We Know Best
by Brent Littlefield
Issue 139 - September 16, 2009
 The Washington Post revealed a shocking quote from Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD). After watching press coverage of town hall meetings across the nation where Americans have come out against the president and some in Congress who desire a more robust government involvement in health care, and after facing 1,000 or more of his own constituents generally expressing the same sentiment, Senator Cardin exclaimed: “I am more resolved than ever.”
His reasoning?
“I love debating … but I personally believe the American people still want us to deal with tough problems,” Cardin said.
Maybe he wasn’t listening.
“I personally believe … “
More likely, he is following that path of every politician who approaches government with an avowed left-of-center philosophy — Benjamin Cardin believes he is smarter than the average American. He believes he knows more facts than his constituents, and the little people will be better off and much happier once his plans for making the world a better place are up and running.
On issue after issue, the philosophical liberals believe they are the doctor and they have the cure for what ails America –- even if America doesn’t believe it is sick.
Poll after poll has shown the American people clearly do not believe that health care is broken. The most recent Gallup poll shows 49 percent of Americans disagree with Obama’s health care overhaul, and only 43 percent agree. The latest FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll reports that only 34 percent favor and 49 percent oppose the health care proposals. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that more than eight in ten Americans are satisfied with the quality of health care they currently receive. A Zogby poll found 84 percent of the insured are satisfied with their health care.
According to the latest U.S. Census data and Gallup tracking polling, between 13 percent and 16 percent of American adults are without health care insurance. Also according to Gallup, the third largest group of uninsured are those least likely to have health care problems — 18 to 29-year-olds.
Unsurprisingly, Americans are not clamoring for a larger, government-run solution to health care. They don’t want it and they know they will have to pay for it.
Most Americans seem to agree that there could be positive steps taken to improve health care in America, starting with insurance and tort reform — solutions grounded in the private sector that don’t require more than $1 trillion of taxpayer money.
But liberal philosophers almost always believe there is a need for a government solution to problems — a solution that they will design and that all average people should be happy to follow.
For those with this mindset, justice is not blind, and they are judge and jury. Average Americans can have opinions, but if their opinions are wrong in the minds of the liberal elite with whom our president dines, these Americans are “un-American” or an “angry mob.”
Americans should not be surprised, after they take time from work or family to attend town hall meetings and express their opinions, that many of their so-called “representatives” will just return to Washington and continue crafting their “solution” for America. Because, of course, these liberal politicians are smarter, know more, and are just plain better than you.
For the man who took time out of his day to tell now-Democrat Arlen Specter to just “leave us alone,” his words will probably fall on deaf ears.
It is safe to assume that the angry mob that led the Boston Tea Party and helped propel the formation of our nation would be scoffed at or ignored as well.
Brent Littlefield blogs at Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com where this first appeared.
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