Well, it has been a hectic week so I haven’t been able to post recently, but my life is stabilizing so worry not, I will be back to posting as frequently as before. I’ve missed you guys and gals out there, whoever you are.

By now, most people are aware that Ted Kennedy succumbed to brain cancer, may he rest in peace. He was known as one of the most liberal members of Congress and was a driving force behind many projects of the Left throughout the decades. His principal issue was health care reform and he favored a universal government-centric system. He called it the “cause of my life.” Now that he has passed, what I see is the Leftist machinery start to do what the Communist machinery did in Cuba: use the death of a national figure as a bludgeon. In Cuba, it was Che Guevara, a person who was essentially sent on a suicide mission abroad to start communist revolutions in Latin America, and his death was ruthlessly and coldly marketed by the Castro regime, having young children recite songs in his honor. While the leftists in America may not go quite that far, I have started to see them start the exploitation of Kennedy’s death.

First I read this article, that called to honor Kennedy by passing universal health care and made the sensationalist (and completely false) claim that 14 million Americans are losing their health coverage every day. First of all, the wishes of one man should not determine whether or not we pass a national government-run health care program. If he wished that the Constitution be repealed would we heed the calls to honor his wishes and change this nation overnight? Of course not. He was a legislator with many ideas, let’s not use his death as an excuse to suspend debate on any or all of them.

Of course, the Democrats in Washington never let a crisis go to waste and they are going to politically use Kennedy’s passing as much as possible. Consider that Senator Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, has proposed renaming the health care bill after Ted Kennedy, could he be more opportunist? Imagine how it would look if anyone voted against the bill. Again, the exploitation of the Kennedy name continues.

It does not end with the Democrats, even in the mainstream media (surprise surprise) Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s Hardball, called Barack Obama the “last brother.” Of course, no conservative commentator could ever get away with calling Obama a “brother,” but despite the racial connotation, to knight the current president as a symbolic brother of the Kennedy’s is, again, exploitation of the highest order.

These are just a few examples of what is typical among the Left, exploitation of the death of a national figure. It figures from the illogical promotion of the idea that Kennedy’s death had something to do with the current health care reform debate, that his death was actually a martyrdom. It was not. It is very sad that he got sick and died, even with the extra health care he received, extra care that, as Mike Huckabee said, would not have been possible if not for the choice offered by having a private, competitive health care system. People have criticized Huckabee for saying what he said, but he spoke plainly and truthfully about Obama’s plan. You can see it for yourself below, Obama says that “we as a… society” (that’s code for government) should step in to make decisions about end of life care, crassly saying that maybe instead of trying an expensive or risky surgery, grandma should just take a pain pill. This is what choice is about, it should not be the government that decides this, it should be the patient.

The truth is that we should not be throwing around Ted Kennedy’s name around in the health care debate or using it as a political bludgeon, neither side. It would be best if both sides just stick to the facts about Kennedy’s life and beliefs, but not try to “load” the current health care debate with emotional responses to Kennedy’s passing.

-AG