Is health care the Democrat’s Afghanistan.  By this I don’t mean it in relation of how the problems in Iraq/Afghanistan hurt the Republicans.  It is in reference to what some call Afghanistan–”The Graveyard of Empires.”  It is called this because numerous empires, in an attempt to conquer the country, have only met failure.  In the last one hundred or so years Great Britain and the Soviet Union have incurred major defeats in this landlocked country–and some say the United States is heading for a similar fate.

One gets the feeling the same could be said for the Democrats attempt to nationalize health care.  In the 1992 elections, the Democrats regained control of both houses of Congress and the White House for the first time in twelve years.  The next year President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton set out to create a national health care system.  Even with a majority in both chambers, the plan went down to defeat (actually no bill made it out of committee).   All the attempt did was rally grassroot support for the Republicans, who went on an captured a majorities in the House (first time since 1954) and Senate in the 1994 mid-term elections.

Fast-forward to the 2008 elections.  The Democrats again take control of the House, Senate, and the White House for the first time in fourteen years.  Just a few months ago it looked as though the Democrats would stay in the majority for years to come.  Voters gave them a large majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.  On top of that the most popular chief executive since President Kennedy was sitting in the Oval Office.  Within a couple of months of taking office, President Obama encouraged Congress to help fulfill a campaign promise and take up health care reform.  This came on the heels of the stimulus bill which would add nearly $800 billion to the national debt and the House passage of a major energy bill.  As was the case in 1993, the Democrats face stiffening opposition to any sort of nationalized health care on the scale being debated in Congress. 

There is a growing chance the Republicans will make large gains in the 2010 mid-term elections.  As mentioned in a previous post, unemployment is likely to remain high for the next year, putting political pressure on the Democrats.  Though at this point it is very unlikely they would gain a majority in either chamber, it would put them in a good position to regain the majority in 2012.

The biggest reason for the fall of empires is hubris.  It is their belief in their superiority over others which leads them to overextend themselves and leads to their destruction.  It seems the same for Democrats as well.  One election is not a mandate.  Was their really a great outcry for the nationalization of health care?  The argument is 50 million people don’t have health care.  Even if that number is correct that represents only 16.7% of all Americans.  In other words 83.3% of Americans have health insurance in some form. 

It was the belief by past empires that the control of Afghanistan was needed for control of Asia and the Middle East.  The Democrats know if they can nationalize one-sixth of the U.S. economy they will control all aspects of society.  Their belief in their superior intellect over all Americans will again lead to their downfall, just as Lucifer’s belief in his superiority over God lead to his.