If followed through, Landrieu faces grave electoral future

Zebras don’t change their stripes, so it’s no surprise that Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu looks to join her fellow liberals in the Senate in passing health care reform legislation that has gone from truly monstrous to just horrific with changes made to accommodate her and others.

Of course, Landrieu is an idiot if she actually believes what she now claims to support: it will not cut costs, it will not improve the quality of care, and it will bring health care to no additional people, but it will raise taxes and create a Trojan Horse for a continued government takeover of health care (for a succinct and data-filled rendering of the flaws and hidden agenda and the lies being told to cover them up in this legislation, see the Wall Street Journal’s “The WSJ Guide to ObamaCare”). But this attitude and subsequent behavior is the hallmark of liberalism, a discredited belief system about human beings that survives only because of ignorance, deception, and active propagation of negated assertions in order to gain power and privilege, and Landrieu never wanders far from it, so her acquiescence should come as no shock.

The question is what ramifications an eventual decision of hers to back this tissue of lies will have on her political career? It could be that she doesn’t plan on running for reelection. By 2014 she’ll be in her mid-fifties with 18 years in the Senate (and a lifetime of serving in elected offices with next to no experience in the private sector which explains much about her dismal record), her family having made a ton of money and she eligible for a fat pension. Maybe she thinks she can hand off the seat to younger brother Mitch (if he can win the New Orleans mayoralty). This certainly would explain why she would support something so thoroughly detested by the Louisiana electorate, because she doesn’t plan on facing it again.


However, she may be banking on for her next election if running again that five years will have passed creating enough time for memories to dim enough about her wrong vote. If so, she’s doesn’t understand what’s about to hit her. What’s so remarkable about the brazenness of the Democrats’ attempt to cram these huge changes down the public’s throat is precisely that: whenever substantial policy changes have come about historically in America, the nation’s public has been supportive – generally not largely, but at least a small majority have favored things like the introduction of the Social Security system and civil rights legislation. That definitely is not the case at this time and relative to the Louisiana public, it’s almost 2-1 against.

Further reinforcing Landrieu being tarred a long time by this is that blame solely can be pinned on Democrats for his travesty. When these big policy changes have come about in the past such as those mentioned above, it has been large bipartisan votes that have achieved them. No such thing will happen if it does pass this time, and Landrieu and the Democrats will have full ownership of this mess. It will be remembered for a long time and she will be loathed by enough of the electorate regardless of anything else she does for it to cost her reelection if she pursues it.

Landrieu never has won by any substantial amount any of her Senate attempts, and was helped to varying degrees by fortuitous timing, foibles of other candidates, and creative voting strategies. If she follows through on this, chances are now very good that either voluntarily or involuntarily she will not be returning to Washington, D.C. – an outcome that many may relish, but that will come at a terrible price to the country.