The First Amendment and Democracy, What "Johnnycakes" Saw and Some Thoughts on Obamacare

Democracy By Itself Isn’t Enough

  de Tocqueville

Democracy is good!  Or is it?  In Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy In America” published back in 1835 and 1840, this French observer entitled two crucial chapters in his work as follows:

Chapter XIV: Unlimited Power of the Majority in the United States and its Consequences.

Chapter XV: Causes Which Mitigate the Tyranny of the Majority in the United States.

These chapter headings, by themselves, say a lot.  Reading the book itself can be tedious.  We always were taught that “democracy” (rule by the people) was a good thing, but apparently, by itself, such rule can result in undesirable effects, when the democratically elected government installed by the majority of the people chooses to become oppressive or tyrannical.  Something beyond such “democracy” is therefore needed.  And that something is a guarantee of the individual rights of the people in a democracy.  We have that in the United States as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights forming the first ten amendments to the Constitution, as well as by many other aspects of our government and society which de Tocqueville addresses.

Such guarantees also exist in the democratic structure of governments in other countries such as the United Kingdom and France.  Democracy without them, although producing a government responsive to the choice made by the majority of the people, is dangerous.  This is why Egyptians rioted against their democratically elected government and similarly, Turks have demonstrated against the government they elected.  While democratically elected, these governments lack the guarantees of individual freedom which we take for granted in the United States.

  Rioters in Cairo

For example, the First Amendment to our Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion or impeding the free exercise of religion.  If a democratically elected government in our country wanted to do such things, it would be acting in violation of the Constitution, and could not get away with them so long as we have an independent Supreme Court to decide such questions.  That is not the case in countries whose government is religiously oriented such as nations which call themselves “Islamic” republics, and whose laws follow Islamic principles, disregarding the rights of those who do not believe in such religious principles.  But even an "Islamic" republic, IF IT WANTED TO, could guarantee the rights of political, social, sexual and religious minorities.   When Spain was ruled by the Moors, who were Muslims, the work of the Jewish scholar, theologian and physician, Maimonides, flourished.

Living in a democracy is something like owning an automobile. But along with such ownership comes the necessity of following certain rules, one of which involves having automobile insurance to guarantee that resources exist to cover any damage you might do with your car.   An uninsured automobile is dangerous to others as well as to its owner.  Similarly, if a nation adopts “democracy” as its form of government, guarantees mush exist to protect individuals from any excesses carried out by the government chosen by the people.  Without such guarantees, or an enforceable bill of rights, such democracies are no better than the dictatorships or autocracies they often replace.

The United States should be extremely cautious in dealing with supposed “democracies” whose government does not adhere in some way to the kinds of principles embodied in the First Amendment to our Constitution.  Remember that the Nazis came to power by winning democratic elections, and the ancient Greeks, who originated “democracy,” would occasionally turn power over to tyrants! 

The First Amendment reads as follows: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  

These are sacred words.

 

Jack Lippman

                                                              

Thoughts on ObamaCare on the Occasion of the One-Year Postponement of Certain of Its Mandates for Businesses

Many American businesses do not want the Affordable Care Act to succeed.  It would force them, if they have more than 50 employees, to provide health insurance to their employees or face a penalty.  And that would cost them money and affect their business’ bottom line.  Some employers are limiting the number of hours employees can work to less than thirty per week thereby making them part-timers for whom they need not provide health coverage.  (In earlier blogs, I have proposed that no employees of any firm work more than 30 hours a week, thereby creating more jobs and reducing our chronic unemployment situation.   To avoid complying with the ACA, employers may be incidentally backing into that solution for the unemployment situation.)

In any event, opponents of the Affordable Care Act, when they do things to obstruct its operation, may be cutting their own throats.  If the Act, which tries to provide more people with better insurance through private sources, does not succeed,  we will be back where we were before its passage.  We would be stuck with a system in which this country pays out more for health care per citizen than any other country in the world and still leaves many with inadequate health insurance or none at all.  We would be back to square one without a solution to that problem.

  How are you paying?

Being forced to retreat to that position will prove to the country that to reform health care  through a regulated free enterprise system of private insurers as the ACA does, and leaving most health insurance as an arbitrary benefit connected to one’s employment, just won’t work in the twenty-first century.   What alternative then does that leave us with, recognizing that we cannot just leave our health care system the way it is?

 

This will mean abandoning the multi-payer private insurer foundation of the Affordable Care Act, originally a Republican answer to a government-run plan, and adopting a single payer form where health benefits would be provided by the government, as is the case with Medicare, for the major (although not the total) portion of health care benefits. In such an eventuality, the "mix" of payments for health care would come more from taxation than from employers and individuals' pocketbooks.  In such a system, it would not be long before hospitals and physicians became more strictly regulated by the government, which would be the single largest provider of funds for health care, losing much of their present-day independence.

When its opponents fight the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, they are really hastening the day when such a dreaded single payer plan will arrive.  Many of them are oblivious to that.  

Senators Cruz and Paul who are among the oblivious

JL

 
                                                                 

THE ANOINTED ONE

Harvey Sage  

If you go to God and agree to be appointed

He’ll guide and protect you, you’ll be anointed

The Spirit will flow like a river in your heart

You’ll be a messenger on earth, a co-worker in His art.

“’Do not attack My anointed ones’ says the Lord”

Johnnycakes lay back against the tree and breathed in the scent of sunrise. The fresh elixir of pink, red, and yellow sent his spirits soaring like a rocket on its way to the moon. “Thank You Lord,” he whispered as God spoke to him through the exultation of his inner being. This was heaven on earth, feeling His presence, conversing.

“Wait a minute.  What’s that?”

Below Johnnycakes a small dark green object broke the water of the serene green sea. It was the barely discernible conning tower of an emerging submarine. Men scurried to the blended greenish deck, boats were lowered, merchandize was loaded and soon all were headed for shore, right below where Johnnycakes watched in awe. He heard a shout. Someone with binoculars was on the conning tower pointing.  A shot rang out and Johnnycakes heard the buzz of the bullet as it just missed him. A man with a red hat who had reached shore hit the ground as if in a race. Johnnycakes didn’t have to wait to see what was happening. Like a bunny rabbit being chased by the hounds of hell he took off, a mahogany youth fleeing for his life.

Red Hat was long and lean and very fast. The gleaming object he was waving as he ran was a knife. Johnnycakes heard him growl and snarl. Was he getting closer? Too scared to look back, Johnnycakes was spurred on by the flight juices of fear. He saw the hospital up ahead and raced on. He knew Bethesda General well, as well as anyone.  Johnnycakes served as a custodian and a chaplain, roaming the big four story complex daily. More grunting and cursing from his pursuer, but the voice was further away. He might yet lose him. And then, what?

Bethesda Hospital East

Johnnycakes bolted through a side door and began climbing stairs. “Lord help me.” He took the stairs two at a time. He heard the door slam below and the banging /of footsteps on the stairs. What to do? Could he hide?  Ask for help from security?  Then he got a vision. Johnnycakes smiled and slowed his pace.  He was safely ahead but didn’t want to lose Red Hat.

For five minutes he meandered about through the slowly awakening hospital. At the third floor, Johnnycakes left the stairway and jogged down the still empty hall to his right. Behind him he heard Red Hat opening the door to follow. Johnnycakes took the next exit and began going up to the fourth. He turned to look. Red Hat was winded and way behind. Johnnycakes slowed a bit as he entered the fourth. Dodging the increasing number of the morning shift, he went to the next exit and started down, zigging and zagging from exit to exit as he worked his way down. Far behind him he heard the panting of Red Hat. Johnnycakes smiled.  Good.

At the first floor he didn’t exit but instead took a rarely used flight that went below. The slowing steps of Red Hat indicated the pursuit was still on. “I’ll get you now you black bastard. You’re trapped. Where are you going now? This is it,” screamed Red Hat in a foreign tongue, his knife flashing as he waved it.

Johnnycakes cut through the one door into the morgue.  He saw a line of sheet covered gurneys and slid behind one for concealment. Soon Red Hat barged in; then he stopped. He began looking around. Where could this guy be? A solid windowless door was to his right. Red Hat went in. It was cold. Freezing cold. Ignoring the low temperature he began looking around. He saw a slew of bodies on pull-out drawers. “This is a morgue. These stiffs are on ice to preserve them. If they weren’t dead when they brought them here they’d soon be dead from freezing.”  Then he heard a loud click.

Red Hat spun and ran to the door. Too late. It was locked.

In a panic he clawed at the door. He banged on it and kicked it. With his knife he tried prying it open. He used so much force that the shiny stainless steel blade broke. As a final act of desperation he hit the green button, the one on the right side surrounded by some kind of writing. He hit it again and again as he kept banging and kicking the door. Nothing.  Exhausted, Red Hat sat down and hugged himself as he froze.  Worn to the stub like a hooked fish after a long battle with an angler, Red Hat went into the long sleep. That’s where they found him, frozen to death.

Johnnycakes stood by the side of Security Officer Yardley.  “We are very grateful to you Johnny. The Coast Guard was notified and the submarine was sunk. The cargo they’d put on shore was captured. It was a mixture of drugs and weapons. From the papers this one with the red hat was carrying, we deduce that the intention was to start a local terrorist cell on our shore. Thank God you spotted them and led this one to his death.”

Johnnycakes smiled at Officer Yardley’s kind kudos. He looked up at the green button whose sign read “Push to exit and then step back away from the door so it can swing open.”

“Too bad for him he couldn’t read our language.” 

                                                            

                                                               

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