After a week of deliberately not reading anything about health care, I’m now gradually re-entering my usual routine. (Technically, I’m still on vacation, but I will be plugging in a little more.) One of the first things I read was a delight:
There is an often-silent majority in America of non-shouters and non-haters. Some of us are liberal. Some of us are conservative. Some are pro-life, some pro-choice. Wherever we reside ideologically and morally, we have a common stake in respectful serious politics based on reasoned, evidence-informed debate, in which people on each side actually listen to each other and honor the humanity of their counterparts across political divides.
Viewed in this light, the “death panel” screaming demagoguery was the low moment of the health reform debate. It was worse, though less determinative of the specific legislative outcome, than the ossified Senate rules or the accompanying sleazy side deals required to secure 60 Senate votes. It was a grotesque and calculated lie that exploited people’s primeval fears that cost-effectiveness analysis would be used to abandon the elderly and the disabled. In a particular orthogonian twist, Sarah Palin and others wildly and dishonestly trashed distinguished ethicist/oncologist Zeke Emanuel as part of this effort. [Bold mine.]
That’s Harold Pollack at The Reality-Based Community. His post is worth reading in full. I particularly like the bit in bold above; it could serve as part of a mission statement for this blog.
