Health Care Bill Pronounced Unwell By Virginia Judge

Guess what, little girl? I voted down the Public Option.

          Yes, I realize the headings of my blog posts are starting to read like newspaper headlines and yes, this is intentional. I digress.  Within the last week Justice Hudson of a Circuit Court in Virginia deemed certain provisions of the "ObamaCare" Health Reform Bill unconstitutional, calling its legitimacy into question and initiating a judicial process that will in all probability bring the disputed Law before the Supreme Court within the next two years.
         Perhaps there are legitimate discrepancies between the Health Care Law and the Constitution, such as its interpretation of the national government's role in Interstate Commerce--this was Justice Hudson's ruling--but I am inclined to doubt that the sudden calling into question of the law is purely for the purpose of upholding the Constitution. Are there political motives involved in the various cases that have been brought before Circuit Courts throughout the country? You betcha. In the wake of the Midterms of 2010 which produced a overwhelming Conservative victory in Congress, there has been much talk of repealing the law by newly-elected republicans.  If the law was brought before the Supreme Court, it would erase the necessity for policy-makers in Washington to propose a repeal of the law and wade through all of the inherent complex political processes.  Knowing this, Republican Congressmen such as John Boener have been quick to express their support to the rendering of the decision.
         Unfortunately for supporters of the law, the way in which the original bill was written eschewed contingencies such as a Severability Clause, which would mean that parts of the law, if proved illegitimate, could be throne out without destroying the integrity of the law as a totality.  This means that if part of the law is called into question, the entire law (or at least most of it--some provisions such as insurance regulations would presumably be unaffected) could be thrown out.  As a supporter of the law, I really don't want this to happen.

2012: The Latest Conspiracy Theory

No brains, no headaches

          Earlier this week, Sarah Palin, everyone's favorite folksy, air-headed ex-governor told talk show host Barbara Walters that she thought she had a decent chance of beating Barack Obama in the election of 2012, essentially announcing her candidacy.  While liberals like myself have been liable to discount members of the Right fringe such as Sarah Palin and her protégés, I think the time for complacency is past--this, I believe was proved by the recent Midterm Elections, in which Democrats and more centrist Republicans alike took a decent whopping from that pesky Tea Party, foe of moderates everywhere and the darling of a pissed-off electorate.
          The sad thing is, if Obama (read: his congress) does not manage to make substantial economic gains within the next two years, voters everywhere will continue to hate him, and there will be a very good chance that America will be "rewarded" with not only its first female president, but its first reality television star as well.  This possible picture of American life is a pretty accurate representation of the pervasiveness of "celebrity politics" in our society.  A recent edition of Newsweek featured a lengthy article listing the "most powerful people in America."  It was telling that the top five on the list were all media personalities and that four of those five were staunch Rightist Conservatives. Barack Obama, meanwhile, landed in twentieth place.  While this list (and Newsweek in general, for that matter) is certainly not the be-all-end-all of journalism, it is a relatively accurate barometer for the faith that We the People put in the so-called "experts"--the media personalities--who may in fact have no expertise on a given issue.
          Despite this gap in actual credibility, the partisan rants that come out of the mouths of the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and yes, Keith Olbermann are exactly what the public wants to here.  Given the current state of public opinion, I would hardly be surprised if Beck were to announce his candidacy within the next six months or so, as he has emerged as a seeming beacon to fringe Conservatives, so much so that he has made his extremist form of Conservativism mainstream.
          However, public opinion is fickle.  Maybe, just maybe, two years down the road, the aims of Tea-Party-esque candidates will have lost their luster.  Until then, I'm more liable to believe there's a grain of truth in that completely-out-of-context legend of the End Of The World, as "predicted" by the Mayan Calendar (and lapped up by conspiracy theorists).  At the risk of sounding absolutely silly (and I say this with more humor than seriousness), I must say that anything is possible with that woman's hand on the proverbial Button.

One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State

Lower than average voter turnout rate? Seriously?

         Well, I'm going to go ahead and state the obvious: the Democrats took a good thwacking in midterms--Republicans gained control of the house (the current total being 239 R seats to 187 D seats with 9 undecided) and edged into a larger minority in the senate (now 53 D seats to 46 R seats with one undecided).  This was an overwhelmingly national trend, with Republicans making substantial gains in traditionally Blue areas of the map.  Everywhere, of course, except California, which, strange as usual, decided to utterly buck the national trend and vote in a Democratic Senator, Governor, and NOT replace any House Democrats with Republicans.  I guess everyone must have gotten sick of Meg Whitman.
          I digress.  Not long after the majority of the elections had been officially called, the former House Minority leader and Heir Apparent for Speaker of the House, John Boener delivered a speech that essentially said "the people have spoken, and we have received the national mandate," et cetera.  Midterms are, by nature I suppose, opportunities to vent frustration and anger on the the party of the president/the party in control Congress.  This was no exception.  Whether or not the Republicans and their more radical Tea Party Brethren (who, admittedly did not do quite as well as they had hoped), actually received a national mandate is unclear--less than half of those registered to vote exercised their right to do so on Tuesday, and many of those that didn't were liberals and moderates--but what is clear is Obama is going to have to adapt his strategy to incorporate combatting gridlock within congress in order to maintain a successful presidency.  If he doesn't, I fear for him in 2012; regardless of how little control a president has over certain aspects of the legislative branch he will be blamed for legislative mistakes and lack of cooperation.  Such is politics.
          However, it's not all bad for those of us that are democrats, right? Gridlock isn't all bad, right? Besides--a friend of mine said it best: "now that midterms are over, we can start campaigning for 2012." There's always something to look forward to.  And this time, this time I'll be voting.