Historic votes, and Bill Kristol is a (semi-principled) dick

From Josh Marshall:

As Bill Kristol noted in his famous 1993 GOP strategy memo on the Clinton health care reform initiative, the key danger Republicans face from health care reform is precisely that the public will like it. And I suspect that the more forward thinking and perspicacious of his partisan colleagues today see it the same way.

Although this is decidedly a dickish position to take, at least Bill Kristol seems to be reasonably principled and consistent in this sort of thing. Health care reform is bad because it’ll make us more like those icky Europeans, and we cannot let it through because the American people might like it, and then we’d be just like those icky Europeans. I mean, we’re a tough nation, and if our principles require the death of 18,000 low-income Americans every year, then so be it!