Lately the country has found itself in a heated debate on health care reform. While most people agree that reform is needed, many disagree on how that reform should look like. That's fine and natural -- obviously we live in a free and open democratic society and debate is not only tolerated, it is encouraged. But in recent years we've seen a severe erosion in civilized and thoughtful discourse, and a dramatic increase in vitriolic name-calling, demagoguery, and plain ol' ignorance. It is impossible to hear each other when we are yelling at one another, and as President Obama has said on more than one occasion, we must disagree without being disagreeable.
So that's why I was disappointed by today's article in the New York Times that many parents with kids in the Houston school at which the President will speak next week are opposing his presence and indeed, pulling their kids from attending that event. Some of them even express the belief that our Commander in Chief is the head of a "socialist movement." I find this sad on several levels. First, that we have gotten to the point in society where we wish to shield ourselves and our children from different points of view. This is of course reflected in the splintered audiences of cable news, wherein people will tune in to the station that best reinforces -- and does not challenge -- their already held beliefs. Second, that we are using and adopting wildly inaccurate terms to describe one another. Anyone who believes that our President is a "socialist" has plainly never been to an actual socialist country, or has a profound lack of understanding of basic political-economy. (Even worse, some have called the President a "Nazi".)
The death of discourse is not a one-way street, of course. Discourse requires two sides that are prepared to engage in thoughtful discussion. During the last administration, many people called President Bush all manner of unprintable names, accusing him and his advisors of evil conspiracy on a vast scale. (Indeed, some prominent liberals called President Bush a "Nazi" too! That seems to serve as the catch-all epithet for anyone you really disagree with.) However you felt about President Bush's policies, I think it's inarguable that he cares deeply about this country and effected policies that he felt would best serve it. One may choose to differ with his neo-conservative ideas about nation building in Iraq, or his supply-side tax policies, but those differences should be expressed in reasoned discussion and debate, not yelling and name-calling. Now we again have a President -- the first African American head of state, a fact of which we should all be proud as Americans -- whose policies are stirring up great emotion across the country. Whether you feel the "public option" would drive private insurers out of business, or that federal research into the efficacy of medical treatments would result in seniors not obtaining the full range of end-of-life care, these are debates that we should be talking, not screaming, about.
UPDATE: Watch this video of Sen. Al Franken (D) at a state fair in Minnesota. He was confronted by an angry group of protesters on the health care issue. Instead of yelling back, he was calm, thoughtful and gave clear and reasoned answers to their questions. That is how it should be done.
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