A friend recently wrote to me to congratulate me on the success of this blog. He added that he does not always agree with me but thinks my points are well thought out and well presented.
I am not trying to brag about his praise, though it was certainly appreciated. I want to use his comment to point out something; he does not always agree with me but he still reads my columns. In fact, I suspect he rarely ever agrees with me, yet he continues to read my opinions. His willingness to read and to calmly and rationally consider opinions he disagrees with is a great statement on what it means to be an American. His willingness to consider opposing viewpoints makes him a great American.
God bless America.
Both he and I believe that a well informed electorate strengthens our Constitution, and also that those that disagree with our opinions might have valid opinions, but we have to listen to those opinions.
There hasn’t been a lot of listening in the health care debate. Opponents to the bills are mostly shouting, and I understand why. After the role the government played in bringing about the economic crisis, the bailouts, stimulus packages, the takeover of GM and bankruptcy of Chrysler, Americans are frustrated. Americans have watched this government mortgage our children’s future and dramatically alter the economic and political structure of our nation. We are now restructuring the U.S system from one that has worked well for most of our nearly 225 years to a system that does not have any record of success anywhere. And now they want to change health care despite any evidence that government has the ability to do this properly.
I have written several times that the shouting is the result of the frustration of not being listened to on these issues. Unfortunately, it has taken shouting to get people to pay attention. Now, as a result of all of the shouting, opponents have the nation’s attention.
That said, I want to be able to post a blog urging an end to the shouting. I keep seeing comments like, “You get more from a whisper than a shout.” I learned negotiation techniques from two of the world’s top negotiators so I know that to settle a disagreement people need to establish some common interest and work toward that common interest. Therefore, I believe the health care reform debate needs to switch from a hostile debate to an intelligent discussion of health care reform, because health care needs to be reformed. But not in the way Congress is considering.
In discussing such a post with my editor we agreed that while opponents have the nation’s attention; supporters are still not really listening to opponent’s concerns.
Yesterday I wrote that the supporters of the current crop of health care reform bills believe that government run health care is so self-evidently right that the supporters are completely unable to understand opponents. Opposition to these great proposals defies their logic, therefore opposition can only be coming from racists, ignoramuses, and the rich and selfish, and it is all paid for by the insurance industry and spread by talk radio. The concerns people have are all based on misinformation.
That there might be valid concerns can not be possible because concerns are based on misinformation, therefore, all supporters need to do is to explain these bills.
No real listening is required. The President, members of Congress, and supporters consider “Listening,” to be hearing complaints and then responding to those complaints based on the above mentioned assumptions that their proposals are self-evidently correct and the questioner is either misinformed or allied with negative forces.
Today’s news says that supporters still are not listening to concerns with any more interest than to find the proper rebuttal. That folks, is Not listening. That is merely hearing.
Unfortunately, intelligent, calm, rational debate failed. Republicans weren’t even allowed into committee meetings and non-government approaches to reform have been laughed off the public stage. Because of this, it has taken shouting just to get the media’s attention to the fact that serious opposition exists. The remaining question now is how to get through to supporters that there is an intelligent point of view that does not see the current proposals as self evidently good.
Further, opponents understand that there is a powerful political movement that wants the current proposals to be a platform for much greater government control of health care and the economy. We see the news clips from just a few years ago of the President saying that he supports single payer plans, and we read the comments of members of Congress and voters that intend the current efforts as a stepping stone to single payer. We see the demands (from members of Congress) to include current illegal immigrants in this bill and we see how that can come about. We know that the number of 47 million uninsured is very much out of context and with all of the above, the President and members of Congress expect opponents to trust them.
I believe that here are better ways to discuss political issues than shouting. Shouting is a threatening action. When you shout at another person that person is far more likely to hold fast to their view than to accept your opinion. I also believe that opponents of the current health care reform measures are for the most part ready to quit shouting. As soon as they know they are being listened to.
However, I think that the supporters need to learn a lesson from my friend, the reader of this blog that disagrees with my views on almost everything yet still reads my views – Those that disagree with our opinions might have valid opinions, but you have to listen to those opinions.
Plenty of opponents are ready to stop shouting and start the intelligent discussions of health care reform.
Anybody out there ready to listen?
{ 4 comments }
When we hear about death panels the opposition creates the impression that they have nothing more intelligent to say. That’s very unfortunate. I wish more people read your blog.
Opposition options seem to be 1) Do nothing–trust the insurance companies to continue to give us the care we’re receiving and ignore the problems with that care, or 2) Pass a couple of laws to limit the insurance companies’ ability to commit aggregious exploitation of their customers. Neither option will contain costs. With the Republicans in power, they’ve had 8 years to do something and have not. The opposition’s intent is as clear as the proponents of the bill–the best care in the world for the limited few who can pay. Fewer and fewer of us will be able to.
Well, senyor Robert S. Siegal, it would have been good
to see your good Americans screaming at Democrats
who went along with the bailouts of the banks. But they
didn’t. So you’re holding a bag of air when you claim the
bailouts are behind the irrational and warlike behaviour,
at the health care forums. All the veiled racism and gun
worship at the town halls, and your own orderly’s
scrub hat on President Obama make it plain that this
opposition isn’t serious about health care, it’s aiming at
something else.
First, the scrub hat. It’s in an ad. It pays the bills. I’ve seen the same ad at liberal sites. Non issue.
As far as the shouting, I think it pays to dig deeper than pent up concern following the handling of the recession, etc. A lot of the people yelling are wound up over the death panel nonsense and similar things. How does that add to the debate? If you watch Specter’s town hall meetings, he tries to engage the screamers in conversation. His reasonable questions are met w/ outbursts that have nothing to do with the questions. It’s like a Tourette’s convention on steroids.
The misdirection from the opponents is so bad that people who are currently covered by government plans are worried about the government becoming involved! My aunt is a surviving spouse of a retired federal employee. She is afraid of government involvement in her insurance! Another guy said his father had moved up the date for elective surgery at the VA before the government takes it over. This is the result of basic fear mongering, and not much more than that.
Then there is the hyperventilating over rationing, as though there isn’t a high level of rationing right now. The insurance companies ration care/resources and make life and death decisions. The economic system does, as well. “Affordable” care is mostly associated with employer plans, but our economy functions best with some low level of unemployment. Also, there are currently ~50 million uninsured in this country. Those who are against any reform seem pretty comfortable with that type of rationing.
bob dorn,
there are a lot of “good Americans”, probably most Americans, who don’t understand our county’s economics or monetary policy. I am one of them. I’m trying to learn quick, though. Informative blogs like Robert’s help me along the way. We were hoping that the gov’t actually knew what it was doing. But as the stimulus money went out and the banks didn’t lend, the stimulus didn’t stimulate, GM was taken over and dealers put out of business through no fault of their own, etc., etc., we have slowly been waking up. The healthcare bill was the final wake-up call.
One of the traditional methods of imposing socialism on a people is through medicine. It is easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project and most people are reluctant to object to anything that suggests medical care for those who can’t afford it. (Lest we be called Nazis!)
The healthcare bill we are arguing about now could be considered a “foot in the door” . Programs can then be expanded at a later date. End of life counseling can easily be expanded to end of life assistance.