The Panoptiblog

Assuming this all goes down tonight like it looks like it will, I have only this to say: I am extremely impressed by the Democratic leadership, and especially Pres. Obama. Jim Fallows says everything else much better than I could.

UPDATE: Of all the wrong-headed reaction to the HCR bill’s passage, none are loopier than Megan McArdle’s apocalyptic claims:

Parties have passed legislation before that wasn’t broadly publicly supported.  But the only substantial instances I can think of in America are budget bills and TARP–bills that the congressmen were basically forced to by emergencies in the markets.

One cannot help but admire Nancy Pelosi’s skill as a legislator.  But it’s also pretty worrying.  Are we now in a world where there is absolutely no recourse to the tyranny of the majority?  Republicans and other opponents of the bill did their job on this; they persuaded the country that they didn’t want this bill.  And that mattered basically not at all.  If you don’t find that terrifying, let me suggest that you are a Democrat who has not yet contemplated what Republicans might do under similar circumstances.  Farewell, social security!  Au revoir, Medicare!  The reason entitlements are hard to repeal is that the Republicans care about getting re-elected.  If they didn’t–if they were willing to undertake this sort of suicide mission–then the legislative lock-in you’re counting on wouldn’t exist.

I understand that if you keep telling a lie often enough that makes it true, but I don’t see why people are convinced this bill is so hated. RealClearPolitics’ polling average has it at about 49% against, 40% in favor. These are not “storm the Bastille” numbers, and undermine McArdle’s claim (and those made more broadly by Republicans) that the GOP “persuaded the country that they didn’t want this bill.” For contrast, take a look at the polling for Social Security reform; now there was clear evidence that Americans didn’t want a piece of legislation. The “tyranny of the majority”? This is Hannity-Limbaugh-Beck (“HanniLimBeck”? “Hambauck”?) territory.

My bet is that when one side is running ads about ending bans on pre-existing conditions and the other side is complaining about Congressional rules of reconciliation and CBO numbers, things will look a little different than they do today. I like Democrats’ odds. Oh, they’ll still lose seats, and probably more than a few of them. That’s the way these cycles work. But if you’re too scared to do what voters elected you for, for fear they won’t elect you again, why should any of us be paying any attention to anything politicians do or say? Today something actually happened, as the result of an election. If Democrats wanted the base to turn out this fall, or to ever believe that Democrats would ever, ever do anything they said they would do, they had to pass this. The real peril, politically, was to do nothing.

UPDATE II: Oh, and maybe the Democrats thought this was the right thing to do. Bonus!