The Healthcare Debate is Making Me Ill

I'm disheartened to see the healthcare debate de-evolve into a chaotic, uninformed mess. People who oppose Obama on other grounds use this debate as a vehicle for anger and indignation. The great majority of the public, myself included, lack the expertise to definitively suggest a solution. Physicians, economists, insurance executives, and patients all must contribute knowledge and learn from each other. I have an opinion based on what I've researched so far (a public option must be available to truly offer universal coverage and to challenge the private insurance companies' inflated pricing; regulations must force insurance companies not to discriminate in coverage, especially against the sick and elderly; all people must be encouraged to consider and plan for end-of-life options so that their wills are carried out so a family is not bankrupted by medical methods that a patient would oppose anyway). I also know, however, that I need to continually learn and adjust my opinion accordingly. No one's learning when everyone's yelling, though. Here are some of the reasons why protesters are clouding the debate and not helping it.

Note: A lot of my blog harkens back to the previous administration. I hate to examine the current situation by looking back on Bush (I hate to look back on Bush in general), yet the credibility of so many protesters is up for scrutiny when the main focus of their hatred is not big government or a deficit (which most conservatives previously ignored or supported) but a gripe against Obama himself. I want a productive debate and not a grudge match based on convenient and newly acquired values.

Nazi Germany/Communist China/Remember the Soviet Union?
Holy monkey, what is with all of the ignorant comparisons? You'd think there were two models in the world: American model versus total tyranny. The public insurance option is not a slippery slope to the Fourth Reich. The closest resemblance this proposed program bears to an existing healthcare program is Switzerland. Ooh, scary, tyrannical Switzerland! We'd be stripped of all personal freedoms but the right to great skiing! For this, Paul Krugman puts it far better than I can: The Swiss Menace.

Big Government Haters
We have people decrying big government. Fair enough. Yet most of these people turned a blind eye to the Patriot Act which granted government the right to access Americans' medical and tax records, see what books they borrow from the library, and even conduct secret searches. Envision the resulting outrage if Obama announced he'd allow the government to search our homes without a warrant or our knowledge that a search occurred. Yet Bush and Cheney did that without garnering a raised eyebrow from most conservatives. While I understand conservatives' concern over big government, I cannot take this concern seriously from anyone who supported the previous administration, which exercised the greatest amount of government authority in recent American history. It's ideologically inconsistent.

Deficit Spending
Again, I understand that people who are conservative oppose high government spending, even during a time of recession. I don't agree, but I get it. What I don't get is where the outrage was when Bush took the budget from a surplus into staggering deficit spending? Where was the outrage when Bush and Paulson began the government bailout system? (Why don't people remember that drastic stimulus spending did not begin with Obama?) Where was the conservative outrage when Bush passed over twenty of the first spending bills that hit his desk? Where was the outrage in 2003 when Bush passed the largest expansion of Medicare in its history?

Gun Toters
And then there are the crazies who show up to healthcare rallies -- HEALTHCARE RALLIES -- with loaded weapons. They cite their Constitutional right to bear arms, but fail to cite why that particular right feels threatened by a public insurance plan. Imagine what most Americans would think of a group of Americans of Arabic descent protesting against the American government bearing automatic weapons, just as protesters bore automatic weapons at an Obama event recently. Would we be talking about protecting Constitutional rights or talking about a clear and present danger to a president and everyone present?

Yellers of Fury
These are the people at town halls and protests proving that people compensate for ignorance with volume. They yell about Obama killing their grandma, they yell about the government taking over Medicare (??), they shout over their congressperson or senator. They remember that the Bill of Rights guarantees their right to free speech while forgetting that it allows other people the ability to speak as well. The Supreme Court ruling citing the unlawfulness of shouting fire in a crowded theatre seems to apply here: personal freedoms are not protected when they interfere with others' freedoms. When these protesters are asked to leave, they talk about this country becoming Nazi Germany. Do they remember that the Republican National Committee required people attending rallies to sign loyalty oaths to Bush? Where was their righteous indignation then? Again, I cringe at the inconsistency: Bush can insist that only his supporters are allowed in a room with him and somehow come off as patriotic; when protesters who are strapped to loaded weapons arrive at Obama's speeches and people frown upon that, Obama's somehow socialist.

Speaking Of...
Can we please offer a civics class and teach Americans what socialism is?

The "I'm as good as you are" Syndrome
There is something poignant and beautiful about our political system -- that our votes all count the same, that we're all equal. There's also something dangerous about this. I cringe to see people spouting views that are not factually accurate who believe that opinion is equally valid to researched conclusion of an expert. Perhaps we need to respect the intelligence of those who have spent their lives devoted to their causes, that we need to listen more than we speak, that we need to recognize the gaps in our knowledge. Many people pretend to shun intellectual elitism or snobbery when their true opposition is knowledge itself. Experts know more about healthcare and economics than I do, even though I've invested a good deal of time into trying to understand this issue. At this point in the debate, my job is to listen and learn, even when (and especially when) intelligent and reasonable people explain why they oppose my view. I've protested in the past, will protest again in the future, and respect people who do so; yet I only respect protesters who have done their homework first.