We’re all still here

While our polarized partisans, left and right, clearly have different world views, ideologies, and visions of “America,” they also appear to share a theory of action. Approximately, it is this: The more often, more loudly, and more harshly that we speak about our fellow citizens who disagree with us, and about their thoughts, the more likely they are to go away, shut up, or lose. Our last large test of this notion was the 2016 Presidential election.

Thought experiment (compromise)

At the end of my post on legislating medical care, I thought about being asked, Tom, do you see no issue worth fighting for? My retort was this: Do you see no issue worth compromising for? That retort led to this thought experiment, about compromise regarding climate change.

Legislating medical care

This week the news is full of “Ryancare,” “McConnellcare,” and “Trumpcare.” To me, it appears that Republicans are scrambling to produce anything that they can call “repeal” or “repeal and replace” and pass.

So I back away and start asking questions: If the Congress were legislating for an activity such as medical care, which is vitally important to all of us, makes up about one sixth of our economy, and is a complex institution in its own right, what would we expect from Congress in the way of knowledge, deliberation, care, and attention? What would a good effort look like?

Supreme Court blues

With the end of the Supreme Court term, there is a bit in the news about decisions being handed down and the part that new Associate Justice Gorsuch might have played in them. This seemed a good time to ask, What has our polarized partisanship done to the Court, and what has our polarization about the Court done to us?