Palin: Medicare Leads to Totalitarianism
In her closing statement last night, Sarah Palin quoted Ronald Reagan:
It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we’re going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free.
But this wasn’t something Reagan said in the 1980s. It was a jeremiad against Medicare with Reagan arguing that Medicare would lead to “socialized medicine” which would lead to socialism and totalitarianism:
Does Palin want to eliminate Medicare? Well, probably she does. But does she want to say that publicly? I doubt it.
26 Responses to “Palin: Medicare Leads to Totalitarianism”
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October 3rd, 2008 at 9:13 am
So, the candidate who wants to ‘expand’ one of the weirdest autocratic moves in U.S. history, Dick Cheney’s creation of the magical and unaccountable Fourthbranch office, and who is the same party and right wing movement as the administration which attacked the Constitution directly and indirectly, is going to lecture us on how to care for ‘freedom’.
Again, the Republicans would have been much better off paying Fred Thompson to portray a completely scripted character (Manly McStrong or what have you) running as a populist right wing conservative, rather than let the lunatic nimrods themselves actually try it.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:26 am
this odd choice of a quote reminds me of her “choice” to quote Westbrook Pegler in her St. Paul address. Maybe it’s because I’m reading Nixonland presently, but so much of the McCain campaign seems to be this echo of GOP politics circa 1965.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:44 am
Very good observation, Matt. Some good and decent journalist should follow up on this at Governor Palin’s next press conference.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
ed: Good luck finding both at the same time.
The cool thing is: Reagan himself, speaking of “socialism” (that is, anything that doesn’t put at least some of the weak to the wall), says in effect, “If they presented this programme as they wish it to be to the American people, they’d reject it.” As pointed-out above, there are few better summations of Republican plans for us.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
Re Sarah Palin’s comment “we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we’re going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free. ”
————-
Yeah. “Free” to work 45 years putting $300,000 into Social Security/Medicare –only to have Dick Cheney and George steal it in order to give the Superrich a $2 Trillion tax cut and Big Oil control of the Iraq Oil deposits.
“Free” to give up the lives of 4500+ of our best citizens for Cheney’s masters.
“Free” to have $1.5 Trillion of our taxes seized and give to some of the richest, most contemptible people on this planet.
“Free” to have OUR public airwaves taken so some two-faced,lying bitch could tell us not to “look backward”.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:13 am
Reagan’s favorables are high enough that trying to score points with voters with the Medicare quote is probably not going to work. Her interest in Constitution “flexibility” for the VP is more fertile ground for attack, but might be too much about process for some. Biden’s name checking of Cheney was good, he’s about as popular as the flu.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:24 am
“Socialized Medicine(=Medicare)” was rejected under Truman because Southern Democrats feared it would force them to desegregate their hospitals.
How odd that Reagan now looks as distant as Eisenhower.
When Lydon Johnson did get Medicare through, he had Truman attend the bill signing as a guest of honour.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:42 am
Oh, I forgot. We are also free to give Sarah Palin and her
Alaskan constituents the highest number of federal earmarks per capita of any state in the Union.
That’s why Sarah and her Alaskan constituents do NOT have to pay any state income or sales tax.
See http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008154532_webpalin02m.html and
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080903/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin_earmarks
That leaves Sarah time to lecture those of us in the lower 48
on the virtues of self-reliance and the evils of government spending.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:43 am
By god, that dude can talk!! I don’t think people will care that he said this in the context of opposing Medicare.
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Well, but Reagan was clearly right. Medicare passed, despite his pleas that it would lead to totalitarianism a generation later, and here we are, one generation later, with Bush/Cheney in the White House . . .
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Who da old actor guy? He no talk right. Nobody gonna listen to him, he sound rike he stuck in old times.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Thanks for bringing this up, note that the Reagan quote is from the Kennedy Nixon campaign days, around 1960. This bizarre choice of closing quotes puts Palin’s silly jibe at Biden — “there you go, pointing at the past again” in a broader context.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Paul Krugman reads you:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/raising-the-white-flag-of-surrender-to-medicare/
October 4th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Krugman reads TNR.
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