Guidelines and A Modest Proposal For The Health Care Debate

Hunter at DailyKos:

Three general guidelines for the healthcare debate:

First, whenever someone is spouting off about "communist fascism", you may ignore everything that person says from that point forward. Fascism and communism are two entirely different things, and a primary tenet of fascism is its opposition to communism.

[...]Second, you cannot be "against socialized medicine" and at the same time think Medicare is good. Medicare is, in no uncertain term, socialized medicine, and government run, and all of that very scary stuff. If the concept of "socialized medicine" outrages you, you are against Medicare. If you are for Medicare, then by definition there is some level of "socialized medicine" you are willing to accept, and at that point you are exactly where the entire rest of the country is, and we're merely arguing about the details.

All of the people who say that they are afraid of socialized medicine but that they support Medicare are liars. All of them. They either secretly don't support Medicare but are unwilling to say such an unpopular thing out loud, for obvious reasons, or they aren't in fact afraid of "socialized medicine" but still want to use the talking point.

[...]The third guideline: the first two guidelines are freaking obvious.

I'd also add a fourth guideline: call them a liar to their face, and walk away. Anyone who says one. some, or all of the above talking points has drunk the kool-aid for far too long to listen to reason.

And if all else fails, and you can't walk away, I'd like to suggest a fifth guideline: give your opponent a real reason to support health care reform by putting them in immediate need of emergency medical attention. After all, "we've got the best health care system in the world!" Why not make them prove it, personally?