The revolution, in 12 easy installments

I enjoy a good political revolution - like the one now playing out on the grand American stage - as much as the next person. But I wish, just once, the participants would take more care when they're being fitted for their tricorn hats.

All too often, the revolutionaries overlook the distinct likelihood their egos will swell, and they fail to adjust their hat sizes accordingly. The result: Constricted blood flow, obscured vision, achin' noggin, unseemly behavior.

This week, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's tricorn grew considerably tighter. He didn't waste any time capitalizing on a federal judge's ruling against the insurance mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

Within hours of the decision, ads bearing the words "paid for and authorized by Ken Cuccinelli for Attorney General" began popping up at the Drudge Report and elsewhere on the Internet.

"Cuccinelli succeeded in overturning the Individual Mandate," the ads declared. "Join the winning team."

At www.cuccinelli.com, the trumpets were flourishing with considerably more flourish. "It's the 21st century version of 'the shot heard 'round the world,' " the commonwealth's uncommonly unhumble top attorney declared.

Well, sure, I think we can all see the parallels between the brave actions of the Minutemen and, um, an attorney filing a lawsuit.

If Ralph Waldo Emerson were alive today, he'd no doubt write a poem immortalizing the occasion. And maybe even heed the website's appeal to "[s]upport liberty, small government and a true conservative message" by donating $5,000 (12 easy installments) to Cuccinelli's campaign for whatever it is he's running for. (MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover accepted.)

To be fair, our hero did note on his website that the ruling "doesn't mean we've won the war." And, he warns, "the liberal left will be on the attack. Won't you help me fight their offensive today?"

(Not to be too nitpicky, but what's the "liberal left"? Is there a "conservative left" or a "liberal right" or - I dunno - a "left right"? If a splinter group broke from the latter, would it be the "left right left right"?)

Cuccinelli's telethon aside, it's important to remember that two other federal judges have upheld the mandate. And this week's ruling is headed for appeal. In other words, keep your powder dry and don't max out your credit cards quite yet.

Somewhere in all this, I'm hopeful a revolutionary will loosen his tricorn just enough to provide a lucid explanation of why Republicans are so adamant that the mandate is unconstitutional when they were the ones who suggested it.

Well, here, let's have the Associated Press tell it, via FoxNews.com:

"The obligation in the new health care law is a Republican idea that's been around at least two decades. It was once trumpeted as an alternative to Bill and Hillary Clinton's failed health care overhaul in the 1990s ...

"In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon favored a mandate that employers provide insurance. In the 1990s, the Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank, embraced an individual requirement ...

"'The idea of an individual mandate as an alternative to single-payer was a Republican idea,' said health economist Mark Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. In 1991, he published a paper that explained how a mandate could be combined with tax credits - two ideas that are now part of Obama's law. Pauly's paper was well-received - by the George H.W. Bush administration."

Back then, the mandate was touted as a boot-strappy way to hold more individuals accountable for their own medical care - instead of the rest of us paying inflated costs to help cover care for the uninsured.

The Affordable Care Act isn't perfect. And if it survives constitutional challenges, we will - to paraphrase Nancy Pelosi's blithering remarks - get to see what's in it, i.e. what works and what doesn't.

In the meantime, a little tricorn triage is in order. At the very least, maybe our brave revolutionaries can set aside a portion of their earnings to help cover the cost of insuring folks who can't obtain coverage.

Too revolutionary, perhaps. But classier.

Daryl Lease is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. E-mail: daryl.lease@pilotonline.com.