The Leftist liability

LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson

It is a given that the American left will take no responsibility for its many failures. Indeed, the left doesn’t admit fault even when it is obvious. To do so would point out the flaws within its agenda and endanger its tradition of placing blame on everyone else.

Acknowledgment of responsibility is rare enough in politics, but with the left it has been replaced by stubbornness so profound it conjoins their political psyche. It is as if they can do no wrong, that the world only turns successfully because of them, that without them humanity is lost.

The left’s stunning defeats in the last election wasn’t its fault. It was because people on the right and in the middle just weren’t astute enough to grasp the superiority of its progressivism. For instance, Obamacare was a great success, even though it was nothing as advertised and is a failure by any measurement, politics included or aside.

Donald Trump and Paul Ryan tackled Obamacare’s repeal and replacement immediately, but when the vote didn’t materialize the left celebrated. Failure, to liberals, is success when it comes to protecting the status quo of anything created by Barack Obama. Functionality, affordability and improvement do not matter when compared to intent.

Nobility lies in purpose, not performance; because the intent is generous, the aftermath is irrelevant.

To the left. Not to us, stuck with the bill.

You may have overlooked this from an April 7 news article pertaining to Obamacare: “The Des Moines Register reported that Aetna informed Iowa regulators Thursday that it would stop selling individual (health) policies, which cover tens of thousands of Iowans who don’t have access to employer provided coverage or government plans.

“Like Wellmark, Aetna cited instability in the insurance market. Aetna already had stopped selling such policies in most states for 2017, citing turmoil in the wake of the Affordable Care Act.”

Well, folks, I may be a simple conservative, but I know words like “instability” and “turmoil” are not good in any market, and I understood already Obamacare was the origin of these conditions.

Understand, each insurer that leaves the marketplace narrows the options for those who need insurance, typically the self-employed, the under-employed and the desperate. The smaller the number is for those competing for business, the more expensive the product becomes. The more expensive insurance is the less security people have.

All this adds up to bad policy and worse economics, and, please, don’t think Iowa’s issue isn’t your problem too. The insurance industry is contracting throughout the country, and service is declining with it.

Remember, Obamacare is exclusively the left’s sad baby. Remember too, the left has stubbornly resisted all efforts to repeal and replace or even make workable this miserable, economically destructive law.

The left must be held politically liable for its lies, obdurateness and relentless collective ego.

In another matter, Hillary Clinton recently re-appeared at the Women in the World Summit in NYC, where she explained the reasons why she lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump. Her failure, of course, had nothing to do with her or with her leftist alignment.

The left, remember, doesn’t fail. Others fail to understand.

Clinton named three reasons the election went to Trump: FBI Director James Comey, WikiLeaks, which spilled the beans, and…wait for it…misogyny, the left’s dependable boogie man in the absence of a racial context.

That’s right, it wasn’t that Clinton was a lousy candidate or that she ran a campaign that sounded like an Obama re-write or that people were angry or disappointed by her conduct and elitist attitude. No sir, it was because the electorate was filled with woman-haters on a political vendetta.

Hillary, you see, was a victim of prejudice, ignorance and intolerance. Oh, if only people were better! If we just understood intention is preferable to output, then surely there would be no reason to vote for someone else.

Not taking responsibility is the same as being irresponsible.

Petulance lacks charm when we have witnessed it all before.

Take heed Clinton followers and Obama worshippers. The election of 2016 was a fed-up electorate holding the left accountable for its liabilities, regardless of whether liberals accept it, like political adults, or not.

Larry W. Anderson is a retired educator, author, and life-long Northwest Missourian.