What is a liberal? They’ll say anything

This begins an intermittent series of articles answering the question “what is a liberal?”

Let them be known by their own actions and statements. I start with the proposition that liberals are expedient: they’ll say anything to get or keep political power.

Say anything to pass Obamacare
What a mess. Does anyone believe that President Obama really believed all the promises he made? The top howler is this: “You can keep your doctor, you can keep your health plan.”

These promises, and others, were made in remarks at an American Medical Association meeting on June 15, 2009. All the promises of Obamacare efficiency were counter-intuitive from the start, any government-administered service is relatively inefficient.

Imposing more government regulation on something as complex as medical care never turns out well. Look at our own problems with the Veterans Administration. Look at Britain’s experience with the National Health Service.

When the NHS was created in 1948, Aneurin Bevan, the health minister, confidently predicted that the service would so improve people’s health that the nation’s medical bill would actually fall. Ever since, annually and inexorably, the NHS budget has risen…cancelled operations and closed wards…prodigious waster of taxpayers’ money.

President Obama did what he had to, he said what he needed to say. Over-promising was needed to quiet concerns. The bill passed the Senate 60-39, without a single Republican voting yes. It passed 219-212 in the House, also without a single Republican vote in favor.

The most transparent administration ever
From a White House press release:

President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise.

Transparency was a frequent promise by candidate Obama in the 2008 Presidential campaign. Blame Obama’s naivete, but it worked and he’s unapologetic. Truthfully, the Obama administration is probably less transparent than others. Glen Greenwald in the left-leaning British newspaper The Guardian summarizes:

I’ve spent the last four years documenting the extreme, often unprecedented, commitment to secrecy that this president has exhibited, including his vindictive war on whistleblowers, his refusal to disclose even the legal principles underpinning his claimed war powers of assassination, and his unrelenting, Bush-copying invocation of secrecy privileges to prevent courts even from deciding the legality of his conduct.

And then, there’s the IRS. The one agency Americans should trust the most for transparency and professionalism is accused of a clumsy coverup. Your desktop computer crashed, so your emails are lost? Pssst, hey…emails are not stored on that desktop. Check your email server.

President Obama, a liberal, and a former community organizer from Chicago, doesn’t hesitate to say what’s needed to get the votes, nor does he hesitate to crack the whip and hide he dirt once the voting is done.

‘False, misleading and evasive answers designed to obstruct the judicial process’
Wikipedia says it concisely:

Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on two charges, one of perjury and one of obstruction of justice, on December 19, 1998. Two other impeachment articles, a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of power, failed in the House. He was acquitted of both charges by the Senate on February 12, 1999.

Clinton was acquitted by the Senate, but did not escape the following judgments:

Held in Contempt of court
Law license in Arkansas suspended for five years
Disbarred from the US Supreme Court

Bill Clinton is still active and revered in the Democratic Party, and now maneuvering to return to the White House as spouse of our first female President.

Two exceptions that prove the rule
From the Washington Post:

Declaring “I am not a crook,” President Nixon vigorously defended his record in the Watergate case tonight and said he had never profited from his public service.

When it became obvious that President Nixon lied, Republican legislators in Congress abandoned him, and he resigned on August 8, 1974.

Bush 43 was accused of lying about WMD. I’d love to argue that, but in this context note that George W Bush is no longer active in Republican party affairs.

The bottom line
Democrats in Congress didn’t abandon Clinton. They wont abandon Obama. Clinton remains active and beloved in Democratic Party circles, and Obama likely will be active and respected after he leaves office. There is no penalty for falsehoods in liberal circles. What cost is too high if the end is victory for big government and social justice? Conservatives are less willing to betray generally held standards of good behavior.