Have you ever watched a session of Parliament on C-Span, where the Prime Minister is subject to a series of questions from members? There is some booing and objections from the floor, but on the whole it is an admirable exercise in representational politics. Speakers tend to be witty, sharp, articulate and quick on their feet. They display hard-won expertise on subject matter, and demonstrate their ability to reason well through arguments and counter-arguments.
Lately, I've wondered if we'll ever achieve anything anywhere near so civil here. Our representatives bargain behind closed doors, trade off this constituency for that one based on the clout and economic power of a particular lobbying group, and demostrate the inability to string two articulate sentences together most of the time on the floor, a race-to-the-bottom standard set by Sarah Palin's inept responses to interviewers during the campaign. They seem bound up in sound bites and propaganda, and they don't seem to be able to rise to the occasion to offer genuine thoughtful deliberation.
The health reform arguments have been a model of that problem. The Republicans have, for the most part, disregarded the wishes of a majority of the American people who would like a strong public option in order to support weak "reform" proposals--like their preferred proposal allowing insurance companies to sell across state borders--that would weaken even more the kind of coverage provided ordinary Americans. And the have managed to be terribly uncivil while going about Congress's business. See Think Progress's report on GOP Gone Wild: Unruly Republicans Silence Women Lawmakers with Screams, Shouts, and Delay Tactics, Nov. 7, 2009 (look at the video--is this what you think governance is supposed to be about? )
Health care reform is not an easy matter, and what this bill does will not be the end of the issue. Our representatives owe us a more serious approach to these issues. Too bad they think it doesn't matter what procedures they use. Their disrespect for the American people is showing. Let's hope Americans recognize this, so that we can improve on this health bill over time and achieve some real reform.
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