PrintAugust 28, 2009
Fighting ObamaCare in the Spirit of Ted Kennedy
Maybe David Brooks has it right after all. Maybe we should indeed use Ted Kennedy's behavior during the Reagan years as our blue print for promoting unabashed and unapologetic conservatism during these, the Obama years. That is not to say that Mr. Brooks knows anything about "unapologetic conservatism," since he spends most of his time apologizing for it -- but we might want to heed his advice none the less.
It is in that spirit that I offer a Kennedy-esque speech against the passage of HR 3200, using most of the exact words Senator Kennedy used in the famous "Robert Bork's America" speech.
It is in that spirit that I offer a Kennedy-esque speech against the passage of HR 3200, using most of the exact words Senator Kennedy used in the famous "Robert Bork's America" speech.
KENNEDY: Mr. President, I oppose the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, and I urge the Senate to reject it.
WRIGHT: Mr. President, I oppose HR 3200 -- or any similar iteration -- and I urge the Senate to reject it.
KENNEDY: In the Watergate scandal of 1973, two distinguished Republicans - Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus - put integrity and the Constitution ahead of loyalty to a corrupt President. They refused to do Richard Nixon's dirty work, and they refused to obey his order to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. The deed devolved on Solicitor General Robert Bork, who executed the unconscionable assignment that has become one of the darkest chapters for the rule of law in American history.
WRIGHT: In the first months of the Obama Administration of 2009, blue dog Democrats have considered putting integrity and the Constitution ahead of loyalty to a corrupt President. They have tried to refuse to do the dirty work of Rahm and Ezekiel Emmanuel and they so far are refusing to obey their order to socialize one sixth of the American economy. That deed has devolved on Obama Care, an unconscionable idea that would become the darkest chapter for the rule of constitutional law in American history.
KENNEDY: That act - later ruled illegal by a Federal court - is sufficient, by itself, to disqualify Mr. Bork from this new position to which he has been nominated. The man who fired Archibald Cox does not deserve to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States.
WRIGHT: This act -- which would certainly be ruled illegal by any court actually trying to uphold the Constitution -- is sufficient, by itself, to disqualify Mr. Obama from the new position to which he has been recently elected. The man who holds in contempt the "negative rights" of the Constitution does not deserve to hold the highest office in this Republic related to protecting the Constitution.
KENNEDY: Mr. Bork should also be rejected by the Senate because he stands for an extremist view of the Constitution and the role of the Supreme Court that would have placed him outside the mainstream of American constitutional jurisprudence in the 1960s, let alone the 1980s. He opposed the Public Accommodations Civil Rights Act of 1964. He opposed the one-man one-vote decision of the Supreme Court the same year. He has said that the First Amendment applies only to political speech, not literature or works of art or scientific expression.
WRIGHT: Mr. Obama's reform desires should also be rejected by the Senate because it -- and he -- stands for an extremist view of the Constitution and the role of government that places him outside the mainstream of timeless and immutable American constitutional principles. He opposes tort reform. He opposes health savings accounts. He has said that citizens opposing Obama Care are simply political pawns, not genuinely concerned citizens. His beliefs put him in lockstep with the principles of Fidel Castro, who recently called all of us who oppose Mr. Obama and his reforms racists.
KENNEDY: Under the twin pressures of academic rejection and the prospect of Senate rejection, Mr. Bork subsequently retracted the most Neanderthal of these views on civil rights and the first amendment. But his mind-set is no less ominous today.
WRIGHT: Under the twin pressures of common sense rejection and the prospect of Senate rejection, Mr. Obama has subsequently lied about the most Neanderthal of the provisions and unavoidable consequences of Obama Care -- and his mind-set is no less ominous today than it was as he was sleeping through 20 years of Jeremiah Wright sermons.
KENNEDY: Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.
WRIGHT: Barack Obama's America is a land in which all of us would be forced to pay for any and all abortions, blacks would sit at ACORN voter registration counters, rogue union thugs could break the teeth of conservative black protesters in mid day raids, school children would be taught to put condoms on bananas, writers and artists getting all "wee weed up" over Crucifix's would be subsidized at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of Americans who dared to attempt to exercise their freedom to take care of themselves, their families, and not need government assistance.
KENNEDY: America is a better and freer nation than Robert Bork thinks. Yet in the current delicate balance of the Supreme Court, his rigid ideology will tip the scales of justice against the kind of country America is and ought to be.
WRIGHT: America is a better and freer nation that Barack Obama thinks. Yet in the current imbalance in government, his rigid ideology will tip the scales of justice and government against the kind of country America is and ought to be -- and was founded to be.
KENNEDY: The damage that President Reagan will do through this nomination, if it is not rejected by the Senate, could live on far beyond the end of his presidential term. President Reagan is still our President. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate, and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and on the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.
WRIGHT: The damage that President Obama will do through Obama Care, if it is not rejected by the Senate, will live on far beyond the end of his presidential term. President Obama is still our President. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Chicago pay to play power, reach into the muck of American hating black separatistism, and impose his reactionary view of the Constitution this and the next generation of Americans. No care would be better than Obama Care.
There. I feel better. Thanks David Brooks for the inspiration. I agree with you. I think we should handle ourselves during the Obama years exactly like Ted Kennedy handled himself during the Reagan years.
Hat tip: Rush Limbaugh
