Look out Supreme Court at what conservatives here in the Bible Belt south are calling your pro-Obama, socialist decision to wreck the country. In what can politically be labeled as one of the most noticeable, political upsets in recent history, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the health care law known to many as Obamacare.
In an unexpected turn of events, it was Chief Justice John Roberts, a President Bush 43 selection, who tipped the scales and turned the political world on its ear, as he voted in a 5 to 4 decision that Obamacare is legitimate—much to the chagrin of the entire world of conservatism.
If you wanted to see some long faces, the Bible Belt south was the place to be when the Supreme Court ruling came down. And believe me, you could literally see the sands of hope plummeting out of the faith hourglass, as Republicans, conservatives, Tea Baggers, and even some Democrats and progressives were stunned by the decision! And as for the conservative reaction to the Supreme Court curveball, I’ve seen happier faces on people who just found out that they have a terminal illness.
According to most conservatives, the Supreme Court was supposed to be in their conservative back pocket—so much that many of them were more than willing to bet the political farm on Obamacare being struck down. But unfortunately for the conservative nation, Justice Roberts had other ideas.
One could imagine that many of these conservatives must have felt like the colonists felt back when Benedict Arnold took off his George Washington baseball cap and put on a King George jersey! Yes, Republicans and conservatives here in the south were that sure of the outcome. Such a level of confident overconfidence has probably not been seen since the arrogant hare took a condescending, frontrunner’s nap on the slow but determined tortoise!
Now these conservatives can sit around sobbing all they want, but it’s their fault, because they put themselves in this position. For instance, I never thought that I would be doing this, but I am officially tipping my hat to former presidential nominee Rick Santorum. Yes, Santorum’s revenge seems to be in full effect, because it was Santorum who warned the GOP base that if Mitt Romney became the GOP nominee he would face some very difficult times trying to convincingly condemn Obamacare on hand, while trying to convincingly push away his Romneycare baby with the other hand.
And Santorum could not have stated this oncoming dichotomy that Romney would eventually be faced with anymore clearer or anymore poignantly than he did during the debates, but it appears that Santorum’s common sense, down-the-road, political logic fell on a significant number of deaf, conservative ears, as the entire, conservative brand continues to do what they do best, which is the arrogant placing of their political wants over the daunting reality of their political needs.
Go back for a minute to the Western Republican Presidential Debate, when another former presidential nominee, Newt Gingrich, blasted Romney over his government mandate in the Massachusetts health care plan, as Gingrich called it a ‘big government, bureaucratic, high cost, lavish system!’ In my view, this was a key moment, because Gingrich pounded Romney in his weakest area—meaning weak by conservative standards. And at first, it looked as if Gingrich had Romney on the ropes once and for all, but not so fast.
Romney, in a bold move of political resilience, turned the tables on Gingrich by saying: ‘Actually Newt, we got the idea of an individual mandate from you.’ Now Gingrich resolutely denied the claim, but Romney then put Gingrich on the spot by asking him: ‘And, you never supported it,’ meaning the individual mandate? And in an unashamed display of complete hypocrisy on Gingrich’s part, he grudgingly admitted that he had indeed supported the idea of an individual mandate through his very own Heritage Foundation as a response to what Gingrich described as Hillarycare.
Now on a positive note, Romney was able to shine through his political savvy, his political toughness, and his ability to paint Gingrich as a liar and a hypocrite. But on a troublesome note, as Rick Santorum so eloquently pointed out, the exact same exchange will probably play out again in October of 2012, and this time it will be President Obama playing the role of Mitt Romney, as Romney is forced to play the role of a hypocritical Newt Gingrich.
In other words, President Obama could look right in Romney’s eyes and say: actually Mitt, we got the idea of an individual mandate and the health care act as a whole from you! And no matter what Romney says to try and spin it away, he will, in all likelihood, find himself choking down political crow just like Gingrich was forced to eat it, while Santorum sits at home wagging his finger saying I told you so. And, there is probably no Etch A Sketch that will be big enough or good enough to erase the Romneycare reality from the discussion.
So what does this flagrant shunning of Santorum’s stark warning mean? What does it say about the conservative/GOP/Tea Party brand as a whole? What does it say about Mitt Romney? What does it say about Santorum? Who is the real dummy here? Is it the idiot who does not believe that Romneycare is completely connected to Obamacare, or is it the idiot who is forced to spend a political lifetime trying to convince an entire brand of idiots that it is permanently connected? One day maybe Santorum will wise up and figure out the answer to some of those questions—the last one in particular.
If I was standing in Santorum’s shoes right now, the question that would continuously be on my mind is why my base didn’t take my warning more seriously? Could they not see the overt kinship between Obamacare and Romneycare? Or, did the capitalist lure of Ann Romney’s Cadillacs or Mitt’s car elevators make the top 1% gleam of a $42 million dollar Mitt Romney too much to pass up?
In other words, how could the common sense concerns of a truly conservative Rick Santorum stand up when compared to the trickled-up poster boy for outsourced capitalism, offshore accounts, and silver, privileged spoons known as Mitt Romney? And after seeing how thoroughly convinced that so many of the conservatives were that the Supreme Court would rule according to their plans, one could always wonder if some of these conservatives honestly believed that Romney’s money could buy him the political favors of the Supreme Court first, along with the political keys to the White House later.
So whether you think the health care law is good, bad or both, when the conservatively led Supreme Court upholds it as legal, it really makes the political, karma chameleon, tap dancing puppet that is Mitt Romney look very much like the proverbial carnival barker who goes around yelling fire in a crowded, movie theatre.
It’s time for a new plan Mitt, because one-trick ponies make the best glue after their routine turns stale and dated, and your ‘Romneycare was a good idea until the Black guy got a hold of it’ routine just tapped out! Mitt Romney can run around the country touting his ‘replace and repeal’ motto all he wants, but with his Romneycare child being alive and well in Massachusetts and the Supreme Court not delivering the unconstitutional, knockout blow to Obamacare, it just takes a significant amount of credible, political bite out of Romney’s replace and repeal convictions.
Instead of replace and repeal, it makes Romney look more like recant and renege, and that certainly is no silver bullet for fixing the economy or restoring the American dream to a more diverse prosperity! The only thing that Romney’s recant and renege pledge really promises to do is give the Obama family a new address in 2013.
Mitt Romney - Etch A Sketch - The Shake-N-Fake Candidate (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)
