Joe Wilson, GOP Congressman from South Carolina, broke protocol by yelling at the President, “you lie!” when the President was giving his address to Congress last night. Of course, this is the same guy who supports Sarah Palin’s assertions about death panels that will decide care for elderly.
Look, I wish some people called out Bush on the false claims of Iraq’s buying WMDs and plutoniun from Niger in his speech to Congress, so maybe protocol breaches are ok every now and then.
The problem with Wilson’s outburst is what it lays bare for all to see:
- the discussion of health care reform has become an exercise in name-calling and fear mongering;
- there can be no debate while people are screaming to score points with constituents; and
- the ideologues (on either side of the issue) will not bend to acknowledge the facts and realities “on the ground”.
Ideology without common sense (and some sinister malfeasance, thank you, Dick Cheney) got us in the guagmire known as the Iraq War, where debate was stifled by fear-mongering and name-calling (“unpatriotic” was often used) and people afraid to be unpopular with constituencies that just wanted revenge (as in “round up the usual suspects”).
Trying to bring the likes of Joe Wilson into the bipartisan tent is a fool’s errand. Similarly, if bringing in armchair “Progressives” into the bipartisan tent means clinging onto a public option come hell or high water, then close the tent flaps to them, too.
Actually, let’s have both sides of the extreme ideologies in an arena and let them scream at each other. We’ll sell tickets, televise it (and get advertising revenue) and the proceeds will help pay for health care reform. We’ll call the show “Extreme Dysfunction”.
