Column :"After the Fireworks"

After the fireworks comes living in their light and aftermath. July 5 or 15th continue on, as the concerts, cookouts, and colors recede into the distance. John Adams predicted that the celebration of the Declaration of Independence would occasion fireworks. That prediction has been followed. After the fireworks, how do we live out the meaning of the Declaration of Independence day after day, when the light is dimmed by quotidian troubles and cares? For Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, the very mark of a free people would be increases in positive social indicators, from GNP to the number of colleges, to more subjective measures of well-being. He did believe in negative liberty. He wanted the oppressive hand of government off the backs of people to discover and employ their skills. He also believed in positive, communal liberty that people were able to achieve great things together such as his beloved University of Virginia. After all, governments exist to “secure the rights of liberty.” Pursuit of happiness had an active sense for him, not chasing after some phantom. Notice that he has governments erected to promote the “safety and happiness” of a people. I do not recall the anticipation for a Supreme Court decision as intense as this recent interest in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) decision. Our paper added its own fireworks by giving a good deal of space to two physicians who blasted the decision in a rhetorical display. I would have liked to have seen a good deal more careful analysis of the decision on legal and policy grounds. Even as people saw that the law was Constitutional, on taxing grounds, the Supreme Court signaled a remarkable retreat on the powers of Congress on spending and commerce grounds that could have enormous ramifications. It was signaling a move away from a consensus on congressional power that emerged out of the New Deal during the Great Depression. After the constitutional fireworks, the embers of the law itself need to be kept aflame, and the slow creation of regulations should commence. A number of prominent Republican governors are already refusing to implement the law. It seems to be more fulfilling to say no, take one’s ball and go home, instead of the hard struggle to stay in the competition. Every advanced nation has a form of national health care. We pay more for health care than other nations. Until this law, millions of young people prayed that they would not need to go to the hospital. I would have preferred a different approach to health care than mandatory insurance, but that is the decision that the President and Congress made. Put in terms of 1776, the extraordinary costs of medical care threaten the economic and social capacity of most Americans. I do not grasp how we can call ourselves a free people when tens of millions of our fellow citizens are a diagnosis away from financial ruin. Bombastic rhetoric and virulent criticism is more fun and easier than the hard work of proposing, implementing, and evaluating policy. We have it in our hands the work of bringing better health and healing to millions of our fellow citizens. I fear that we want the spectacle of fireworks but not the work of building and presenting them. We like the emotional rush of political fireworks, but we avoid the hard work of examining with a policy with care Data would have an unfortunate way of casting doubts on our bumper sticker preference for labels. We’ve had our childish tantrums. Adults admit disappointment, and then roll up their sleeves and get to work.