San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial

Left's and right's mutual loathing is poison

September 17, 2009

Something has gone fundamentally awry in American politics. Big chunks of each party literally hate the other side.

Those on the right often argue that what started us on this road was the instant vitriol that greeted President Ronald Reagan's 1987 nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. Those on the left cite the readiness of the conservative movement to amplify outrageous claims about President Bill Clinton (he was involved in drug running; he had something to do with the death of aide Vincent Foster, etc.) from the day he took office in 1993.

But whoever drew first blood, we now live in a poisonous political culture in which it is close to the norm for one side to dismiss the comments and concerns of the other side with venom and contempt. This is on full display in the battle over President Barack Obama's push for big changes in health care. Supporters of the president routinely dismiss critics as liars, knaves, idiots and racists. Opponents of Obama's effort trash the president and his allies as fascists and/or socialists hell-bent on micromanaging all of our lives.

A mature, productive approach would acknowledge that both sides harbor extremists but that in general both sides have reasonable motives.

Republicans/conservatives aren't just posturing when they see the huge price tags associated with various versions of Obama's plan and wonder how a nation already burdened with staggering deficits can keep adding to the red ink. Democrats/liberals aren't just bloviating when they say it is outrageous that a nation as affluent as the United States has a health system in which tens of millions of people lack any kind of insurance.

These are both very legitimate arguments. But for the most part, the loudest voices in the health debate won't concede that those on the other side are acting in good faith.

This isn't just a recipe for political dysfunction. It is a recipe for endless, ugly social division. This may not bother Keith Olbermann, Rush Limbaugh and their acolytes. But it should bother people who want the best for this country.

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