Friday 4 February 2011

The Vote on Obamacare Repeal Shows America's Vibrant Democracy

This week the US Senate held its vote on the Obamacare repeal bill that was passed overwhelmingly in the House.  The bill failed in the Senate as it was expected to.

This is precisely what was expected to happen - there was no way the Democrat dominated Senate was going to vote against Obamacare, and then even if it did there was no way it was going to be signed by Obama.  This had led a number of commentators to condemn this move as a political stunt.

Those commentators are incorrect.  What this move shows is how incredibly vibrant and responsive America's democracy is to the will of the people.  So many people believe that a democracy is really just an elected dictatorship and this vote shows that, in America at least, such a thing is not the case.

Obama was elected in 2008, and the response to his agenda has been overwhelmingly negative.  Although his personal approval remains stubbornly in the 40's, approval of his agenda is enormously low, and it is clear that most people want Obamacare repealed.  Within two years, the Senate and House of Representatives had been cleared of those who were enforcing the Obama agenda and replaced with those who wish to begin rolling it back.

Although the government cannot immediately repeal what has happened over the last few years, American democracy has allowed the people to slam the brakes on the Obama agenda. The House controls the purse strings, and so the unpopular spending policies of Obama have been stopped within the space of two years.  If the American people wish it to be so, in another two years they can begin actively overturning the damage done between 2009 and 2010 by electing a Republican President and Senate.  For now, they can at least stop it from going any further, and that is precisely what they have done.

In Britain, the electorate will usually have to wait up to 5 years before even being allowed to use their vote to stop the agenda being driven through Parliament.  Americans have to wait less than two years to stop the agenda, and begin putting pressure on for the agenda to be reversed.  While some may be dismayed that they are not able to repeal Obamacare and the rest of the Obama agenda just yet, the fact that the American people have been able to stop this destructive agenda in its tracks and start working to reverse it, all within two years of Obama's election, does great credit to the American system of democracy, and it is something that we in Britain can learn from.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you. I join you in heartily admiring our American system. Now we just have to get to work on some of Obama's abuses -- ignoring order not to implement O-care, conempt of court in LA, sued by 18 states, his complete lack of security at our borders, his ties to the Egyptian "riots" and his ignoring Iran', all the muslims he has put into govt, particularly Homeland Security, his corrupt Dept of "Justice, trillions of missing dollar" --

    The Dems are known as the Mean Party; Repubs as the Stupid Party. WE are all hoping the stupid party will subpoena his a** off and start proper action immediately.

    By the way, I'm sure you're asking, as are we all, Where's the BC? Why the multiple ss numbers and forged draft registration? Who paid for university and got him in? Etc. Etc. Etc.

    I;m glad we haven;t lost the people of the UK as allies, as we love you all (especially your brave EDL)

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  2. I too thank God that our forefathers were smart enough to put the system of government in place that we have. It almost ensures 100% that we will never again be "ruled" by the "noble class".

    But as vladdy said, we really need to shut down our borders. We also need to smarten up and realize how very IMPORTANT the right to vote is, and to vote in someone who is qualified for the job of POTUS, and not just for skin color, or "what's cool". I never thought I would say this, but with the lack of maturity of our young people today, the law folded into the 26th amendment lowering the voting age to 18 needs to be repealed back up to 21.

    Because of P.C., young people at 18 nowadays (with the exception of our military personnel) have had their emotional growth stunted by our public school systems. Everything has to be "fair". Nobody knows how to research anymore. It is because of the young voters we have the nightmare we have in office now.

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