfare and corporate welfare state. In this, they are not so very different from their liberal and progressive counterparts in the Democratic Party.

 

[dross]

Okay, let's say you've convinced me. Give me your best case scenario. 2010, how many Libertarian Congressmen and Senators could be elected under a best case scenario. How many elections in a row before we got a President and a Congress, or enough in Congress to sway to country away from statism. Lay out your best case plan, and how many elections it takes to get there.

 

[rambone]

When they become mainstream, what is to stop them from being infiltrated by socialists the way the other parties have?

 

[DodgebyDave]

Okay, let's say you've convinced me. Give me your best case scenario. 2010, how many Libertarian Congressmen and Senators could be elected under a best case scenario. How many elections in a row before we got a President and a Congress, or enough in Congress to sway to country away from statism. Lay out your best case plan, and how many elections it takes to get there.

Well, gimme a sec to peer into my crystal ball....................

Wait. Magic 8 ball sez "try again tomorrow"

Damn if this isn't a lot like the way politics work.

My best case scenario involves a good bit of time, as first we need to get the Rats and the Cons out of the local, county and state offices first. Do that, and the rest will take care of itself.

When the Libs start winning there, then they will have a chance to do well nationally.

The trouble there is that anyone decent enough to do the job wouldn't want anything to do with it.

So who is going to be the poor sod to run for "Marion County Sheriff" that we can trust? Christ knows we could use a good one.

 

[dross]

Well, gimme a sec to peer into my crystal ball....................

Wait. Magic 8 ball sez "try again tomorrow"

Damn if this isn't a lot like the way politics work.

My best case scenario involves a good bit of time, as first we need to get the Rats and the Cons out of the local, county and state offices first. Do that, and the rest will take care of itself.

When the Libs start winning there, then they will have a chance to do well nationally.

The trouble there is that anyone decent enough to do the job wouldn't want anything to do with it.

So who is going to be the poor sod to run for "Marion County Sheriff" that we can trust? Christ knows we could use a good one.

Exactly the sort of flip answer I expected.

There is no scenario where if you "vote your conscience" you don't put Democrats in power for several elections. Most votes for Libertarians are votes that will ensure Dems gain power. Fine, that has to be part of the strategy. But if you advocate that strategy, I'd like to know what the best case scenario is. How many elections will that happen? No, no one has a crystal ball, but if you don't even have a plan, why should I follow the strategy? I've never thought the plan would work. Do some convincing, lay it out. You guys are great at picking at other folk's strategies. Lay one out yourselves and let's examine it.