Outrageous Watch--A Democrat Speaks Out Against the Health Care Bill

Some Democrats are loudly decrying their party's botching of the all-important health care bill.  Dissident feminist Camille Paglia is complaining on Salon that

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.

This, ladies and gentlemen of the Democratic Party, is what scares the American people. This kind of talk, putting down free speech in the United States, is dangerous, no matter which party it comes from. Coming from Nancy Pelosi, it is bound to scare the crap out of most people to the right of center, and anyone else who values the Democratic process in the United States.

Ms. Paglia also says that

the president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since the Bush administration snookered the country into invading Iraq with apocalyptic visions of mushroom clouds over American cities.

You can keep your doctor; you can keep your insurance, if you're happy with it, Obama keeps assuring us in soothing, lullaby tones. Oh, really? And what if my doctor is not the one appointed by the new government medical boards for ruling on my access to tests and specialists? And what if my insurance company goes belly up because of undercutting by its government-bankrolled competitor? Face it: Virtually all nationalized health systems, neither nourished nor updated by profit-driven private investment, eventually lead to rationing.

Why can't the Democratic party see this? Why can't their apologists see this? Having some form of guaranteed health care, or a wider safety net for those who need it is a humane thing. Pushing through a bill with government run medical boards and putting the federal government in the business of medicine is not.

This health care debate has shown the horrifyingly condescending way that that the voting public are treated by the Democratic party. Ms. Paglia says that the Democrats are so ready to defame concerned citizens as the "mob" -- a word betraying a Marie Antoinette delusion of superiority to ordinary mortals.

Another thing she complains about that many former Democrats, like my husband and I have been saying for years, is that

I thought my party was populist, attentive to the needs and wishes of those outside the power structure. And as a product of the 1960s, I thought the Democratic party was passionately committed to freedom of thought and speech.

As anyone who knows me can guess, I disagree with Ms. Paglia on most other things, but I do agree with her on this.  It is amazing how blind the mainstream Democratic party is to its supposed core values. I honestly think this country can not continue with either major party in power.