Justice Roberts Pontius Pilate Moment on ObamaCare

In all gospel writings on the subject, Pontius Pilate refused to condemn Jesus Christ for claiming to be king of the Jews because such a claim was not a violation of Roman law.  To Pilate, it was purely a Jewish matter. So, he sent the issue back to the Jewish people for any punishment and, he symbolized this by literally washing his hands in front of an angry Jewish crowd that had amassed outside of his office window. 

In many ways, conservative Chief Justice John Roberts did the same thing as Pontius Pilate by his siding with the 4 liberals on the Supreme Court in upholding both ObamaCare and its individual mandate.  Thus, he figuratively washed his hands and the court's hands by, in essence,  sending it back to the people and Congress to resolve.   At the same time, he gave the court the  appearance of being apolitical; even though the rest of the court voted along politically ideological lines.

So, now, ObamaCare has become a big issue, besides the economy, for the voters in November.  If  the people want to keep it intact, they can vote for Obama and other Democrats.  If not, the voters will run them all out of town.

In a strange way, the Roberts decision may have actually given an advantage to the Republicans.  First of all, the law is already known to be broadly unpopular; even though many Americans like certain parts of it.  By upholding the law, on a constitutional basis, and sending it back to the people, Roberts may have actually energized voter turnout; with a higher number of Republicans and Independents coming out on election day to vote for those who would overturn the law.  At the same time, Roberts may have suppressed some amount of Democrat votes because it took away the anticipated campaign strategy that Obama would energize his voting base by running against a conservative Supreme Court.   Additionally, the court's decision exposes the penalties of ObamaCare as being a tax.  Something that the President specifically lied about when he was selling its passage.  That fact, alone, may turn off a certain number of voters.

All and all, today's Supreme Court decision may have been a good thing for the Republicans and the country.