The Great Unraveling?

There is now a steady stream of dyed-in-the-wool liberals who are opposing Obama's healthcare initiatives. Nat Hentoff is the latest, with a piece that starts out like this:

I was not intimidated during J. Edgar Hoover's FBI hunt for reporters like me who criticized him. I railed against the Bush-Cheney war on the Bill of Rights without blinking. But now I am finally scared of a White House administration. President Obama's desired health care reform intends that a federal board (similar to the British model) — as in the Center for Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation in a current Democratic bill — decides whether your quality of life, regardless of your political party, merits government-controlled funds to keep you alive.

It's tempting to think that the liberal juggernaut is coming apart at the seams. When even leading liberal lights, the in-the-tank-for-Obama press, and the few liberal talk shows still on the air all making news by their opposition to Obamacare, it looks like things are coming apart for the liberals.

But they're not. From everything I've been able to read on the subject, this is all single-issue opposition. There have not been massive numbers of people changing their world-views from liberal to libertarian or conservative. This is simply a single issue that's not resonating with liberal base.

I'm glad it's not resonating. But when this issue is behind us, I'm sure the next one will see the liberal juggernaut back in place, just as before...