#ObamaCare : The fight has only just started

**Posted by Phineas

Leviathan upheld

Okay, fine. The Supreme Court has ruled (1) ObamaCare to be constitutional, even if it had to do so in a bizarre manner by declaring the mandate a tax and thus within Congress’ taxation powers, even though the government never made that argument and President Obama swore up and down it wasn’t a tax. So be it.

But this fight isn’t over; it’s only just started.

The fight over ObamaCare has never been just about what’s allowed under the Constitution or some spurious notion of a “right” to health care. At the core is a conflict of visions over the nature of government and the relation of citizens to that government: Is it a federal government of limited, specific powers and a freeborn citizenry with inherent rights that cannot be revoked, or is it a paternalistic State of unlimited power, with citizens reduced to wards?

In the end, ObamaCare is a political question of the purest, most basic kind: What is the nature of our polity?

And that is why the fight has only just begun. The Court has thrown this back into the political arena, and there is an election coming. It is now imperative that we not only hold the House, but win the Senate with a good majority and win the presidency. It is up to us to make sure the Republicans win, that conservatives form as large a bloc as possible, and that we then hold their and President Romney’s feet to the fire.

Nothing but full repeal will suffice. Nothing.

If there are demonstrations against ObamaCare — be there. Make the demonstrations of 2010 look tiny by comparison. Let your congresscritters know in no uncertain terms you demand repeal. The vast majority of the public hates ObamaCare; make sure the public’s agents in Washington know that. This is a political battle, but we cannot win if we are not engaged.

And I am convinced we can win. I refuse to believe otherwise.

I’ll close with a statement from Senator Rand Paul, who sums up what I believe quite nicely:

β€œJust because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be β€˜constitutional’ does not make it so. The whole thing remains unconstitutional. While the court may have erroneously come to the conclusion that the law is allowable, it certainly does nothing to make this mandate or government takeover of our health care right,” Sen. Paul said.

β€œObamacare is wrong for Americans. It will destroy our health care system. This now means we fight every hour, every day until November to elect a new President and a new Senate to repeal Obamacare,” he continued.

Paul is right. The court makes errors all the time. (2) It is now up to us to fix this one.

I’m giving all you reading this just this one day to wail, rage, and gnash your teeth. Go ahead, get it out of your system. Curse the Court, curse the government, and cry out to the heavens, themselves.

Then, tomorrow, buck up, square up, and put on a steely gaze.

Because tomorrow the fight begins anew.

PS: Romney 2012

PPS: May I suggest it’s time for the Bill of Federalism?

RELATED: J. Christian Adams on The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in today’s decision. Erick Erickson on why he’s not down on John Roberts. Jay Cost — “What did the SCOTUS just do?

Footnotes:
(1) Something I never expected — Roberts siding with the majority, and the “Great Squish” Kennedy becoming my hero for declaring the whole act unconstitutional. What a strange world.
(2) Dred Scott. Plessy v Ferguson. The Slaughterhouse Cases. Buck v Bell. Korematsu. Wickard v Filburn. Roe v Wade. Kelo. And those are just off the top of my head. The Supreme Court regularly makes bad decisions; there is nothing sacred or infallible about their rulings. They are not set in stone for all time.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

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