“We work for the beautifulness of every patient.” 

― HCA website jingle

In the magic kingdom once known as The Land of the Sky lies the beautiful city of Asheville.

It was never paradise, but there were some mighty good reasons that a million liberal, progressive, blue-state residents chose to come here and immediately start chopping it into a mini-“me” version of the place they left.

Not all of our newcomers have been bad people, but one can make a very credible claim that their politics are. 

Why else leave where you were? 

Why else would we have a 7-0 hyper-liberal female City Council — minus even a pretense of diversity? 

Why else would our homeless and drug-addicted population have exploded? 

Why else would Asheville no longer be a place where normal people can afford to live?

Blue politics promise one thing – blue events. Recent examples include riots marketed as peaceful protests; being the first city to offer the hollow promises of reparations and equity as a means to abandoning the tougher mission of equality; a public safety vision cut by half; a series of “10-year” plans to end homelessness that actually expanded homelessness; a drug culture that is nothing short of out-of-control, and famously, the surrender of our community’s nonprofit hospital to a bunch of robber barons masquerading as healthcare-service providers.

For a framework for understanding that last one, we need look no further than that stellar paragon of political commentary – Goldilocks.

It was Ms. Goldilocks – her pragmatism would disqualify her as a viable candidate for Asheville’s council – who first introduced us to the idea that most things of man can easily be characterized as too hot, too cold, or just right.

This handy formula for understanding social, political, economic and even personal matters applies nicely to current events with Mission Health/HCA — Asheville’s mega hospital system. 

By now, everyone has heard the plethora of anguished lamentations on where things have landed: A routinely dysfunctional emergency service; overworked nurses; a shaky patient care model; excessive costs; and unnecessary patient deaths are just a few of the concerns being echoed by politicians, government oversight agencies, physicians and the public at large.

One wonders where those voices were when we originally gave our community hospital away to a medical wild-bunch with a notorious reputation for all of the things mentioned above? 

A 10-minute internet search would have revealed the scoundrelly DNA of HCA. Amidst the rush to play follow-the-leader, herd instinct was clearly more fun than research. 

No one in a position of responsibility raised a peep about our community’s capitulation, but, now, wondrously, everybody is suddenly an HCA hater. That’s like complaining your steak is too rare after you eaten everything but the bone.

For those who’ve wondered how this could happen, look no further than America’s ever-expanding dedication to crony capitalism.

The terms free-enterprise, meritocracy, and competitive initiative are at the core of America’s historical success equation — LIBERTY + OPPORTUNITY + RESPONSIBILITY = PROSPERITY.

In one of the ditches on either side of this dependable road to normalcy lies the governing construct of socialism. 

Anyone advocating big government, high taxes, entitlements, central control and disarming the citizenry is dependably into the fantasy fabrications of socialism. 

 It doesn’t work and never has worked, but the thus inspired continue to hope that they can find a way to dodge a self-correcting world through a man-made shortcut. 

Since too many inconvenient Americans are not yet ready to surrender to socialism, our leaders have silently connived the compromise of crony capitalism.

HCA is a fan of crony capitalism to the extent medicine in America is managed by a nightmare mishmash of big-government dictates sprinkled with competitive flavorings that lets everyone pretend we’ve got a sincere system.

HCA gets the con, and they are masters at exploiting it.

Though the drumbeats of HCA antagonism are rumbling throughout WNC, don’t expect anything of substance to come from it.

HCA will get their hands slapped, dance around a bit and then get on with what they are most surely about – making money out of America’s crony-rigged healthcare system. 

 Remember that the very leaders pretending to confront HCA are the same trailblazers who failed in performing even cursory due diligence before permanently signing our hospital system away. 

 It’s always a mistake to confuse drama with dedication, motion with action, talk with walk, and the pretense that too hot or too cold will ever have anything to do with just right.