Posted by
Mike Bates on Friday, August 21, 2009 5:47:24 PM
"It's like déjà vu all over again," noted philosopher Yogi Berra is credited with saying. And so it is.
A liberal Democratic president has his heart set on pushing through a
proposal strongly unpopular with most Americans. Enjoying substantial
Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate, he intends to
win.
So it was in September, 1977 when Jimmy Carter signed the Panama Canal
treaties to relinquish United States control. An Associated Press
opinion poll conducted that month found that only 29 percent of
Americans favored the pact. A solid 50 percent opposed it and 21
percent expressed no opinion.
Just as Barack Obama is determined to shove a government health care
program down the throats of his protesting countrymen, Carter did what
was necessary to get the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties. He
cajoled, he promised, he threatened. It worked.
Carter was understandably jubilant when in early 1978 he received one
vote more than the 67 necessary to approve the first of the two
treaties. He hailed it as "a victory for the American people." That may
sound vaguely familiar. It's how Barack Obama described his own 2008
election.
In a 1991 interview, Jimmy Carter talked about his triumph:
"I never go through a week of my life now that I don't get letters from
people condemning the Panama Canal Treaties. Still, and this is I don't
know how many years later. 1978? Thirteen years later. But it was a
good thing to do."
He went on to describe the aftermath:
"It is the most courageous thing that the U.S. Senate ever did in its
existence. They knew that it was politically unpopular, but they knew
that it was right and needed. Of the 20 senators who voted for the
Canal Treaties in 1978, who were up for re-election the next year, only
seven of them came back. Thirteen of them didn't come back. And the
attrition rate in 1980 was almost as bad."
The Boston Globe reported in February, 1981 that "the new Senate that
took office this year sees the absence, by retirement or defeat, of 28
senators who supported the treaties." In only three years, 28 of the 68
senators who did what Carter deemed "right and needed" and what the
public opposed were gone.
As was Carter. He was such a dismal failure in so many ways, it's
impossible to attribute his defeat to any one action or event. Jimmy
had pummeled President Jerry Ford over the "misery index," a
combination of the inflation and unemployment rates. Four years of
Carter resulted in the index shooting up from 13% to more than 20%. By
itself, inflation stood at 13.58% in Carter's last year in office.
Yet another factor had to have been Carter's successful effort to turn
the Panama Canal over to a leftist dictator carrying the title of
"Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution." Americans didn't want
that to happen, but a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress
didn't care.
Which brings us to now. Another Democratic president and another
Democratic Congress don't care that Americans oppose a government
health care system disguised as reform.
With their elitist mentality, they genuinely believe they know better
than we do what's best for us. If it takes hiding from constituents,
fine. If it takes lying about what their plans entail, OK. If it takes
cajoling, promising, threatening, it's just part of doing what they've
decided is right and needed.
If the president succeeds in imposing ObamaCare, it will be a Pyrrhic
victory. All those Americans held in such contempt by the liberal
establishment will be at the polls next year and in 2012. They'll
remember how they were disrespected and ignored. And Obama & Co.
will have no one to blame but themselves for ignoring a lesson of the
Carter years.