AMAC Exclusive By: Pat Conroy
In 2010, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Party stopped at nothing to pass the wildly unpopular big government healthcare plan known as Obamacare. The knowing and deliberate disregard for the wishes of the American people led to one of the worst defeats in the history of Congressional elections, with Pelosi losing her Speakership and Democrats losing 6 Senate seats and 63 House seats in what former President Barack Obama famously described as a “shellacking.”
Eleven years later we seem to be witnessing the second coming of Pelosi’s Kamikaze Congress.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted to approve Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget resolution, charting a path forward for Democrats’ radical agenda. The final version of the bill, authored by Senator Bernie Sanders and bizarrely dubbed ‘human infrastructure,’ includes healthcare, childcare, and climate change provisions that would make up the largest expansion of the welfare state and government power since Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society.’ This spending is being approved just as inflation is causing prices for everyday goods and services to spike to their highest levels in thirteen years.
Initially, it appeared as if some so-called moderate Democrats recognized the potentially disastrous electoral consequences of voting for Biden’s spending plan. A group of nine House Democrats publicly challenged Pelosi in a Washington Post op-ed, demanding that Pelosi take up a standalone vote on the $1.2 trillion hard infrastructure package separate of the “largely undefined $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.”
However, it turned out to be political theatre, with the entire group falling back into line right at crunch time and voting just as Pelosi and Biden wished. In doing so, these members may have sealed their political fate and further weakened Democrats’ already slim chances of retaining their majorities next year.
If the Democrat vote appeared suicidal to their chances of retaining their majorities, the history of Obamacare’s passage shows that this outcome may have been somewhat predictable, and may actually be a well calculated long term decision on the part of Pelosi, Schumer, and their progressive allies—whether they are correct in that calculation or not.
Obamacare was extremely polarizing from its inception, turning off a majority of independents and nearly all Republican voters. Even in deep blue Massachusetts, voters elected a Republican, Scott Brown, to a Senate seat in a special election in January of 2010 that was a sign of impending doom for many Democrats. Obamacare was a major issue during the campaign, and Obama himself campaigned for Brown’s opponent, a major embarrassment for a sitting President.
Nevertheless, Democrats in Congress at the time, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, plunged forward anyway. Pelosi and Reid were in essence coaxing members of their caucus to commit political suicide in order to fulfill their party’s fundamental long-term mission: to expand the power of the federal government and make more and more Americans dependent on welfare and the Democrat Party.
According to a 2011 report released by two professors, Seth Masket of the University of Denver and Steven Greene of North Carolina State University, 13 Democrats all went on to lose reelection chiefly because of their support for Obamacare. “These are the members who, according to our findings, would still be in the House of Representatives were it not for their healthcare vote,” Masket and Greene concluded.
In the 2010 election, as may well be the case in elections next year, voters delivered a sweeping electoral punishment to their incumbent representatives for betraying their wishes and choosing instead to appease party leadership’s intense focus on growing the size and power of the federal government.
Was it worth it? For Democrats, the answer might be yes, even among those who had to fall on their swords in the process. Former 18-term Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota’s 8th District was one of those Democrats who had no regrets for his Obamacare vote. “I voted for it because I thought it was the right policy for this country,” Oberstar said in an interview. “I thought it was the kind of transformational legislative initiative that candidate Obama promised and President Obama delivered.”
Democrats understand that once the American people become dependent on a government program, it’s nearly impossible to strip it away – look no further than the infamous March 2017 failed attempt to repeal Obamacare by way of the late Senator John McCain’s thumbs down. Chief Justice John Roberts was unwilling to strike down Obamacare as unconstitutional after he reportedly reversed his position and rewrote portions of the law to uphold it in a widely criticized 5-4 decision. Without the filibuster-proof majority that Democrats enjoyed in 2010, Republicans may find it difficult if not impossible to reverse course on Democrats’ current spending plans just as they have largely failed to undo the disastrous effects of Obamacare.
10 years later with a new Democrat president installed in the White House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are looking to replicate their kamikaze approach from 2010 in order to ram through trillions of dollars in new government spending that will change the face of not just American healthcare, but every other facet of American life as well—a transformation they hope will ultimately deliver Democrats to greater, and more permanent, political power.
For those nine “moderates” and many other Democrats who represent swing districts, that might mean the end of their political careers. Undoubtedly, they will be well-compensated for their betrayal of their constituents with lucrative jobs at left-wing nonprofits and other liberal organizations. But for Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the other radical progressives who run the Democrat Party, they may calculate that sacrificing a few members and control of Congress will be worth it if it means moving the United States one step closer to becoming a socialist country.
And yet, there is another possibility: Democrats may have badly miscalculated. After a year of COVID restrictions destroying the economy and wokeism destroying the culture, the $5 trillion Democrat spending binge may be a bridge too far for the American people. This is especially true now that President Donald Trump has ensured that the establishment wing of the Republican party cannot get away with casting a cost-free vote to sanction Democrat radicalism, earning cheap grace from the media.
There is always the chance that the high water mark of progressivism may have passed, and a generational conservative realignment is on the way.
Pat Conroy is the pen name of a Washington, D.C. based political strategist.
” There is always the chance that the high water mark of progressivism may have passed, and a generational conservative realignment is on the way. ”
I had to read this entire article to get to the final conclusion quoted above…
If we as a nation don’t get the fraudulent 2020 election corrected, i.e. the fraudulent 2020 US Presidential Election, that put this insurgent group of people in power, there will be NO realignment, period…
The Afghanistan situation is the FINAL straw, thus far ( 13 ) American deaths with many more to follow as the Taliban is going door to door as I type this…
The FAUX JRB administration along with the (2) WOKE generals within the Pentagon, SURRENDERED the Bagram Air Force Base before the Kabul Airport evac even took place…Once again Biden’s Puppet Masters have undermined a well though out & designed Afghanistan exit strategy by the Trump team that included the heavy lift capacity of Bagram so as to get our $85 billion in equipment out of there beforehand…
For those that wish to see how well thought out the Trump exit plan was I highly recommend going over to EpochTV & watch Kash Patel & Jan Jekielek on the Kash’s Corner with ” The original exit strategy “… Biden deliberately broke the May, 1 2021 deal the Trump team made with the Taliban with consequences if they did not abide by it… Well it turns out Biden BROKE the deal with both him & his WOKE generals coming up with different answers as to why that happened…Clearly the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing as this clearly demonstrates the ineptitude of this old senile man they call potus…
Where are the Arizona Audit numbers? Time to get this out there for the entire world to see the results, meanwhile Nero, aka Biden is burning down the house…
Bill on the Hill… :~)
The article clearly states that for many Democrats they view the opportunity to enact transformative legislation that will shove the country much farther left is more important than whether they win any future re-election. That is of course assuming that the federal restructuring of elections, which are buried in the $6 trillion dollar budget reconciliation bill, doesn’t make the final cut of the bill to be voted on in a few months. If it survives and is enacted into law, along with the rest of the socialist programs contained in the bill, then the Democrats never need to worry about elections again.
The Democrats have a clear understanding of history that once new social welfare programs are enacted, via the legislative process, that it become virtually impossible to ever totally eliminate them in the future. The dependency class increases to create a permanent constituency that will oppose any attempted repeal.
As for the RINOs who the author thinks will think twice before “walking across the aisle” to support the final nail in America’s coffin, just look back a few weeks ago to the 19 Republicans that supported the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill knowing full well that it only contained 23 percent actual infrastructure spending and 77 percent socialist wish list goodies, which will further degrade our nation. They’re either counting on the voters in their respective states to continue to be stupid enough to re-elect them yet again or they are preparing to retire from office and take a high paying job as either a lobbyist or an on air commentator for one of the cable news networks.
I don’t know what the author of this article is sniffing, if he thinks that progressivism has reached some high water mark and that some generational conservative realignment is happening. Please backup the claim with a few instances to validate the statement, rather than just tossing in a ludicrous conjecture at the end. I suggest he get out of the office and go have a chat with a couple of dozen Millennials and Gen Z folks over a few days or weeks to get a clear view of the mindset of the typical voter under the age of 40. Either that or go sit in on a few dozen classrooms in our public school systems around the country and see what is being taught. It sure isn’t anything even mildly approaching constitutionally conservative values.
I am sick of hearing how we all need to wait for the 2022 elections & the republicans will retake the house & senate, are you kidding me. The Marxist socialists are in power & they will never give it up.They along with the elitists & tech billionaires & the CCP (Chinese communist party) stole the 2020 election & they will pass the election reform bill & take over the states rights over elections.
The only way to stop them is to take up arms now & attach them in their homes & on the streets before its too late!!!
I thought as our national debt escalates, the Democrats would, sooner or later, come to their senses and realize they’re sinking the ship. But no. It’s not just Pelosi, it’s DEMOCRATS. With a party like that, who needs a two-party system?
I agree with others that there’s really only one way to stop these insane liberturds stinking up Congress and the WH, and it doesn’t involve waiting for so-called “fair” Elections. And don’t depend on the spineless RINOS, who prefer Fundraising rather than actually fighting for us.
Fellow Conservatives, I suggest you all get familiar with addressing everybody as “Comrade Citizen” so and so as these Progressively Communist wannabe Democrats now have officially learned how to steal an election and plan to continue to do so. I finally figured out why ALL Democrats like wearing masks: it’s because don’t ALL thiefs, crooks and bandits wear masks?
This evil woman is not out to benefit the country or her, she’s out solely for herself. She’s mad because she never was able to run for president.
I pray the Taliban kamikaze Congress too! The public is done with the fear, tyranny and stupidity with which the Congress operates, never taking enough informed action and always excessively chasing this elusive (to both parties) criminal behaviors of the citizenry, outside of their own front porch. Sweep your own porch before you come sweep mine, you overdone, half-baked wretch of a woman. Take your little ingrate five with you, to hell, for all I care!
I notice there is nothing in this bill that helps S.S out. Of course the illegal the Afghan people and the lazy on welfare will be taken care of. Just like our cost of living increases Medicare will take most of it while we still pay Medicaid for the lazy.
I hope that this coming out party for progressives does not put the socialists in power permanently.
They have been put in the same position as once before and here we are. I hope the lions are coming.
The last paragraph kind of negates the entire article:”Always the chance” and “high water mark…may have passed” are just vague and hopeful generalities. I don’t need smoke blown up my nether regions, but I would like some more substantial evidence that the DimRats will go down in flames. And history suggests there are far too many of them willing to commit political suicide to further the collectivist agenda.
After reading the comments I’m convinced that a great number of people are students of history and have their fingers on the pulse of geopolitics. I’m also convinced that this great wellspring of statecraft will never be tapped because logic followed by decisive action no longer has a place in our political system.
And do not forget that there is that “For the People bill” which wants to unconstitutionally nationalize election law. We MUST not allow that to pass or we will never have free elections again and we will become a communist dictatorship withe these devils in charge.
There is only one way forward. Armed revolution.
That’s just the problem with politicians, they vote what THEY think, not bothering to find out what the people they are representing want
Remember Kamikazi pilots took their enemies deaths with them. That’s the plan. Only this time the kamikaze pilots are our own leaders and their supporters.
Conservatives are now on the brink of a political revolution. If yhey fold at this point, we are done as the nation we kniw. It ALL begins in our schools. The school boards are responsible for the attitude of our young people and should be held accountable. Do conservatives have the spine to do that job? We will see.
What a Woozy , Floozie, this lame brain Psychopath is not fit to hold public office, she is a danger to the Constitution, our way of life and the health and well being of this great Nation,
If you love freedom you do not vote for a sleaze bag like this half wit.
This brings me to Question I have had for a long time, does Pelosi and Biden see the same Proctologist, they both walk like something was left behind.
God Save America !!!!!!!!!!!
Round and round we go…….who expects any democrat to NOT follow suit when the time comes.
The likes of Pelosi and Schummer, have some kind of strangle hold on so many others, it’s hard to comprehend any change for the good of this nation will ever happen. The saddest part is that by the time the elections come in 2022, much will already be “under the bridge” and past reversing without major shake-ups even in the republican camp. And the republicans seem to be even less effective or even aware of the future they are sealing for our nation as they dwaddle around, running from crisis to crisis like trained Pavlov’s dogs. At present there seems to be little difference between the dems and repubs when serious matters fly up…..their talking points are laughable, their tactics slack, and their true characters hidden by sound bites, and rhetoric. I still feel even Pelosi and Schummer, along with Biden are staged figureheads of a greater evil……whose roots have yet to be exposed. And it appears no one, in the media, in the republican camp, or in the independent realm have the guts or the gumption to act to that end. The clouds are looming, darker and darker……with no real change coming.
USA has had 12-years straight of increasing National Debt by $1 Trillion/year. Biden wants this to be the 13th, both Republicans & Democrats must face the reality & try to balance budget.
I think P-Lousy is counting on another hijacked election in 2022. She won’t lose that many House and Senate seats if the election is rigged like it was in 2020.
These politicians remind me of the pro wrestlers. They get in the ring and pretend they want to kill each other and when the show is over and the lights are turned out, they all get in the same vehicle and go home.
The chance that the high water mark of progressivism has passed, and a generational conservative realignment is on the way is my prayer for this nation.
So, people are predicting another “Shellacking”? Why bother? The Republicans are no better than the Democrats, when it comes to doing what’s right for America! What America NEEDS is a total flush of the Swamp… Senators. Representatives (Yeah, like they do THAT!), their cumulative staff… And, especially the White House… Yup, total flush of the toilet called Washington, DC… After all, can rank amateur’s do any worse?
The US cannot manufacture enough Rid-X to clean the septic tank known as DC.
Nancy and this Democratic congress AND senate must be voted out in 2022. We are on the brink of losing our country and any semblance of dignity anf trust within the world community with this bunch of lunatics running our government. From a demented, febel minded president to a totally inept VP and a revenge and hate mongering Speaker of the House, we are only millimeters away from losing it all.
May God have mercy on our country.
“Well-written article…my thoughts exactly…I would like to add…all of this would not have become possible without God’s knowledge of it…I’m not charismatic but it says…in Revelations when a loaf of bread becomes $10 or more…we are getting close…I saw a loaf of bread the other day for $5…In my opinion…I feel God is giving us time to “WAKE UP”…this administration has become seriously dangerous!”
My hope for this nation was rekindled when President Trump was in DC but is diminished greatly now. I cry and pray now for a great awakening in the soul’s of those in control now. I can only conclude they are blind to the catastrophic damage they are reaping on our beloved America. God is the only hope I have and it appears he does not abide in those in control DC.
Hope is not lost. The CFR , who is actually running the country, is being exposed on Frankspeech.com via a new show by Alex Newman. The new show started yesterday. Finally there is someone who has been watching the Council on Foreign relations and will be exposing them. The CFR founded in 1921. They have been trying to set up a one world government since then.
Anti-White liberals and respectable conservatives that support massive third-world immigration and FORCED assimilation for EVERY White country and ONLY White countries say that they are anti-racist, but their policies will lead to a world with no White people i.e White Genocide.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-White.
By this logic, everything Pres. Trump did in the first two years was a Kamekaze attack–tax cuts, tariffs, trade war–because they lost control of the House in 2018. But the truth is that it is rare that one party will control the Presidency and both houses at the same time, and these are moments that are seized on, by both parties, to push through high-priority items. After the first two years of a Presidency, even it the Pres.is re-elected, big things don’t get done. So your argument seems to be “Once in control, don’t do squat so you don’t run the risk of getting voted out in two years.” Not inspiring!!
Why are some folk so vulnerable to being fooled? Remember “trickle-down, and how it made us all rich? How about all those nuclear weapons we found after the screams of “WMD? No?
Pelosi is the person giving seniors the benefits we need, as the hateful Republicans vote against them!
Why do you get fooled?
The Republicans want to take away your Medicare. Why do you get so fooled by them?
“Eleven years later we seem to be witnessing the second coming of Pelosi’s Kamikaze Congress.” Which is precisely Pelosi’s gambit: Team Blue may lose interstitial midterm elections, but they’re inexorably winning the policy wars. The entitlement program that is ‘Obamacare’ is the law of the land — thrice upheld by an ostensibly ‘conservative’ (Roberts) Court. And Pelosi intends to entrench the myriad entitlements within the $3.5T reconciliation bill into U.S. law. Republicans are playing (& may win) the short game; Democrats are playing (& winning) the long game. It’s the difference between checkers and chess.
Oh god I pray you are right ????????????????❤️
Boy I hope so! I am so disgusted with all that’s going on I can’t tell you!
Give me some good news please.
I hope and pray the mid-term elections in 2022 will completely destroy the Democrats’ majority and send them running for the border. We conservatives and libertarians need to do our best to defeat this ugly horde of evilness and save our country from their evil grip.
Do you really think that pelosi has been legitimately voted into the position
It is urgent that we not allow congress to pass the nationalization of election law. Whatever it is called. We must prevent that from passing or we will never have free elections ever again.
It is up to us, the people, to get this America destroying admin out of our gov’t. It is in our Constitution that we CAN do it. The provision is there. All we need is a leader with a plan.
“I voted for it because I thought it was the right policy for this country”
That’s the major problem with democRATS. They always vote for their own personal ideologies instead of what their constituents want.
As one wise man has said: It’s time to drain the swamp!
In 2010, I still had some hope for America after the mid term elections. After seeing how Obama and the deep state sabotaged President Trump even before he took office, and seeing how the Democrats stole the 2020 election, and seeing how there are still many Biden supporters in our country, I have no hope for the future of our nation. President Biden, the usurper, has defied the Supreme Court and extended his moratorium on evictions. If President Trump had done that, he would have been nailed to the cross. I still pray for our nation, I attend local Republican county meetings, and I will continue to vote in rigged elections, but I retain no hope. The US is finished.
I suspect if they manage to pass these spending bills, our fate is sealed. Even if not, our odds of surviving the current situation is pretty slim just as it is. As expected, the COVID policy will perpetuate the restrictions on our social function indefinitely, which will continue to erode the private sector, people’s health, and the supply chain. Pissing off all of our allies with stupid foreign policy implementation will guarantee we stand alone in the face of all future issues and conflicts. So if they add another $5 trillion in debt now, that should be the last nail in the coffin, or really close to it. We get what we paid for by letting the liberals take control and make the rules. Now it is time to pay the piper, whether we danced (in the flames) or not.