John Roberts Failed Us

The Supreme Court of the United States has handed a victory for President Barack Obama, a victory which says he can force us to buy health care. Yet what did he say about health care when he was candidate Obama?

He said that the government could not require an individual mandate any more than it could require people to buy a home: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304023504577320363034617148.html He either lied or was simply manipulating the electorate. But we don't want to talk about that today.

Chief Justice John Roberts said that, as a tax, the individual mandate was okay, but not under the Commerce Clause, because the government couldn't compel commerce but merely regulate it. It sounds like he's jumping through hoops, but at least one source asserts that he's trying to limit rather than expand Congressional power: http://mobile.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/scocca/2012/06/roberts_health_care_opinion_commerce_clause_the_real_reason_the_chief_justice_upheld_obamacare_.html But we don't want to talk about that.

Some folks have argued that Roberts' whole idea was to inflame conservative spirits with the intention of driving out the bums in November. Perhaps; but if so, isn't he overstepping the bounds of judicial activism, and in a rather backhanded way at that? We can live with that idea, however, if in fact it plays out. But we don't want to talk about that. Well, perhaps tangentally, but only that.

Europeans believe that we Americans are making too much of this. We say, let them live fat and happy in Europe, as the euro falls in part under the weight of their precious social programs which will in the end only make paupers of them all. When you encourage irresponsibility, you get it, as Greece and Spain and Ireland demonstrate. But we don't want to talk about that.

We want to talk about Aragorn. Yes, from the Lord of the Rings. We want to talk about fighting the beast no matter how uphill the task appears, no matter how certain defeat may seem. We want to be inspired, inspired that this isn't over, inspired that we can still get out from under the finger of Washington and live the lives of free Americans. We recall Aragorn's words at the Gates of Mordor, adapted for our purpose:

Sons of Michigan! Daughters of Ohio and Delaware and Wyoming and Utah! My brothers and my sisters. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!

We need not be worried about Europeans think. We are the West; they are yesterday's news. We need not be concerned over the left except so far as to learn from them how to use power: as they forced this debacle upon us. let's force them from government. We need not worry about the President: his day shall come, and it shall come in November 2012. That will happen if we remember today, and vote accordingly. And that's what we want to talk about today.