Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 8:49am

Schadenfreude: Yeah, Me Too

 

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Ditto to Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online:

 

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at the unraveling of Obamacare.

First, the obligatory caveats. It is no laughing matter that millions of Americans’ lives have been thrown into anxious chaos as they lose their health insurance, their doctors, their money, or all three. Nor is it particularly amusing to think of the incredible waste of time and tax dollars that has gone into Obamacare’s construction. And the still-unfolding violence that this misbegotten legislation will visit on the economy and our liberties is not funny either. This very magazine has been downright funereal about the brazen and unconstitutional seizure of one-sixth of the economy, and rightly so.

But come on, people.

If you can’t take some joy, some modicum of relief and mirth, in the unprecedentedly spectacular beclowning of the president, his administration, its enablers, and, to no small degree, liberalism itself, then you need to ask yourself why you’re following politics in the first place. Because, frankly, this has been one of the most enjoyable political moments of my lifetime. I wake up in the morning and rush to find my just-delivered newspaper with a joyful expectation of worsening news so intense, I feel like Morgan Freeman should be narrating my trek to the front lawn. Indeed, not since Dan Rather handcuffed himself to a fraudulent typewriter, hurled it into the abyss, and saw his career plummet like Ted Kennedy was behind the wheel have I enjoyed a story more.

Go here to read the rest.  Pass the popcorn.

 

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Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 11:02am

Ann Althouse quoted some poll results which indicate that 45% of the public fancies the President’s mendacious babble about people being able to keep health plans with which they were satisfied (which the reportage of the Wall Street Journal indicates was a calculated lie in which dozens of officials are implicated) was an honest mistake. The 45% in question includes most people under 40.

You read stuff like that and you figure Idiocracy has arrived. I am not sure this is going to play out as you expect. We have reason to believe that for a large fraction of the young, their adherence to the Democratic Party is a sort of brand loyalty that will not be shaken by performance deficits of any kind.

The difference in the balance of attitudes you see in the 1975 cohort as compared to the 1985 cohort appears quite stark and one doubts that life-cycle factors can explain it.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 11:21am

Those people are not merely, utterly evil, they are completely incompetent.

How can 45% of we the people be so stupid? If so, yiou need to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.

Anyhow, 70% of us independent voters are 100% opposed to the massive feces sandwich they call ObamaCare.

DJ Hesselius
DJ Hesselius
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 11:44am

I too wonder about this. Yes, Obamacare may be repealed, but the damage is done. People want free birthcontrol, to keep their children on their insurance until age 26, pre-existing conditions coverage. Not sure the implosion of Obamacare is going to lead to the freeing of the medical markets. I think this may very well end up as “You know, the market really doesn’t work, and we need Single Payer.”

Paul W Primavera
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 12:15pm

I hope this is the beginning of the end of that godless, arrogant man of sin and depravity, and of his whole liberal progressive monstrosity along with him.

“Et apprehensa est bestia et cum illa pseudopropheta, qui fecit signa coram ipsa, quibus seduxit eos, qui acceperunt characterem bestiae et qui adorant imaginem eius; vivi missi sunt hi duo in stagnum ignis ardentis sulphure.” Apocalypsis Ioannis 19:20

Jon
Jon
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 1:14pm

Paul, putting aside your joke, I’m also thinking the unrest will lead to a republican resurgency. I think it will be easier, at least, for the republican party at the election. But as a student of history, I don’t expect anything to last. Trends always cycle.

Paul W Primavera
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 1:20pm

Oh, but Jon, I wasn’t joking. I have nothing but disgust, disdain and contempt for that man who uses sex to market Obamacare to the young, legitimatizes the infanticide of the unborn, and sanctifies homosexual activity as “marriage”. I know that I am wrong for giving vent to such feelings, but I cannot stand how low this putrid, filthy refuse and his Democrat gangsters have brought this country. Nevertheless, you are correct. If what is happening now fails to give us a Republican victory, nothing will.

Jon
Jon
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 1:59pm

That’s probably true. If the health-care reaction doesn’t do it nothing will. But like I said, republican victory won’t last. People will grow tired of that and find their way back to the democratic party. We have a short-term memory and seek novelty all the time. As for Obama, I don’t think he fits the bill when it comes to that, thankfully. I have always seen things I like and hate in both parties. Yes, the democrats have collectively stood for some very impious things. Abortion and homosexuality, for instance, have become equated with that party in the minds of most people. It may come as a surprise to some, but many republicans out there are irreligious and have no qualms with these social positions either. There are different kinds of republicans and I like to think there are different kinds of democrats.

tamsin
tamsin
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 2:13pm

I can’t get on board with the Schadenfreude. I’m extremely disappointed in pundits like Jonah who encourage it.

We can’t give progressives an inch. Not one inch of “happiness” about anybody’s misfortune. Just confirms their narrative. A disastrous president is a disaster for all.

It’s one thing to stand back, reminding them you were told to sit in the back seat, and point out that progressives are hurting Americans. It’s a whole other thing to do that with a smile on your face.

No smiles. Not one.

In 2014, who will the low-information voter vote for? The president who tried to give her free contraceptives? Or the opposition party that laughed at him for trying?

We’re fighting for the title of Daddy, of “the adult in the room.”

Paul W Primavera
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 2:24pm

Jon, you are only too correct.

Respondit Iesus: “ Regnum meum non est de mundo hoc; si ex hoc mundo esset regnum meum, ministri mei decertarent, ut non traderer Iudaeis; nunc autem meum regnum non est hinc ”.
Evangelium secundum Ioannem 18:36

Jay Anderson
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 2:40pm

Is it okay if we smile on the inside? I plan on enjoying every minute of the progressive meltdown over Obamacare.

Jon
Jon
Thursday, November 14, AD 2013 2:50pm

Thanks, Paul. That has always been my point. God’s kingdom transcends our politics. It transcends human institutions and values. Thanks for the pertinent quote.

Jeanne Rohl
Jeanne Rohl
Friday, November 15, AD 2013 10:59am

As far as some turncoat Republicans you bet they’re out there. I worked my you know what off for a Lutheran Republican pastor candidate as well as did every pro life volunteer in the 30th district. Stuffed thousands of envelopes, walked hundreds of miles door to door. He was “so pro life” that within weeks of getting to Madison he turned out to be the most pro abortion member of the assembly we ever had. I tend to agree with all of the above comments. I don’t think I have ever felt such disdain in all my life for what we have allowed as a nation to happen. We have done it. Low information my patootsky, downright selfishness, greed, apathy, and laziness has led us to this downfall of the greatest country ever! It is positively terrifying.

anzlyne
anzlyne
Friday, November 15, AD 2013 12:52pm

No I don’t think lolling in schadenfreude is a good idea. We American Catholics should be on our toes.

I am afraid of the hope so many of us “used-to-be-democrats” are putting into republicans. Seems not likely to pan out, esp when they can’t decide to form up behind leaders like Santorum or Cruz because they are AFRAID (that they need to pander to liberals to increase voting base. It seems like the republicans might be just what many of us grew up thinking they were: all about the money. Don’t talk to them about social issues! )

The real growth in voting base would come with strength and leadership.
There is a lot of talk about low information voters, but the electorate is capable of more intelligent choosing than they are given credit for IF the leadership is there.
It is true in the Church and in politics: we need real leaders truly oriented to the Good.

It is our blessing, and perhaps the intervention of prayers, that the HHS mandate is not rolling out so well, and we need to understand our opportunities here and now.
If the current administration was not amateurish ideologues we could have easily been pinned by now. If the administration had the perspicacity and effectiveness of Stalin we would be. Fortunately the left that is taking a stab at it now is more inept and their titular head is imprudent.
Prudence is a virtue only when it is oriented to the Good. Stalin, it has been said, was a prudent man.
But the rank and file of the left are not imprudent and they will continue their efforts if we don;’t capitalize on their current temporary disarray.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, November 15, AD 2013 4:19pm

I don’t think I have ever felt such disdain in all my life for what we have allowed as a nation to happen.

Is he still in the legislature? The man sounds like a sociopath a la Sens. Rubio an Ayotte. If your constituency tolerates fraud like that, I can see your frustration.

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