DOOMED TO SUCCEED!

Have you ever had a program or idea announced by someone in authority that you know
was a “sham” or unworkable, but you were told it was in your best interest, in other
words, it was “Doomed to Succeed”, no matter what you thought of the merits of that
proposal or idea?

As a classroom teacher for over 30 years, I witnessed many of these proposals or ideas that were “Doomed to Succeed” by overly optimistic and sometimes totally naïve school administrators.

For example, back in the 1970’s, some genius in authority decided that a structured
classroom was too stifling for students which hindered their self-expression and inhibited their self-esteem. These “experts” thought the “open classroom” (the name given to this type of teaching environment) was the answer to making “learning” fun again, but, as a result, it had a negative effect on the school atmosphere as discipline deteriorated, students learning suffered, and many teachers were found to be ill-equipped and some even lost control of their classrooms. The “tail was wagging the dog”.

I don’t think this type of thinking has left the psyche of today’s educational establishment and it has had a sub-conscious effect on the “dumbing down” of American education. Whenever the learning atmosphere in a school deteriorates, it has a detrimental effect on all aspects of the school. The curriculum gets watered down, and the grades get inflated to make up for the lack of meaningful education taking place.

In the political world, we see today, the politicians, in power, pushing programs that are not beneficial to us or our society, but due to political considerations, they are pushing these proposals and proposed laws down the throats of the citizenry – in other words, these proposals and proposed laws are “Doomed to Succeed” and the public be damned as they, the politicians, know what’s better for us than we do ourselves.

We have a great health care system, the best in the world, but it can be very expensive to access by the average family. Everyone knows that some reform is needed, but the question is, which reform should be implemented to solve the problem. Just because you call something reform doesn’t make it reform. In a simplistic definition, the liberals want to throw out the present system and to institute a government- run system (to lead into a single-payer system, ala Canada), whereas the conservatives want to fix the affordability problem and keep the means of providing health care into the private sector, with doctor and patient in charge, with minimal interference from the government.

The liberals using heart tugging anecdotal medical hardships claim that the government is the only entity that can bring health insurance to the 5% of our citizens who want or need health insurance, but who cannot afford it. A complete “transformation” is their goal. The conservatives say that is like “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”, and in the process will bankrupt our economy, foster health care rationing, creating long lines waiting to get health care, and raise our taxes, which might just keep us in a stifling recession that might just lead us into becoming like a third-world nation.

My position is that I don’t want the liberals to succeed in their destructive endeavor. I hope that their naive health care proposals will not be “Doomed to succeed”. It’ll be interesting to see how this will play out in the future, and whether the voice of the people will finally be heard by our elected representatives.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann