Mood:
don't askTopic: "Danger Will Robinson"(5)
Frodo's habit is to absorb the events of the day, and to comment on serious matters only after absorbing something more than a modicum of facts. This is an exception, for Frodo senses something in the air, and it does not feel right. Perhaps, in another life, Frodo caught scent of a saber-toothed tiger, or a wild fire burning in the distance, or the snapping twig of a footfall behind him. Tonight he senses a political trap, and he is fearful.
What if the passage of a Healthcare Reform Bill in denuded format is exactly what "they" have wanted from the very beginning? What if the entire strategy was based on the premise of separating the base from the coalition of supporters who ensured political victory for the Democrats? What would it take? How would it occur?
Remember, dear reader, the "Southern Strategy" of Richard Nixon, whereupon the disaffected whites fled the confines of the familial relationship that had endured for decades? The Republican Party took them in, offering safe haven from the onslaught of those who depended on public assistance and brought crime to neighborhoods and schools. If such a strategy had been successful once, couldn't it be amended and applied once again?
If, as Frodo understands what has been presented this evening, the Senate Version of the Healthcare Reform legislation offers financial assistance to those who cannot afford to meet that which is mandated, and the concomitant costs to those who meet the definition of Middle Class reach a mandate equivalent to that of housing, then the stage is set for the destruction of the Democratic Party. Is it not conceivable that, once again, there would be a run to the umbrella that fails to include those who depend on public assistance and who bring crime to neighborhoods and schools. History has shown us that these people vote their fears, and their pocketbooks, and they do, indeed, vote.
Frodo, if the facts are as presented to him at this moment, agrees that the President must veto the Bill.
