This Republic has survived a lot.
It survived the British seeking a do-over of the Revolutionary War. It survived the disputes over slave and free states, which peaked with the Civil War (but which still echoes to this day). It survived the Grant and Harding Administrations, which have both stood out in history for high levels of corruption.
It survived Imperial Germany, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union. It survived the domestic turmoil of the Vietnam War.
If you are a conservative, the Republic survived twelve years of FDR. If you are a progressive, the Republic survived six years of Nixon and eight years of Cheney/Bush.
The Republic has survived the Palmer Raids, the Red Scare and Prohibition. It survived nearly forty years of Hoover's FBI.
I;m not saying that there are still challenges. Despite what "conservative thinkers" such as George Will may proclaim, the issue of race still dogs this country. The growth of the National Surveillance State is a threat to freedom that still too many people ignore, or worse, actively support.*
At some level, the national debt may pose a problem.** Climate change is an issue that is being sandbagged by fearful ideologists.***
We've survived worse. Compared to what has come before, the Affordable Care Act is a popcorn fart in a windstorm.
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* I'm looking at you, Mike Rogers and Dianne Feinstein.
** "[Ronald] Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." -Richard Cheney.
*** But I'm not going there. There is no point.
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2 comments:
The ACA is less trivial to those of us it actually helps. That said, I heartily agree with this post, and given the political climate, would like to thank you for making it.
-Doug in Oakland
Understood, but the efficacy of the ACA wasn't the point. I wrote the post after talking to some guys who think that the country is in grave danger because of the ACA. I made many of the same points in the post to them and I'd thought I'd share that.
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