Palin and the Obama death panels

No doubt you have heard about Sarah Palin and her fear that President Obama would create a "death panel" that would deny care to Americans who need the care most. When I first heard about her comment, I thought to myself "Wow, that's a helluva way to convince the American people you're not a paranoid nutjob."

But the more I thought about it, the more I decided that she has a valid fear. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that since many people who know me also consider me a paranoid nutjob.

The Holocaust did not happen over night. The first extermination camp was not constructed in Germany until nearly a decade after the first laws were introduced to remove Jews from society. This is an extreme example, but serves to illustrate my point: when a door is opened and power is held by those who would wield it with malice, tragedy can occur.

Hitler was not idolized and worshipped because of a platform to exterminate Jews from society, but rather a soaring oratory and ideals rooted in nationalism. The Holocaust happened not simply because the German people wanted it, but because the German people handed Hitler and the Nazis the power to commit their heinous acts.

So am I comparing Hitler to President Obama? Nor directly, so please do not make the accusation.

Many people on the left talk about contributing to society as a whole, and seem to diminish the importance of self. They talk about operating as a collective, and what is good for the collective is good for all. To think or speak otherwise reveals one as simply being selfish.

So if the collective is bearing the cost of the collective's healthcare, then why would the collective hesitate to exterminate (via denial of care) a person if that person's healthcare would prove to be a drain on the collective's resources? It surely wouldn't be due to any moral or ethical objection. Germany is proof that a society will turn a blind eye to the atrocities of a beloved leader if that leader speaks to them in soaring rhetoric.

The federal government has already grown to a size and scope which is unsustainable. Medicare will be insolvent within eight years. Social Security will pay out more than it takes in within thirty years or so. It would make sense to remove those which are most costly to the long-term financial health of the collective.

That is what Palin is talking about. That is what I am talking about. President Obama is not proposing nationalized healthcare, but that is the endgame in all of this talk of "healthcare reform". He has admitted it, and so have many members of the Democratic Party. It is in our best interests, in the best interests of society, to regard whatever the federal government proposes with a wary eye.

And keep a close eye on that door.