A.J. DiCintio
The glitch con
By A.J. DiCintio
A current internet search for "Obama glitch" returns 49 million hits, a reality that, combined with the president's use of "kinks" to describe the cause of the massive dysfunction afflicting the 400 million dollar Obamacare website, represents another instance of the perversion of language that for millennia has been the stock-in-trade of power loving political figures and their shills.
And make no mistake about it, like its counterparts of the past, this latest perversion ought not be characterized as a meaningless semantic debate; for as George Orwell pointed out, corrupt language both reflects and promotes the slovenly thinking that eventually dooms a culture.
That is exactly the case today because the con regarding "glitch," which the American Heritage Dictionary reports as denoting merely "a minor technical problem," doesn't just insult the mellifluous borrowing from Yiddish, it literally endangers the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of the American people in its attempt to obfuscate the following reality:
The fundamental problem of the oxymoronically titled Affordable Care Act arises not from a technical or logistical mishap but arrogance, the bane of leaders that since antiquity has been the subject of sober warnings issued by religion, frightful condemnations pronounced by tragedy, and biting ridicule laughed and mocked by comedy and satire.
Moreover, that truth has been on full display from Obamacare's inception; for only power loving arrogance explains why without offering specific details aimed at seeking the input and approval of the American public, Barack Obama used every trick in the political playbook to force down the nation's throat a federal takeover of an institution that literally deals with life and death issues as it consumes an enormous 18% of GDP.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president rushed to control healthcare from the level of government most remote from the Constitution's "We the People," the level of government whose power is so vast and bureaucracy so deeply and distantly entrenched even Congress is rendered helpless in setting right not just its errors but, as multiple current events have shown, astonishing travesties.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president excoriated Bush for exploding the national debt only to lie a trillion dollar lie about Obamacare's true cost while never presenting Congress with a plan for increasing taxes so that the financial burdens imposed by his signature achievement will not be laid upon children not yet born.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president lied the ugly lie that under Obamacare citizens could keep their existing health insurance and doctors.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president lied the shameless, middle class crushing lie that Obamacare can partially or completely pay for healthcare insurance for tens of millions, mandate increased coverage for tens of millions, and significantly increase the federal bureaucracy, including the hiring of 15,000 new IRS enforcers, while simultaneously reducing premiums for all, protecting Medicare, and avoiding increases in taxes or debt.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president lied the culture-threatening lie that a law which is essentially a welfare program based upon the failed sixties Great Society model will bring about the kind of smart, innovative, fundamental reform the nation's healthcare system desperately needs.
Only power loving arrogance explains why in March, 2010, a purportedly "transformative" president remained stubbornly committed to the dogmas of his backward looking, centralized, collectivism as honest proponents of real healthcare reform echoed Warren Buffett:
"[Rather than Obamacare or the status quo] I would rather see a plan C that really attacks costs. And I think that's what the American people want to see. I mean, the American public is not behind this bill." (factcheck.org)
And only power loving arrogance explains why the president continues his love affair with a program whose 15,000 pages of law and regulations have made colossally ironic the odiously undemocratic statement then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made when she gushed, "We have to pass the bill so that you [the American people] can find out what's in it."
For a number of reasons, the American public has not fully perceived this president as deserving a place among the rest of Washington's political robber barons whose compulsion to steal the people's liberty and wealth is so insatiably rapacious it thrusts its foul thieving into the future.
That reality is particularly dispiriting owing to the president's abysmal history regarding the Fast and Furious scandal, the IRS scandal, the NSA scandal, and the Benghazi scandal, in which, incredibly, a Commander-in-Chief consciously turned his back on a duty illustrated and celebrated 2,800 years ago when, displaying courage and selflessness, Achilles raged into battle to protect his nation as well as avenge the death of Patroclus, his fellow citizen and brother-in-arms.
There is reason to hope, however, that the very personal issue of healthcare will open millions of minds to the reality that Barack Obama's failures arise not from glitches but arrogance and the love of power.
© A.J. DiCintio
October 27, 2013
A current internet search for "Obama glitch" returns 49 million hits, a reality that, combined with the president's use of "kinks" to describe the cause of the massive dysfunction afflicting the 400 million dollar Obamacare website, represents another instance of the perversion of language that for millennia has been the stock-in-trade of power loving political figures and their shills.
And make no mistake about it, like its counterparts of the past, this latest perversion ought not be characterized as a meaningless semantic debate; for as George Orwell pointed out, corrupt language both reflects and promotes the slovenly thinking that eventually dooms a culture.
That is exactly the case today because the con regarding "glitch," which the American Heritage Dictionary reports as denoting merely "a minor technical problem," doesn't just insult the mellifluous borrowing from Yiddish, it literally endangers the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of the American people in its attempt to obfuscate the following reality:
The fundamental problem of the oxymoronically titled Affordable Care Act arises not from a technical or logistical mishap but arrogance, the bane of leaders that since antiquity has been the subject of sober warnings issued by religion, frightful condemnations pronounced by tragedy, and biting ridicule laughed and mocked by comedy and satire.
Moreover, that truth has been on full display from Obamacare's inception; for only power loving arrogance explains why without offering specific details aimed at seeking the input and approval of the American public, Barack Obama used every trick in the political playbook to force down the nation's throat a federal takeover of an institution that literally deals with life and death issues as it consumes an enormous 18% of GDP.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president rushed to control healthcare from the level of government most remote from the Constitution's "We the People," the level of government whose power is so vast and bureaucracy so deeply and distantly entrenched even Congress is rendered helpless in setting right not just its errors but, as multiple current events have shown, astonishing travesties.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president excoriated Bush for exploding the national debt only to lie a trillion dollar lie about Obamacare's true cost while never presenting Congress with a plan for increasing taxes so that the financial burdens imposed by his signature achievement will not be laid upon children not yet born.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president lied the ugly lie that under Obamacare citizens could keep their existing health insurance and doctors.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president lied the shameless, middle class crushing lie that Obamacare can partially or completely pay for healthcare insurance for tens of millions, mandate increased coverage for tens of millions, and significantly increase the federal bureaucracy, including the hiring of 15,000 new IRS enforcers, while simultaneously reducing premiums for all, protecting Medicare, and avoiding increases in taxes or debt.
Only power loving arrogance explains why the president lied the culture-threatening lie that a law which is essentially a welfare program based upon the failed sixties Great Society model will bring about the kind of smart, innovative, fundamental reform the nation's healthcare system desperately needs.
Only power loving arrogance explains why in March, 2010, a purportedly "transformative" president remained stubbornly committed to the dogmas of his backward looking, centralized, collectivism as honest proponents of real healthcare reform echoed Warren Buffett:
"[Rather than Obamacare or the status quo] I would rather see a plan C that really attacks costs. And I think that's what the American people want to see. I mean, the American public is not behind this bill." (factcheck.org)
And only power loving arrogance explains why the president continues his love affair with a program whose 15,000 pages of law and regulations have made colossally ironic the odiously undemocratic statement then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made when she gushed, "We have to pass the bill so that you [the American people] can find out what's in it."
For a number of reasons, the American public has not fully perceived this president as deserving a place among the rest of Washington's political robber barons whose compulsion to steal the people's liberty and wealth is so insatiably rapacious it thrusts its foul thieving into the future.
That reality is particularly dispiriting owing to the president's abysmal history regarding the Fast and Furious scandal, the IRS scandal, the NSA scandal, and the Benghazi scandal, in which, incredibly, a Commander-in-Chief consciously turned his back on a duty illustrated and celebrated 2,800 years ago when, displaying courage and selflessness, Achilles raged into battle to protect his nation as well as avenge the death of Patroclus, his fellow citizen and brother-in-arms.
There is reason to hope, however, that the very personal issue of healthcare will open millions of minds to the reality that Barack Obama's failures arise not from glitches but arrogance and the love of power.
© A.J. DiCintio
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