Polarization

This summer we saw a spectacle of ill informed, emotional and uncompromising people take over town halls, talk shows, and all matters of opinion over substance. For a progressive, still basking in the afterglow of an historic victory, it was easy to stand back and be puzzled, smugly secure in the belief that they were now the ones in charge, and all the noise on the other side was of no consequence. The right wing seemed imminently frozen in a set of apocalyptic beliefs about the role of government, and the current administration. For some Americans, health care reform represented the difference between freedom and tyranny.

I was under the impression that any health care victory would ultimately be well-received by anyone identifying as left-of-center. Seeing the reaction to the demise of the public option, I have been struck by just how ill informed, emotional and uncompromising this group has become as well. Like their counterparts on the right, they have convinced themselves that once they got their man in charge, the public would see things their way, and their agenda would pass, one item after another.

There is something in play in today's American politics that threatens our ability to get anything done, left, right or center. On all sides of debate, a growing cadre of people believe that their point of view should be what governs the country-- that compromise is apostasy, and dissent is treachery. Individualism has taken over politics, moving far beyond the binary partisan labels of the past, people settling only for 'designer' candidates for office. This is an exercise in self-indulgence, pure and simple.

I thought somehow that the left was better than all that, but I was wrong. Look at health care: a public option was a plan that promised to offer little, and only to a select sliver of the public who were actually eligible to sign up. It wasn't going to save much money. It wasn't going to make premiums that much cheaper. It wasn't even necessary in the more competitive marketplaces for health insurance. But it became a rallying cry for extremists of all stripes. It was the beginning of the end for some and the end of the beginning for others. Sweating these details makes people angry, neurotic, and self-defeating. It's what losers do. Enough already.

In negotiations, where a win-win is possible for all parties, rule one is to never act desperate, to always at least appear willing to walk away. Another way to say it is that beggars can't be choosers. In the health care debate, this rule was already abrogated by bad faith on behalf of the opposition, and the all-or-nothing dynamic that has taken over the discussion on all sides.

The fact is that liberals are not willing to walk away, and everyone knows it. We shouldn't walk away. We should take the deal. But we should take it with the understanding that it is our side that is desperate to win. The other side can never suffer as great a defeat as we can by taking on this issue. There will be no in-your-face moment, no champagne popping. There will be a vote and a law. We can't pretend that Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, or Barack Obama have sway over those who stand little to gain from their constituents by passing this bill. We should admit that there is a limit to our power, and accept that those limits work for us sometimes, and for the opposition at other times.

The public option is not a big deal. Medicare buy-in for the 55-65 set is not a big deal. Extending coverage to 30 million more people, making it cheaper, and more secure for everyone is a big deal. It's the basis for something that can and will grow as time goes on. It's the fulfillment of one of the central progressive policy goals of the past 100 years. We're closer than ever, and we're desperate to finish this thing, all of us. Let's pass it, sell it to the public as a major victory, and move on.

This is politics, not pizza delivery. No one gets exactly what they want delivered to their door.