I Don't Believe In It

Now, a lot of people, including me, question whether Pat should be on Fox news the way he is. I chalk this up to his being so iconoclastic that the other networks are afraid to use him; Fox figures it can use him as a Democrat to beat up on Democrats; while Pat wants to use Fox to get on the air. Or maybe it's something else... In any case, he takes way too much satisfaction from being there.

Having said that, Pat is one of the only people I've seen who drew the correct lesson from the Massachusetts election. Massachusetts voters very much do not like their state's health care "fix" and were trying to send a message to Washington to back off. It's the only way their vote makes sense. But Washington, making the assumption that Massachusetts voters are merely ignorant proles, didn't really listen, indeed, couldn't imagine that ordinary Democratic Party voters might collectively act in a strategic fashion. There should be no doubt, however, that Massachusetts Democrats are a leading indicator for Democrats in the rest of the country, who are to be expected to catch on a bit more slowly as the particulars of "reform" become better known.

Speaking personally, being without health insurance, I do not believe that this "reform" legislation will do me any good but I expect it will cost me some money. As an observer of the political scene, though, I'm fascinated — indeed, thrilled — by the prospect of testing whether my judgment is better than that of the Democratic Party leadership. I may well be wrong, but I feel strongly that this legislation will be disastrous for the Democrats, for exactly the reasons that Pat Caddell outlines. So, we'll see!

I can only add, in retrospect, I would hope that those progressives — for example, Jane Hamsher — who vigorously opposed the compromise of a buy-in to Medicare with an opt-out provision for states, might regret their actions. That was, I believe, the best ticket to get us to universal coverage and I hope that that compromise emerges again in the next round, perhaps a decade from now...