This is a prime example of the paradox of modern liberalism, as well as the mixed messaging it often produces. In leftist thought, when it comes to free exchange, or basic market issues, the government should be the decider of first resort. Have a simple supply and demand issue? Government bureaucracies are right there to muck up the process, forcing you to buy things at a more expensive price.

When it comes to social issues, however, we get the left’s repeated intonation on issues like abortion — that people are, as the late-term abortion doctor argued, the “greatest experts on their own lives.” In the social realm, the chief value is “freedom” — including freedom from consequence.

Will the insurance market/government hybrid/utter disaster of Obamacare end up cracking liberalism, exposing its contradictions for the nation to see? Perhaps. But Obama and his health-care boosters are still scrambling. Meanwhile, in other news, the New York Times recently reported that China is still building mass-planned, central-controlled imitation “cities” and transporting uneducated farmers to work and live there. What could go wrong? Sometimes the simplest lessons are the hardest to learn.