Nothing is more effective in politics than someone who switches sides. Some people would call them “traitors,” but I view them more as prostitutes – they go where the money is. But they were where the money was, until the money wasn’t or they learned there was more money playing for the other team. But one thing you’ll notice with all of them is they happily hammered the checks while they were on the other side and they never, ever give the money back. A conscience only goes so far.
When Michael Steele was the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, he was a very principled conservative, or so he insisted. His tenure did see Republicans retake the House in 2010. It also saw excessive, extravagant and wasteful spending like “$17,000 for private jet travel, $13,000 for limousines and car services and $9,000 for a trip to the Beverly Hills hotel.” This is to say nothing about the $2,000 at a strip club.
In the words of Mel Brooks, “It’s good to be the King,” or at least have the King’s corporate card.
Steele ran for reelection in 2011 and lost, largely due to that waste. He was the first candidate to drop out, in fact, a humiliation that led him to the arms of MSNBC. Since then, Mike has been drifting further and further left, forsaking pretty much every position he’d claimed he truly believed in just a few years earlier. In fairness to him, TV pays a lot better than RNC Chair. As for the humiliation of being exposed as a complete and total fraud? Landing on a big pile of money probably cushions that blow, and memories are short.
Think about all the former Republican Members of Congress who insist they are the standard bearers of “conservatism.” Joe Scarborough, Joe Walsh, Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, David Jolly, etc., all think they have not change at all – they enjoy parroting the famous line from Ronald Reagan that he didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left him.
The reality is Donald Trump broke them in very deep and profound ways; ways that caused them to disown everything they claimed to hold dear before him. When Trump accomplished what they failed to achieve in their Congressional careers, they mourned like they lost a family member. I’ve never hated anyone enough to become angry at the accomplishment of a small goal with their aid, let alone things I’d campaigned on and claimed was something core to my being. They weren’t broken as much as they were rewritten or dissolved.
They kept the money they made trying (and failing) to achieve when Trump accomplished.
There no dead horse Democrat like beating more than health care. They love to insist only government can “save” people from greedy corporations and the suffering private health insurance causes. But they only ever show you part of the picture – the part that makes their case – everything else is ignored. And they love nothing more than a former “insider” who has turned against whatever it was they used to work for to support the left-wing position. After my column yesterday about the group Bernie Sanders started seemingly using the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealtcare to raise money, a friend sent me a column from a former health industry employee who now seems to advocate for socialized medicine.
As a recovering health policy analyst, I know a thing or two about health policy, I haven’t just been the mouthpiece on the issue. Most of the problems in the marketplace are created by government trying to “solve” what they claim are other problems. They use the worst cases, which do happen, to justify massive government intrusions to “guard against” situations less common than an eclipse.
The guy who wrote the article has been writing books and giving interviews for almost 2 decades advocating socialized medicine, using a few stories from when he was a PR guy for an insurance company to justify his advocacy. In his latest attack he whines “through my own research and common sense, I knew plans requiring significant cost sharing would be great for the well-heeled and healthy — and insurers’ shareholders — but potentially disastrous for others.” That last bit is a really BIG qualifier. Should we uproot health care for everyone because a small number of people “potentially” could face bad consequences?
Much like when Democrats spend millions opposing voter ID because they claim black people couldn’t get one, but they don’t ever spend any money trying to help the mystery people without IDs who don’t really exist, they seek to use the rarest of scenarios to change the rules for everyone else they’re actually working for. There’s a reason Canadians come to the US to get care, and it’s not how wonderful socialize medicine is.
Advocates for socialism like Wendell Potter, the author of this lates misleading piece, don’t ever talk about that. They just complain about the system he made a very nice living off of before he switched teams. He’s listed as the president of something called the Center for Health and Democracy, but I can’t find their federal disclosure form 990 to see how much money it takes in or what he’s paid (non-profits are required to release that info for their top 10 paid employees), but I’d guess it’s not nothing. I’d also bet he hasn’t returned that “dirty” corporate money he was paid.
I don’t claim to be an expert on the conscience, but I’d be willing to bet that if something haunts you, you don’t try to profit off of it. If you view something as a moral imperative, you don’t renounce it because you don’t like the person who achieves it. And if you have genuine principles, they are not conditional.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.
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