Word: moralizers
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...skipping over the fundamental question of the rationale for reform, our legislators have taken the politically expedient route. And by ignoring Americans’ moral discomfort with issues of self-denial, reformers have allowed societal priorities to remain muddied. Providing moral clarity to the health-care debate would not have come without cost but would surely have offered direction to such an important national endeavor. Our marketplace of ideas might still be open to the discussion of all opinions, but a serious observer of today’s health-care debate could never guess...
...sure, there is a place for number-driven, dispassionate discourse in debates such as this. If we did not have congressional aides and independent analysts to provide cost and impact estimates, it would be impossible for legislators to make informed, moral decisions. Indeed, the American discourse on foreign policy has shown the costs of a focus on supposed morality at the expense of actual consequences. For example, the Bush administration’s refusal to negotiate regularly with the Iranian government, while grounded in a generally sound moral judgment of that government’s character, had the practical effect...
...problem arises when these analyses come to be appreciated for their own sake instead of as a means to a greater moral end. When Lieberman tells reporters that he opposes a public option because it will “end up increasing the national debt,” he not only spouts incorrect facts—the CBO estimates that a strong public option would save $150 billion over ten years—but he also misses the point. An increase in national debt does not in itself lead to negative moral consequences. If the goals of the spending?...
...danger lies in the systemic politeness that allows it to fester. Politicians who embrace this amoralism deserve rebuke from their leaders, not the nonchalance with which the Democratic leadership met Lieberman’s actions. And those like Grayson who challenge it deserve better than to hear their moral seriousness condemned as madness...
Harvard Professor Michael J. Sandel challenged his audience to explore the moral dilemmas behind political controversies while presenting his latest book at the Harvard Book Store last night...