Mark Shields: If Obamacare Fails, “This Is The End . . . of Liberal Government.”

Shields and Brooks on waning ACA confidence and its impact on liberal government. Video and transcript. PBS NewsHour, November 15, 2013. YouTube.

PBS Dem Pundit Mark Shields: If Obamacare Fails, “This Is The End . . . of Liberal Government.” By Tim Graham. NewsBusters, November 16, 2013.

Mark “Maxi” Shields in Crisis: Obamacare Failure Could Spell the End of Liberalism. By Rush Limbaugh. RushLimbaugh.com, November 18, 2013.


NewsHour transcript:

MARK SHIELDS: Judy, this is beyond the Obama administration. If this goes down, if the Obama – if health care, the Affordable Care Act is deemed a failure, this is the end – I really mean it – of liberal government, in the sense of any sense that government as an instrument of social justice, an engine of economic progress, which is what divides Democrats from Republicans – that’s what Democrats believe.

 

And that’s what Democrats believe. Time and again, social programs have made the difference in this country. The public confidence in that will be so depleted, so diminished, that I really think the change – the equation of American politics changes.

 

JUDY WOODRUFF: Is your view that dire?

 

DAVID BROOKS: I agree with that.

 

I think it’s – I don’t know if it’s permanent, but it will be a severe blow to the idea of expanded liberal governments. My big thought is, are we no longer the kind of country in which you can pass this sort of thing? And by that, I mean, when you were passing the New Deal or the Great Society, there were winners and losers.

 

But the losers felt part of a larger collective and they said, OK, I’m going to take a hit for the team. We may no longer have that sense of being part of a larger collective, so when you’re a loser, you just say, I’m a loser. And, as a result, you’re just not willing to be part of the group.

 

And the penalty for being part of the loser just makes you want to hit whoever made you the loser.