Obamacare Can Still Be Defeated

What are you feeling about last week’s Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare? Dispirited? Mad? Maybe even frightened? Me too. But I’ve been mulling this over a lot since Thursday. I was tempted to get sucked into the notion that “all is lost.” “There goes the Republic.” Then I internalized that I sit here in Philadelphia—a city that gave birth to the impossible when all odds seemed against them.

I often encourage listeners to travel to Independence Mall to get reacquainted with America’s birthplace and first capital. If you’re from out of town, I strongly encourage you to make the trip as well. Last summer, a dear friend of mine and I walked the halls of Independence Hall, Congress Hall, the home of the first Supreme Court—all within one square block.

Can you imagine our entire federal government within one square block—and sharing the space (as it did with Pennsylvania’s state government) at that? That’s probably the most jarring thought I have each and every time I walk out the front door of the building that gave us the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: “What happened?”

I defy any honest American to travel here to Philly, listen to the park rangers, internalize what these men called the Continental Congress were up against, the quiet anguish of defining the meaning of a free society and limited government—then walk out the front door and say, “Yep, those men would be proud of us today.”

You couldn’t make the case with a straight face.

Now there are lots of folks very pleased about last week’s ruling concerning Obamacare. Who are they? They’re Obama voters and Obama administration officials. No surprise.

In other words: It’s all about Obama. An “Obama victory.” Not a victory for the country. Not a victory for the economy. This was a purposeful fight, picked by radicals who pushed us to this Constitutional cliff, and through some tortured wrangling by Chief Justice John Roberts, got their win. For now.

I can’t remember a time conservatives ever celebrated a win for “our guy.” I don’t view upholding the Constitution, winning a war, or a robust economy as a win for one man, a president. Sure, I’d like to see a conservative individual win an election. But once they do, I’m rooting for the country. Not him or her. Conservatives, like most Americans celebrate wins for their nation. Their Constitution. Their freedom and goodness. That’s not what the left is celebrating today. They’re celebrating themselves. And America sees it.

The odds aren’t against us. We’re not a minority militia against an all-powerful king and his army. Though the President and his “Occupy” thugs certainly view it that way, no doubt. There is far too much evidence to suggest this country is ready to stand tall once again.

I had the privilege of speaking to a crowd of 5,000 tea-party patriots in 2009, and an equally large group in 2010. Both events happened well before the mid-term elections of 2010. But they were both born of the realization that freedom-loving, Constitution-preserving Americans were being railroaded. We could no longer sit by and trust the system. It would have to mean taking the day off work. It meant attending rallies and town halls, marching on Washington, and in some cases, running for office ourselves.

This movement was inspired as we helplessly watched the Democrat-controlled Congress craft the scandalous piece of legislation, rushed and unread by its own members, and laced with bribes to secure enough procedural votes in a snowstorm on Christmas Eve 2009, known as Obamacare. This, not long after the $800 billion stimulus that would “guarantee” unemployment to stay below eight percent.

The year of 2009 was the year that woke a nation. The electorate at large began to feel we were really at war with our own government. A war on prosperity. A war on disposable income, private property and liberty. We are “at war” if you will, with politicians, but also at war with gas prices, home values, inflation and unemployment. Americans are sacrificing right now. We are being asked by a president to win this war with even more (counter-productive) sacrifice: continued “investments” in public sector unions and now, as defined by the Supreme Court, the largest tax increase ever levied on the American people.

A tax levied on you to compel you to behave as your government wishes. This is President Obama and the Democrats’ strategy going forward.

Fortunately, as we speak, economic battles are being won in the states. Governors, legislators and many local school boards that have cut spending, cut taxes, and freed their states and communities of collective bargaining and teachers’ unions are being rewarded.

Scott Walker is the best example—winning handily against a well-financed recall effort in traditionally liberal Wisconsin.

We are winning this fight at the ballot box. It’s our government that has failed us, not the voters. This Supreme Court ruling did nothing to make already unpopular legislation more popular. It just made us more ready to fight for November.

I’ll be spending my show on the Forth of July back on Independence Mall. I can think of no place I’d rather be this year than that place. A place that reminds me what great things can happen to a nation when bold people have the will to fight for her.

On to November.

You can listen to Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210, WPHT, weekdays from 5:30 to 9 a.m., and follow him on Facebook and Twitter @ChrisStigall.