ObamaCare this week was signed, sealed and delivered to the American people. The question is what now? Should Americans simply sit back and accept its panoply of Big Government provisions like the individual and employer mandates, taxes, regulations, what have you? In my latest Forbes column, I say: No. Americans should take inspiration from Gandhi to bring down the coercive state apparatus that ObamaCare is erecting. I note:
By some estimates, Uncle Sam will need to hire an additional 17,000 IRS agents or so just to enforce the coverage mandate. But even if a few million Americans simultaneously refuse to abide by it, they could easily overwhelm the system. Self-rule or swaraj, Gandhi said, requires a collective understanding of the immense capacity of citizens to “regulate and control” the coercive apparatus of the state through mass nonviolent resistance.
President Obama and his fellow Democrats are counting on this resistance petering out. That could happen. But it will be a lot easier for opponents to maintain this zeal in the age of social networking. Facebook already has numerous groups with millions of members demanding the repeal of ObamaCare. It won’t be impossible to mobilize enough of them when the denouement arrives.
After all, this issue is not just about the fate of an industry. It is about maintaining control over basic decisions about one’s own life and health. The stakes are too high to let ObamaCare stand.
Read the whole thing here.