Come, let us all celebrate the new spirit of bipartisanship that's sweeping the land. The air is cleaner, the water tastes like it came from a mountain stream, poverty is being erased, global warming has been tamed, the economy is robust. And, inside the beltway, one sees a new spirit of compromise and cooperation that makes it a snap to resolve thorny moral/political issues such as the right of medical providers to not engage in practices that violate their religious or moral views.
For example, just Saturday, The Washington Post reported on the administration's rollback of a Bush administration regulation protecting health care workers who didn't want to perform abortions or engage in other medical practices they found objectionable.
"We've been concerned that the way the Bush rule is written, it could make it harder for women to get the care they need," said an HHS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for the same reason. "It is worded so vaguely that some have argued it could limit family-planning counseling and even potentially blood transfusions and end-of-life care."
Okay, that's reasonable, right? The Bushers were too extreme. Let's find common ground
Interested parties from across the political spectrum reacted to the announcement with a refreshing and long awaited tone of reconciliation and good will, all seeking a reasonable solution to this latest regulatory Gordian knot. The administration noted that people have 30 days to comment on its action, and that they're willing to compromise.
Don'tcha just love that word -- compromise. Makes ya feel all warm and fuzzy inside like ya just swallowed a large, hairy caterpillar, and it's dancing in your belly.
Consider the thoughtful comments of David Stevens, head of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations: "It is open season to again discriminate against health-care professionals. Our Founding Fathers, who bled and died to guarantee our religious freedom, are turning over in their graves."
Or, on the other side, look at how willing some are to seek regulatory changes that meet all needs. "Our general feeling is this was an area that does not cry out for further clarification," said Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center. "I would be skeptical."
Yes, Obama Nation has brought us beyond the dark and divisive politics of extremism and ideological purity to a new world of — well — extremism and ideological purity. But it's different, right? I mean, you can just feel the love. Oh, my fellow Americans, be the love. (Without sex, of course.)
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Doug Hunter
Unfortunately, like many issues you can't have a reasonable compromise as the vocal minorities on each end of the spectrum are the drivers of the conflict. They're the ones funding the lobby groups and picketing here and there. They won't be satisfied until every raped 9 year old who gets impregnated with grossly deformed multiples is forced to carry them to term or that a devout pro-lifer is forced to suck a struggling late term fetus's brain out under threat of losing his job.
2 - Dr Dreadful
That's the problem with dogmatism, Doug: it requires that you be right - completely, utterly, 100% right, with no possibility of ever being wrong under any conditions, even if the universe were to suddenly and inexplicably turn into a plum pudding.
Such people refuse to allow the possibility that their personal dogma actually might not fit all circumstances - or that both sides might be, to some degree, right.
3 - roger nowosielski
The question is - why and how do we manage to breed such people?
4 - Joanne Huspek
Your post would be hilarious except for one thing: you hit the nail on the head.
Here's who we have running the government and ergo our lives:
1. Attorneys
2. Political Hacks
3. Men and women lacking in morals and ethics
4. People who vote on legislation without reading it first because
a. They are brain dead
b. They are lazy
c. They are stupid
d. They're in the bag for some colleague or lobbyist
Let's not forget that a good many of them are millionaires and are out of touch.
5 - BlueBonnie
It's not the breeding of these people that bothers me Roger. It's the fact that natural selection has abandoned us when we need it the most.
6 - Cindy
lol Blue
That is the truth.
7 - roger nowosielski
Well, Hitler himself wasn't thoroughly convicted of Darwinism either. He thought the process of evolution needed a little push and shove now and then. I know you're not suggesting that.
I suspect we're operating with a highly-depleted gene pool. And idiots keep on breeding more idiots.
8 - Cindy
I don't think it's nature. I think it's what H&C accidentally called it: 'nuture'.
9 - BlueBonnie
What I am suggesting is something on the order of road kill(bear with me). The slowest creature of the bunch is usually left lying in the road. As far as Darwinism is concerned...I can see, in some men and women, the very apes we are thought to have evolved from. I say "thought to have evolved from" simply because, as everyone can surely agree, some people seem to have been born without the common sense and capability to process new ideas that makes us human.
10 - roger nowosielski
They must serve some purpose, though. Variety is a spice of life.
11 - BlueBonnie
I am sure they do Roger. A poster featuring these people with this message at the bottom "It could happen to you". Or something like the commercials showing "this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs". They would be quite useful in that aspect. I am firm believer that some have the sole purpose in life of being an example of why it is a good idea to practice safe sex.
A friend of mine is fond of saying: "the genepool needs chlorine". This is true. Sadly, some do not realize this until they see the algae.
12 - BlueBonnie
Variety is the spice of life. I agree completely, although, I do believe that too much spice can ruin the meal. What say you?
13 - roger nowosielski
There's one thing I'm not going to do: trying to outguess God.
14 - Dr Dreadful
I say that the metaphor breaks if you try and stretch it too far.
15 - BlueBonnie
Roger. 100% in agreement.
Dr. Dreadful. I admit it was a stretch but it worked so well...:)
16 - roger nowosielski
You mean "the variety" bit? Consider, though. The fool or the village idiot once served their function. Not since Nietzsche. Perhaps the ancient Greeks had it right: they spoke of "freaks of nature."
17 - BlueBonnie
Village idiots. You hit the nail on the head. These village idiots have formed large groups and adopted the label "government".
18 - Dr Dreadful
To think of those in government as idiots is to fatally underestimate them.
19 - Mark Schannon
As I've said many times, in terms of evolution, we are only three steps from the cave. Much of what controls our attitudes, behaviors, biases, knowledge, and action is unconscious--and some scientists argue that we have little access to our unconscious.
I don't think it's village idiots--it's tribalism. The same forces that pit Sunnis & Shias, Tutus and Hutsis, etc. against each other in a never-ending spiral of extremism and death drive American tribes.
The unconscious-driven fear of any threat to the tribe makes it almost impossibly difficult to take the risk of compromising.
We'll never overcome that until we all--even we reasonable people on this thread, LOL--understand that we are not rational animals, but rather just savages with a thin veneer of civilization. That recognition can go a long way to mitigating those deep fears.
And, fearing to sound like a moronic optimist who's taken too many meds, we tend to focus on the disputes among violent tribes, but we quickly forget the numerous instances when people overcome those deep-seated, powerful fears and work together.
And that's the truth.
In Jameson Veritas
20 - Dr Dreadful
We'll never overcome that until we all--even we reasonable people on this thread, LOL--understand that we are not rational animals, but rather just savages with a thin veneer of civilization.
And things that go bang really, really loud.
Ooogra.
21 - Cindy
And yet at any time, any single person could make a different choice.
Maybe it's just that people are basically pessimists.
22 - roger nowosielski
All I can say is "Wow."
23 - Mark Schannon
Doc, Ooogra Mooga Lagamaga.
BANG
Cindy, any of us can choose, but we have to understand that our choices are heavily influenced by unconscious factors we can't control. The best we can do is watch our behavior to understand what we're really feeling.
But imagine making a choice that will result in your being thrown out of the tribe. Many have done it, but it takes great courage.
Roger. Wow, as in "what a brilliant fellow," or as in "what a schmuck?" If your interested, I wrote an article on Three Steps From The Cave.
Most of my career has been spent in crisis and risk management & communications. The bizarre behavior of people under stress led me to do a lot research & I discovered revolutionary theories in neurology, psychology, & economics that have done to the Enlightment what Einstein did to Newtonian physics.
Wow, indeed.
In Jameson Veritas
Vita Brevis, Kindle2 Longa*
* My latest display of giftiness.
24 - BlueBonnie
Dr. Dreadful. What I intended to convey was not that I believe them to be idiots. My intent was to illustrate that the function of government is lost on those who make up said government. Would you place a village idiot at the head of the village? No. Somehow government has become infested with people who truly don't belong there. Like following the orders of the village idiot. Just because they are in power does not mean that they are fit for the task. Trust me. I do not underestimate anyone who holds a place of power.
25 - roger nowosielski
Well, what do you say, Cindy?