Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society -- whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off.
Unfortunately we are failing this test badly.
I of course get annoyed when people do not agree with me. That is human nature. But, what is worse is when people do not act civilly.
That's what these town halls have sort of turned into. It's not even the lies, but the sort of pitched rhetoric that has arrived.
The New York Times Opinionator actually aggregated the blog postings on this. There are accusations of "death panels" and people calling Obama Hitler. The comparisons like this do not help anyone.
None of this actually advances any case logically. I know emotions are more powerful, but we do need to realize that yes we have them, yes we are situational and not dispositional, and attempt to overcome that. However, we fail in these regards here.
What is the possible effect, well, in the Opinionator cites Nate Silver saying it does help. David Broder wrote a Washington Post column saying the opposite.
I do not know what that is. However, the sheer breakdown over an important issue that we must address is not good. In fact, as Pearlstein himself says, it really is telling about our society. Have we lost our ability to act like adults? And if we cannot overcome our own self-interest for a common good and have a real dialogue about the shape of this, then can a republic truly function (I mean the U.S. will likely not collapse, but the question arises as to whether our society can address difficult matters)?
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