See a doctor, or suffer the consequences!

Poor, poor Silky Pony. He seems to suffer from the same affliction as Barack Obama: blurting out anything that jumps into his little old mind.

See, Silky not only wants to socialize all medicine, but he would make check-ups mandatory:

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

"It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat "the first trace of problem." Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread.

Edwards said his mandatory health care plan would cover preventive, chronic and long-term health care. The plan would include mental health care as well as dental and vision coverage for all Americans.

"The whole idea is a continuum of care, basically from birth to death," he said.

What I want to know is, who on Earth wants the government taking care of them from the cradle to the grave? I mean, even in the best possible scenarios, the government will never do everything right. My perfect government is the one that leaves me the hell alone.

And there are so many things about this plan that are just... scary. I mean, you're required to have mental health check-ups as well? And if your mental health check-up comes back with negative results, then what? Are you forced into psychiatric hospitals? It reminds me a lot of V for Vendetta, with people who are unwanted and don't think the right way being forced into "re-education camps" or killed.

And what if you don't go to the doctor? Are you arrested? Do government officials come bang on your door and force you to go? And if you don't go to the doctor, and it turns out you have cancer, are you refused treatment? And what will they be enforcing next "for our own good"?

As Van Helsing from Moonbattery notes,

From mandatory doctor visits, it will be a short hop to mandatory morning calisthenics, with a two-way telescreen to make sure you're taking part, just like in the liberal how-to manual 1984.

Behaviors deemed "risky" can become outlawed -- for your own good, of course. No smoking, no drinking, no fatty foods... and anything else they declare "bad for you".

And over at Hot Air, a reader left a chilling comment:

Ironically (or maybe not), if this gets put through, the forced abortions are coming if you have a disabled unborn child, cause it'll be too expensive for the "free medicine" system to care for.

Not to mention those folks who have cancer or another life-threatening disease that will cause tremendous expenses for the system. We'll start seeing euthanasia, infanticide, and abortion forced by the government.

This isn't about healthcare; it's about the government asserting total control over our lives. And they call us Nazis?

So much for "land of the free", huh?

A lot of people will read this and say, "Well gee Cassy, aren't you overreacting? The government will never go so far as to engage in infanticide and euthanasia, or to force us to work out every morning, or any of those other awful things you said! He'll never take it that far!"

Perhaps, but once upon a time it would have been considered outrageous to be forced to see a doctor, a dentist, and a mental health professional by our government. How far down this slope will we slide if this system is put into place? When will Silky say "Stop!"? And why should we be at the mercy of the government to begin with?

Again, images of V for Vendetta are just rolling through my mind, with government enforced curfews; certain foods and drinks banned until it's hard to even get food (although never in short supply for the "right" people); only government-approved music, books, and TV shows allowed; and "undesirables" sent to re-education camps only to be murdered, and all of it in the name of our own well-being.

In the same article, Edwards piles on the hypocrisy, liberals' favorite smear for us damn dirty Republicans:

Edwards, who has been criticized by some for calling on Americans to be willing to give up their SUVs while driving one, acknowledged Sunday that he owns a Ford Escape hybrid SUV, purchased within the year, and a Chrysler Pacificia, which he said he has had for years.

"I think all of us have to move, have to make progress," he said. "I'm not holyier-than-thou about this. ... I'm like a lot of Americans, I see how serious this issue is and I want to address it myself and I want to help lead the nation in the right direction."

He wants to lead the nation in the right direction, see? And us little people are too gosh-darn stupid to know what's good for us. Therefore, people like John Edwards and the Goracle must tell us exactly what is good for us, and what to do, and how to do it, and when to do it, and nevermind how we feel about it.

Rob from Say Anything leaves us with a good quote, from the beloved author C.S. Lewis, that I'll end with as well:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Cross-posted at Wizbang