They're getting in the way of what the Obamessiah wants...(whine, whine, whine)...

Quindlen's comment that the US is "...saddled with an incremental system...then engineered so the revolutionary can rarely take hold." is just insane...Oh yes dear, by all means...Bring on the revolutionaries!!! Has she forgotten where she lives and how this country works? This is AMERICA...The checks and balances that Ms. Quindlen bemoans are what prevent this country from becoming an authoritarian dictatorship. Doesn't she get that concept?

More unbelieveably outrageous stupidity and hypocrisy from the Left.   

"The problem is not that people are taxed too little...the problem is that government spends too much." ~President Ronald Reagan

"...our citizens do not need the kind of system that virtually every other developed nation finds workable...."

Workable?  Workable??  Hell, communism is workable.  It's also miserable.  The argument 'but golly! other countries do it' is as juvenile as it is tired.

"...families are bankrupted by health-care costs and forgo treatment they can't afford."

Well there's a dishonest argument there.  I dare her to put up the numbers on that one!  This BS argument screams for quanitification, but none will be forthcoming.  Instead we get the pseudo-emotional plea to 'just save our families from the poor house!'

"Statistical measures of the national health, from life expectancy to infant mortality, continue to be substandard."

Well, since prominent liberals actually in power aren't really concerned about our elderly receiving life-extending care (old folks just aren't that productive you know!), I'd say our life-expectancy isn't going to be going up anytime soon.  That infant mortality stat is so debunked it's to the point of glurge.  This woman is so pathetically misinformed that it's no wonder she got a job at Newsweek.

"...then engineered so the revolutionary can rarely take hold."

No, it's engineered to be a Constitutional Republic.  It's engineered so the government can't be tyrannical.  Go ahead, screw democracy, pick up a gun and start your little revolution.  I'll pick up a gun and protect our Democratic Constitutional Republic and the ideals of our Founding Fathers. 

Just be careful my little "revolutionary" - I know how to use a gun really, really well.

"...the kind of system that virtually every other developed nation finds workable..."

The kind of "developed nations" that have permanent high unemployment and virtually no growth...

The checks and balances were intentionally designed to be an anchor. That way a single segment of government can't move the Republic too far off it's steady course into the future.

Is this REALLY the new Newsweek cover and featured article??

I'm speechless.

PEOPLE... LIBERAL BIAS IN OUR MAIN STREAM MEDIA IS REAL !!!!!!! (arrrrg!)

Now I know they are joking. 

* Socialized medicine is failing in every country it's been applied.

* Many of the countries that are having the VERY worst time with socialized medicine are trying to introduce PRIVATE healthcare options.

"revolutionary can rarely take hold."

What America had was NOT a REVOLUTION.

Our founding fathers PURPOSELY made a system to keep TYRANT REVOLUTIONARIES from taking over and enslaving the people.

http://clearthehaze.blogspot.com

Newspeak rag/mag & Quindlen obviously have no appreciation, nor understanding of the Constitution of the United States of America.  

Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.

Quindlen writes: "Statistical measures of the national health, from life expectancy to infant mortality, continue to be substandard." I read elsewhere (forget where, maybe Townhall) that some of the poor statistical rankings of the U.S. in health categories need to be examined more closely to see whether our heathcare is really all that bad. For example, we measure up poorly in infant mortality against other countries because we count the deaths differently. Some countries do not count an infant's death in the first 24 hours as infant mortality, but rather as dead at birth (equivalent to a stillbirth). Some do not count the death of extremely premature infants who survive for birth among the cases of infant mortality, because the preemie was expected to die, and this is akin to a stillbirth. 

Many years ago, I worked as a courtroom artist for both a local TV station and a few gigs with CBS News. I saw first hand how abbreviated a story became under the requirement to squeeze the "narrative" into 90 seconds or three minutes.

This kind of analysis takes the product of compressed thinking and runs with it.  

Newsweek is delivered to my house every week even though my subscription ran out at least a year ago.  They keep sending me bills, telling me if I don't pay something like $19.99 for a 2-year's subscription, my subscription will run out.  I respond everytime with some insults in their postage paid envelope.  I also return all of their packaging.  They just won't stop.  I admit I always read the "Conventional Wisdom" because Obama always gets and up arrow.  Actually sometimes he gets a side-to-side because he wasn't tough enough with his oppositon.