Republicans and others who are in anguish over the possibility of socialized medicine ought to have to explain their ideology to a mother with a sick newborn. They ought to have to explain how this nation can debate health care and not mention how abysmal ours is.
Interpretation
The quote critiques those who oppose socialized medicine, urging them to consider the real-life consequences of their ideology.
Richard Cohen highlights the moral obligation to recognize the struggles of individuals, particularly vulnerable populations like mothers with sick newborns, when debating health care policies. He emphasizes the inconsistency and moral failure in discussing health care without confronting the dire realities faced by many, suggesting that ideology must be tempered with empathy for those in need.
In practice
During a political debate, one could use this quote to illustrate the human impact of health care policies.
It takes a willful disregard of history to appreciate how white Southerners could look at the Confederate battle flag and see states' rights or a way of life or a tradition - and not one human being whipping another, which was a common occurrence.
It is always a disappointment to turn from forthright consideration of some subject - whether from the Left or the Right, a poet or a plumber - to the Beltway version, in which the only aspects of the issue that matter are the effects it will have on the fortunes of the two parties and the various men in power.
We the people tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us.
I do not want two classes of citizens in this country. I want everybody to prosper. That's going to be a top priority.
The proximate cause of Iraq's unraveling was the increasing authoritarian, sectarian, and corrupt conduct of the Iraqi government and its leader after the departure of the last U.S. combat forces in 2011.
I think it is important to ask ourselves as citizens, not as Democrats attacking the administration, but as citizens, whether a world power can really provide global leadership on the basis of fear and anxiety?
It is one of history's ironies that Communism, advertised as a classless society, tended to breed a privileged class of feudal proportions.
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