One Party Government in the U.S.

Anyone with a scrap of knowledge of health care systems knows that the American health care delivery system is a mess and an embarrassment, delivering the worst health results for the highest cost anywhere in the developed world. Conservatives may dream up futuristic government death panels, but today in the largest economy in the world literally hundreds of thousands of Americans die each year because of the inability to get decent health care. The death panels that already exist—the HMOs--outstrip the conservative imagination.

Democratic presidents have twice now tried to introduce a modicum of sanity into the health care delivery system. Admittedly both Clinton’s and Obama’s plans were flawed, largely because both presidents knew the difficulties of shepherding through Congress any plan that even hinted at offending well organized interest groups. But both plans were sincere efforts to address a national disgrace. Yet both plans went down in flames.

Why? Will Rogers, the iconic American comedian of the Depression Era, once remarked, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” The legislative fiasco that is Obamacare proves that almost a century later the Democrats are not so much a political party as rag-tag collection of opportunists with no convictions or principles.

It was once true that much the same could be said of the Republican party. It may be hard for people today to believe, but the liberal wing of the Republican party once controlled the nomination of Republican presidential candidates. In the four presidential elections from 1944-1956 the Republican eastern establishment nominated New York Governor Tom Dewey twice and then nominated and elected Eisenhower, in all of these nomination contests decisively defeating the darling of conservative Republicans Ohio Senator Robert Taft. In the 1970s liberals in the Republican party convinced Richard Nixon, generally perceived as a conservative, to establish the Environmental Protection Agency, impose wage and price controls on the entire economy, and even propose a sweeping expansion of welfare benefits. When Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew resigned under a corruption cloud, Midwestern moderate Jerry Ford was selected as the new vice president. When Nixon resigned and Ford became president, liberal New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, the bête noir of conservative Republicans was chosen as the new vice president.

But anyone who follows contemporary politics knows that the Republican party today is not the Republican party of your grandparents. The Republican party has become so ideologically consistent and politically disciplined it is more like a European parliamentary party than a traditional American party.