Stephan Helgesen
There is one thing the justices forgot amid their deliberations on health care, and that is the other court that is even more powerful than the Supreme Court. It is the court of public opinion.
Just when I thought it was safe to turn to the news channels to escape True Blood or Vampires Suck, I’m hit with the latest salvo in the vampire wars in the form of a surprise ruling from none other than the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court upheld the controversial Patients’ Affordable Health Care Act (aka Obamacare). Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts gave all Americans and especially America’s small-business sector the bad news with a deft puncture to our jugular vein and a stiff punch to the solar plexus for good measure.
In vampire talk, the ruling was a major withdrawal from America’s already anemic small-business sector. By siding with the liberals on the court in a 5-4 ruling upholding one of America’s most despised pieces of legislation ever, Chief Justice Roberts may have shown himself to be the consummate non-partisan, but he certainly didn’t boost his stock with the average constitutionalist, independent, libertarian or conservative, not to mention the typical small-business owner that was counting on an outcome that would keep the Federal Rottweilers away from the meager scraps in his feeding bowl.
The bloody handwriting
Bram Stoker would have been impressed with the stealth and secrecy of the 9Js by not revealing their positions. Only the blood-sucking flying rodents of his novel, “Dracula,” did it better, laying in wait for the poor victim to fall asleep before relieving them of a pint of their life’s blood.
Vampire hunters didn’t have to brave the uppermost regions of the capitol rotunda to find a web-winged specimen either. There were plenty of them on the Senate floor two years ago when Democrats used arcane tactics like “reconciliation” to get their way, coupled it with epic deal-making, to get the deciding votes in what has now become known as the “Cornhusker Kickback” and the “Louisiana Purchase,” etc.
At the end of the day, when the votes were counted, not a single Republican had said “yea.” The most comprehensive, most all-encompassing piece of legislation that would affect the lives of every single American passed without a single Republican vote.
We should have seen the bloody handwriting on the wall when then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, in essence, that we would just have to pass the bill so we could know what was in it. And when we did find out what was in the 3,200 pages of gobbledegook, like the mandate, the thousands of new IRS agents who would be hired to monitor our insurance policy-holder status, it was enough to turn even the most battle-hardened vampire’s blood-shot eyes white with fear.
Come Nov. 6
Yes, we should have seen it coming, but nobody on the left or right anticipated that rock-solid, pragmatic, constitutionalist, Chief Justice John Roberts, would succumb to the siren song of the Obama legal team’s arguments.
No, the CJ effectively cast the tie vote and thus drove a stake through the heart of our health-care industry, our small-business sector and our indebtedness while moving us one step closer to one nation of the government for the government and by the government with some liberty and a little justice for a few.
First it was the Congress who fell from our grace. Now it’s the Supreme Court. There’s only one branch left, and the opportunity to hold their feet to the fire will come Nov. 6. Maybe, just maybe, we can roll back Justicia Cunctator est Justicia Denego (“justice delayed is justice denied”).
There is one thing the 9Js forgot amid their deliberations, and that is the other court that is even more powerful than the Supreme Court. It is the court of public opinion. Its sentences are rarely plea bargained down, and its collective memory is long.
Stephan Helgesen is a former U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 24 countries. He is also CEO of his own export consultancy. He may be reached at helgesen@2ndopinionmarketing.com.