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Is Liberalism a Religion? (It is to the Left)
Townhall.com ^ | December 17, 2011 | John C. Goodman

Posted on 12/17/2011 5:45:03 AM PST by Kaslin

When people make statements that are completely at variance with reality and they continue to repeat them and you know they are not crazy, it’s only natural to wonder, what’s going on?

I’ve concluded that for some people on the left, political beliefs are like a false religion in which the parishioners become unable to distinguish myth from reality.

How else can you explain the statements of Donald Berwick, President Obama’s recess appointee to run Medicare and Medicaid, on his way out of office the other day? For starters, he claimed that the Affordable Care Act (what some people call ObamaCare) “is making health care a basic human right.” Then he went on to say that because of the new law, “we are a nation headed for justice, for fairness and justice in access to care.”

Now I can’t claim to have read everything in the 2,700-page law, but I can assure you that “making health care a right” just isn’t in there. Nor is there anything in the new law that makes the role of government more “just” or “fair.”

To the contrary, a lot of knowledgeable people (not just conservative critics) are predicting that access to care is going to be more difficult for our most vulnerable populations. That appears to have been the experience in Massachusetts, which Obama cites as the model for the new federal reforms. It’s not that Massachusetts tried and failed to expand access to care. It didn’t even try.

True enough, Massachusetts cut the number of uninsured in that state in half through Governor Romney’s health reform. But it didn’t create any new doctors. The state expanded the demand for care, but it did nothing to expand supply. More people than ever are trying to get care, but because there was no increase in medical services, it has become more difficult than ever to actually see a doctor.

And far from fair, the new federal health law will give some people health insurance subsidies that are as much as $20,000 more than the subsidies available to other people at the same level of income. In fact, the new system of health insurance subsidies is about as arbitrary as it can be.

Berwick isn’t alone in making bizarre statements about health reform. Right after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, administration health advisors Robert Kocher, Ezekiel Emanuel and Nancy-Ann DeParle announced that the new health reform law “guarantees access to health care for all Americans.”

In fact, nothing in the act guarantees access to care for any America, let alone all Americans. Far from it. Again, take Massachusetts as the precedent. The waiting time to see a new family practice doctor in Boston (63 days) is longer than in any other major U.S. city. In a sense, a new patient seeking care in Boston has less access to care than in just about every other U.S. city!

The disconnect between belief and reality is not unique to our country. With the enactment of the British National Health Service after World War II, the reformers claimed that they too had made health care a “right.” The same claim was made in Canada after that country established its “single-payer” Medicare scheme.

Yet in reality, neither country has made health care a right. They didn’t even come close. Neither British nor Canadian citizens have a right to any particular health care. A patient with a mysterious lump on her breast has no right to an MRI scan in either country. A cancer patient has no right to the latest cancer drug. A cardiac patient has no right to open heart surgery. They may get the care they need. Or they may not. Sadly, all too often they do not.

The British and the Canadians not only have no legally enforceable right to any particular type of care, they don’t even have a right to a place in line. For example, a patient who is 100th on the waiting list for heart surgery is not entitled to the 100th surgery. Other patients (including cash paying patients from the United States!) may jump the queue and get their surgery first.

Imagine a preacher, a priest or a rabbi who gets up in front of the congregation and gets a lot of things wrong. Say he misstates facts, distorts reality, or says other things you know are not true. Do you jump up from the pew and yell, “That’s a lie”? Of course not. But if those same misstatements were made by someone else during the work week you might well respond with considerable harshness. What’s the difference? I think there are two different thought processes that many people engage in. Let’s call them “Sunday morning” thinking and “Monday morning” thinking. We tolerate things on Sunday that we would never tolerate on Monday. And there is probably nothing wrong with that, unless people get their days mixed up.

In my professional career I have been to hundreds of health policy conferences, discussions, get-togethers, etc., where it seemed as though people were completely failing to connect with each other. One day it dawned on me that we were having two different conversations. Some people were engaged in Monday morning thinking, while everyone else was engaged in Sunday morning thinking.

Here’s the problem. Whether the beliefs are true or false, if people didn’t come to their religious convictions by means of reason, then reason isn’t going to convince them to change their minds.

This same principle applies to collectivism and health care. If people didn’t come to the false religion of collectivism by means of reason, you are not going to talk them out of it by means of reason. If you remember this principle, you will save yourself the agony of many, many pointless conversations.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: liberalism
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1 posted on 12/17/2011 5:45:05 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
Of course Liberalism is a religion.

Haven't you seen their Wisconsin Capitol holiday creche which depicts the rectum-goddess giving birth to their brains on the feast of satan?


2 posted on 12/17/2011 5:52:07 AM PST by Notwithstanding (1998 ACU ratings: Newt=100%, Paul=88%, Santorum=84% [the last year all were in Congress])
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To: Kaslin

bookmark


3 posted on 12/17/2011 6:02:24 AM PST by GiovannaNicoletta ("....in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking... (2 Peter 3:3))
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To: Kaslin
When people make statements that are completely at variance with reality and they continue to repeat them and you know they are not crazy, it’s only natural to wonder, what’s going on?

That's an insulting way to describe Religion.

The Left has a secular worldview. It is at variance with reality. I agree with much the author says, and I think the devil is behind the whole thing, but I don't think Leftism is really a religion.

4 posted on 12/17/2011 6:04:28 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Nothing will change until after the war. It's coming.)
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To: Kaslin

It is all the excuses for taking the wrong path in life.


5 posted on 12/17/2011 6:09:27 AM PST by Track9
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To: Kaslin

It is to the Antichrist.


6 posted on 12/17/2011 6:10:18 AM PST by popsmoke
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To: Kaslin
Liberals remind me of a 12 year old throwing a hissy fit, or trying in vain to utilize the ill informed logic available to your average 12 year old. It gets old after a while. Sometimes you just need to smack them down to make them see the errors of their ways.
7 posted on 12/17/2011 6:14:24 AM PST by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: Kaslin
It is difficult to sort out, because a basic tenet of their belief system is that it is fine to lie to accomplish their ends. They lie to everyone, including themselves. They do it so often that they start believing their own lies.

If you believe the lie, does that mean that you are not lieing when you repeat it? I would think so.

8 posted on 12/17/2011 6:17:17 AM PST by marktwain (In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.)
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To: Kaslin
It's a religion, alright, but it's a false one. We will be like unto God in our knowledge of good and evil . . .
9 posted on 12/17/2011 6:21:13 AM PST by WorkingClassFilth (Soon to be a man without a country.)
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To: Kaslin

Answer.......... is muslim a religion?


10 posted on 12/17/2011 6:31:04 AM PST by ronnie raygun (V)
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To: Kaslin

For some liberals, it absolutely is. Religiosity is a biological inclination; you have it or you don’t. Someone who is brought up faithless but is religiously inclined is going to find some other normative system in which to believe in unconditionally —their parents’ politics being readily to hand. The parents who would have brought up an irreligious child in the 1960s or 1970s are very likely to have been liberal ... so you get your preponderance of liberalism-as-religion folks. Irreligious families now are a lot more common and politically diverse so it will be interesting to see how this dynamic changes.


11 posted on 12/17/2011 6:35:47 AM PST by only1percent
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To: Kaslin

Dennis Prager once said to the effect ‘If you don’t believe in God do you believe in nothing? People have to believe in something. Most people can’t live their lives in a spiritual void. So when people don’t believe in God, they have to channel that belief into something else they view as their savior. Something else large, effecting their daily lives. Something they believe has the power to take care of them. Something they end up following with a fever of faith and certainy: they worship Government.’


12 posted on 12/17/2011 6:35:59 AM PST by Psycho_Bunny ("Fair share" are the last two words I hear before I stop taking someone seriously.)
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To: Kaslin

Liberalism is a religion. Abortion is sacred and executing death row inmates is a sin.


13 posted on 12/17/2011 6:38:27 AM PST by VRW Conspirator (Neo-communist equals Neo-fascist)
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To: Kaslin
[When people make statements that are completely at variance with reality and they continue to repeat them and you know they are not crazy,...]

Oh, they are indeed crazy! And their mental health is not going to be cured by phycologists or depression medications because their problem is spiritual and they refuse to acknowledge the truth. And the truth will set them free, but they refuse and remain in darkness and will not come unto the light of the world, even Jesus Christ, to be healed. The left is into insanity and the right is following them slowly but surely. When the blind lead the blind, all will fall into a ditch. And so it is. Let them believe God and His Christ and be forgiven their sins by His grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary where He died for our sins and then rose again the third day unto everlasting life and is now ascended into the heavenlies and is at the right hand of God the Father. There He makes intercession for the sinners of the world who believe on Him for salvation and from their He will return to judge the world in their greatest hour of darkness, destroy the wicked peoples who hate and reject His free offer of salvation purchased with His own sinless blood at Calvary. And then He alone will rule over the whole earth as King from the little nation of Israel for 1000 years and then..., well, you search the Scriptures for the whole plan. Do not believe the church's or peoples who deny the Scriptures of Christ, they are liars and sinners and murderers and thieves and will give account to God in the person of Christ after their deaths. And unless a man believe the God of Israel and His testimony of Jesus Christ by the Scriptures, that person will die in sin and then be judged for their personal sins against God and cast into the lake of fire by the final Judge Jesus Christ.Ro. 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

John 3: 13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. 22After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.

14 posted on 12/17/2011 6:48:27 AM PST by kindred ( Third party conservatism is on the rise, God bless the conservative tea party.)
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To: VRW Conspirator

Atheism is certainly a religion, look at the fervor and zeal the more radical of them go about trying to force their views and opinions on you. Secular humanism is the same way.. a religion with out the fancy trappings so to speak.


15 posted on 12/17/2011 6:49:03 AM PST by Mmogamer (I refudiate the lamestream media, leftists and their prevaricutions.)
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To: Kaslin
When people believe they are possessed of ultimate truth inconvenient particulars along the way are dismissed. Walter Duranty could not see, or would not see, 7 million Ukrainians starved and murdered by Stalin.

If you look at the body language of Barack Obama, which resembles that of Mussolini, you will see an arrogance in which he dismisses not just the point of view of others but their very worth as human beings. That is why he is tone deaf to the suffering of the unemployed, although he is sociopathic enough to exploit it. That is why he can take his vacations and play his golf rounds. He is special because he has a unique apprehension of ultimate truth.

Generations of leftists could overlook 100 million dead catalogued in the Black Book of Communism because it was as nothing compared to the ultimate truth. So if 6 million kulaks die in Ukraine, Walter Duranty does not see it because it does not fit. If the national health service in England is causing suffering, is not seen because the quest is not for better care but for equality of care-a greater and ultimate value.

Chairman Mao could be indifferent to the suffering and deaths of literally tens of millions which he caused because he believed that his conception of the truth was more important than their individuality. Leftism is ultimately an ego trip. It is the ultimate violation of the First commandment, it is to presume the very role of God.

Not incidentally, that is why the left is so viscerally hostile to the Judeo-Christian heritage because there is a fundamental and eternal battle between good and evil, between believers and God players.

Not incidentally, that is why there is no individual salvation to a leftist but group salvation-which Obama has time and again emphasized in his speeches. Salvation comes to the individual as and only when he submits to the group. So if Chairman Mao wants to advance his conception of a cultural revolution to shape the group, the sacrifice of individuals is nothing.

The key to understanding this is to understand that when the individual gives into the group he finds an enormous psychic release. You do not believe me, ask yourself why "they drank the Kool-Aid" became a cliché for the sublimation of the intellect to the "ultimate truth."


16 posted on 12/17/2011 6:49:20 AM PST by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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To: Kaslin

It’s a good article except it mischaracterizes religion. Religion does not necessarily mean one accepts statements on Sunday that fly in the face of known facts. Even though faith may involve things that are unseen, it doesn’t necessarily mean those things don’t exist, and it’s really impossible to prove otherwise. Personally? I think my religion is far, far more grounded in the reality of man and this existence than what most unbelievers believe.


17 posted on 12/17/2011 6:49:37 AM PST by CitizenUSA (What's special about bad? Bad is easy. Anyone can do bad. Aspire to be good!)
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To: Mmogamer

Just saw on twitter Christopher Hitchens died? I hope he saw the Light before he went.


18 posted on 12/17/2011 6:49:49 AM PST by Mmogamer (I refudiate the lamestream media, leftists and their prevaricutions.)
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To: Kaslin

An offensive slap at Christianity. Obviously an ignorant atheist who has no concept that Christianity is the only religion based on evidence rather than superstition.


19 posted on 12/17/2011 6:52:26 AM PST by grumpa
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To: Kaslin

Liberalism is not a religion. It’s an ideological concentration camp.


20 posted on 12/17/2011 6:53:58 AM PST by equaviator ( "There's a (datum) plane on the horizon coming in...see it?")
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