“You lie!”
When U.S. Representative Joe Wilson (R‑SC) shouted this at President Barack Obama during 2009’s State of the Union — scandal!
How dare he?
At issue was whether federal tax dollars would aid illegal immigrants under Obamacare. Democrats denied that any such thing would happen. Indeed, the very idea constituted a calumny, a mere paranoid Tea Party delusion.
This came to a lot of people’s minds after last week’s televised Democratic Party presidential candidates’ debates.
On Thursday, all ten on-stage candidates assented, with hands held proudly high, to giving undocumented aliens free health care. And several from the previous night’s debate are also on record for the same thing, none of them more insistent than Senator Elizabeth Warren, who proclaims that health care is a right.
Democratic opinion leaders now eagerly assert what they took offense at a mere ten years ago.
There are two very basic things we can learn from this.
First, what politicians say about what they want changes over time.
A decade ago, Democrats took offense when called socialist; now they revel in the term. So what are we to make of Democrats’ current s‑word usage? Now they insist they don’t want to nationalize the means of production — but will they tomorrow?
Second, the debate over immigration is not really between restrictionists and open borders supporters. It is between proponents of restricted immigration, on the one hand, and those who demand subsidized immigration, on the other.
A true open borders policy could look very different from what Democrats now push.
Less socialistic.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
—
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)