Bastille Day

220 years ago, a mob of Parisians and revolting soldiers overwhelmed the Bastille Prison in Paris. There were only seven prisoners in the prison at the time, and 98 of the attackers died, but that really didn't matter. It was the effective end of the rule of King Louis XVI. Within four years both Louis and his young wife, Marie Antoinette, would be dead, heads chopped off by the guillotine.

"Let them eat cake" has never been a viable public policy in a democracy (and yes I know Marie Antoinette never said that -- but the sentiment certainly would not have been disagreeable to her). A democracy must reflect the will of the majority of its people, or else it will be overthrown and a new government installed which better represents that will. Only a tyranny can long force upon a people a system which results in the unneeded deaths and suffering of 30% of the population that has either no or poor access and great uncertainty and probable impoverishment to any of the other 55% of the population that is subjected to it, and that system is our current healthcare system here in the United States. The majority spoke in the November 2008 election, and said to a young charismatic politician from Chicago, "fix this shit" -- and installed a Congress of the same party with the majorities to do it.

The people have spoken. They demand universal health care without the uncertainties and cruelties of the current system. "Let them eat cake" is not a viable policy to any of us who cherish our necks. Note the "us". I am in the top 10% income bracket, and it is my neck on the line too. Yet there are still idiots who shout, "you would have us pay for your health care!" (no, you cretins, *I* will be paying for *your* health care, since you're too stupid to be in the top 10% of income). There are those who shout, "there is no right to health care!" (Note to cretins: In a democracy, if the majority wishes to create a new right, they can do so -- and did, in November 2008). They shout "Personal responsibility!" as if it were possible for anybody other than a millionaire to pay for the $1M for leukemia treatment, only the pooled resources of a large number of people can possibly pay for treatment in a modern medical system and there is nothing "personal" about that. They would defy the will of the majority of Americans and continue to impose a system that is bankrupting the nation and causing grave harm to the mental and physical health of the nation. They are, in sum total, as undemocratic and dangerous a minority as the minority of nobility and royalty in France in 1789, who hate the will of the people with a passion that Marie Antoinette would have understood well.

And let us not mince words here: If these people have their way -- if they kill any meaningful effort to bring true universal health care to the United States of America -- the majority is not going to go away. The only way to continue forcing the current evil system upon America and Americans is via tyranny and force, and that cannot go on without an explosion that would make the storming of the Bastille look like a kindergarten playground scuffle. In the end, a sensible person must acquiesce to the will of the majority, even if the majority is in his opinion a bunch of boobs and morons who would rather elect a dry drunk chimp to the Presidency than a sincere and good man who had the misfortune of being an intelligent man in a kingdom of morons. The alternative... ah yes. Let us ask King Louis XVI and his young wife Marie Antoinette about that, shall we? For those of us who value our necks, that is a sobering thought.

-- Badtux the History Penguin