December 07, 2009 02:00 AM UTC

A New Dark Age

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• by: harrydoby

“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.” — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan’s quote explains a lot about the quality (or lack therein) of the political debate over heath care reform, climate change and a myriad of other topics that have had, or will have massive consequences over our future well-being.

The tempest-in-a-teapot over the purloined emails between climatologists is only the latest example of how basic misunderstanding of science and analytical methods turns into a political conspiracy theory by global warming deniers.  In an age when TV and movies can solve the knottiest mysteries in as little as 60 minutes (often through a deus ex machina), the idea that we have to spend decades pouring over hundreds of thousands, and even millions of years of data to understand our climate — much less propose a solution —  is incomprehensible to a significant segment of our population (wait a minute, the Earth is only 6,000 years old, what am I saying?).

The health care debate is even more pernicious.  The most rational solution – universal single-payer system, which would provide better outcomes, maximum coverage at the most cost-effective price, is not even on the table.  So as the Democrats struggle among themselves to find the least-worst politically acceptable alternative, the Republicans try any fact-free argument they can think of to raise fear, uncertainty and doubt among the mis- or uninformed.

The latest example is clearly illustrated by Nobel-Laureate Economist Paul Krugman:

The Republican campaign against health care reform has rested in part on the traditional arguments, arguments that go back to the days when Ronald Reagan was trying to scare Americans into opposing Medicare – denunciations of “socialized medicine,” claims that universal health coverage is the road to tyranny, etc.

But in the closing rounds of the health care fight, the G.O.P. has focused more and more on an effort to demonize cost-control efforts. The Senate bill would impose “draconian cuts” on Medicare, says Senator John McCain, who proposed much deeper cuts just last year as part of his presidential campaign. “If you’re a senior and you’re on Medicare, you better be afraid of this bill,” says Senator Tom Coburn.

Even the AARP doesn’t buy that argument, and fully supports reform passed by the House.

So basically the GOP strategy is if they can’t defeat reform, at least cripple it to the extent that should a bill pass, it has a built-in self-destruct mechanism, thereby allowing the GOP to say “We told you so”, in hopes of restoring themselves to power.  The devastation, in economic and human suffering terms, wrought by unchecked health care costs and runaway deficits are only a minor consideration in their short-term and short-sighted strategies.

During the Vietnam war, there was a strategy called Pacification.  One element was that in order to save a village, sometimes you had to bomb it out of existence.  Apparently a similar line of thinking is being employed by some in the GOP.  It seems these Luddites, by ignoring science and rational thought, are willing to bomb us back, if not to the Stone Age, at least to the Middle Ages, where magic and superstition were the norm.  Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Reagans relied on an astrologer for advice during their days in the White House.  

In the last decade, the GOP has screwed up nearly everything they’ve touched. With Sarah Palin considered by many in the GOP as a highly qualified candidate for the Presidency, they seem prepared to continue down that path.

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