The Yin and the Yang [Reader Post]

Obama Tweets: ‘Still a BFD’

Ah! What decorum! A point worth noting was made by another tweet that followed…

 “The last time Democrats gloated this hard after a health care victory, they lost 60 House seats.”

Although at first glance Judge Roberts’ judicial gymnastics provide a victory for the socialist, the long term repercussions of this decision also offered some hope for their opponents as well.

Judge Robert’s ruling leaves the dark cloud of Obamacare over our heads, and that is disappointing, but this dark cloud appears to have a silver lining as well. By calling the penalties a tax and declaring that the law would be unconstitutional if the Commerce Clause was invoked, the court breaks the stride of the statist most alluded to excuse for over reach.

In the future when the Federal Government claims to be wanting to do something for us (or on to us), they will have to own up to the fact that to do so, the taxes will be raised not just on the rich, but on the poor and the middle classes as well, this will hopefully serve as a deterrent for future demagogues, and tone down the class warfare rhetoric, even if ever so lightly.

Equally as important was the decision to tell the Federal Government that it could not use the denial of Medicaid payments to states that choose to disobey their mandates. By so doing the court denies the Federal Government the ability to black mail the states into submission, thus removing the “Chicago Way” off the table, at least overtly, and momentarily reversing a 75 years trend of rulings that have eroded the states’ 10th amendment’s rights.

The ruling also throws the issue back to those most responsible for it, the electorate. In what appears to be a variation of Ignorantia juris non excusat (“ignorance of the law does not excuse”), the Supreme Court is telling us that elections have consequences, and that it is not the court’s role to save us from ourselves. If an ignorant or misinformed electorate voted into office the architects of this monstrosity, then it is that same better informed electorate’s responsibility to undo their mistake in a few short months from now.

After the initial incredulity of Judge Robert’s convoluted opinion, I have come to the realization that there will likely be several positive consequences to all of this. The resolve of those of us who oppose socialism has just been exponentially intensified, the Supreme Court itself is off the table as a leftist’s propaganda rallying cry, and the appeal for personal responsibility emanating from the highest court of the land will be heeded by the majority of Americans.

The same personal responsibility that conservatives believe in, the one that is required of all citizens of free societies, where is no one else’s business but our own to become better informed and to actively participate in the defense of the freedoms and individual rights that we enjoy.

With God’s help, on November 6, 2012, we will answer that call.