What Happened to Debate?

A story hit the wire from AP today expressing mock surprise that a fit of compromise broke out in Washington DC yesterday. Republican senators withdrew the threat to filibuster on gun control and Democrats actually honored John McCain on his 40^th anniversary of release from a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp. President Obama’s gesture toward reducing entitlement spending was also mentioned, but I suspect that was more of a gambit than a true compromise.

Sarcasm notwithstanding, it is sad that a return to normalcy makes news. By normalcy I mean the act of sitting down with one’s opposition and actually debating the merits of each side with an eye toward reaching a workable compromise. Political discourse in this country has always descended into hyperbole and name-calling. Beginning with the days of the verbal jousting between Jefferson and Adams, we have always been a bit dramatic, but at least we debated. No more. Think back to 2008 when the Democrats steam-rolled Obamacare into existence with platitudes like elections have consequences; you lost; shut up.

Then there is all the fake angst by the Dems over Republican filibusters. What hypocrisy. Does no one remember the endless hours the Dems themselves spent filibustering Bush’s court nominees? The Senate rules may be arcane, even ridiculous, but they were instituted so that actual debate would be assured, and so that no majority could run roughshod over any minority. The Senate is supposed to be the chamber of reasoned debate; the House is where all the young firebrands dance and gesticulate around the flames of their various popular causes.

Sadly, even those few conservative politicians (both D and R) who would debate are caught up in the battle over issues that have sailed right past the elementary principles and into the murky water clouded by assumptions and predispositions. Two examples will clarify. The debate over health care has drifted so far from the real issue, that even staunch free market advocates are battling over things that wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if the true sticking point were ever settled. To wit: where is it written that every citizen (and illegal alien) is entitled to health care? Since when is health care an entitlement? When did it become my right to expect you to pay for my health care? That is the debate we should be having instead of grumbling about mandates and health boards.

Another example that screams for a more fundamental discussion is gun control. Listening to Bloomberg and Biden and the President, one would assume that it is a settled fact that stricter controls on the sale and ownership of guns would produce a safer society. In this flurry of minutiae, rifles that have a certain appearance become “assault weapons,” and 10 becomes the magic number of bullets that is safe to allow in a weapon. Yet there is no statistical evidence that tighter control of guns reduces violent crime. In fact just the opposite appears to be true. Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws anywhere, yet it leads the nation in gun violence. Connecticut had fairly tough gun laws which did nothing to stop Adam Lanza from murdering a score of children.

And so it is with gay marriage, school vouchers, immigration and a host of other issues. There are foundational principles that should be debated before having the arguments we are currently besieged with. Jesus had a lot to say about the importance of the heart in assessing character. This may seem to be a rhetorical stretch, but I think we are failing to get at the heart of the important issues facing our society. Society is no more or less than the amalgam of its people. Christians know it is people’s hearts that matter; we should be a voice calling for a return to the heart of the matter – whatever the matter is.