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Lady Liberty
Compromising Freedom
September 11, 2009

There's an age-old joke that suggests politics is defined as being the combination of two other words: poly, meaning "many," and "ticks," meaning blood-sucking pests. A more serious definition is no less unfortunate when you think about it, and that is that politics is the art of compromise.

Compromise isn't always bad. In fact, most of us do it in our everyday lives as part and parcel of our living those lives in the presence of others. You want a peach kitchen, and your spouse prefers a beige one. But neither of you has a real problem with yellow, so yellow it is. You have insomnia, but your spouse is a light sleeper, so you get headphones for your late night TV watching. Everybody wins, or at least nobody loses.

Despite the ease with which we all compromise to get along, there are things most of us simply refuse to negotiate. Your spouse wants an open marriage. Your child wants to pierce an unmentionable body part. Your boss wants you to steal from a client. I'm betting that you wouldn't compromise on these issues any more than I would. The plain and simple reason isn't that you're uncooperative. It's because these issues involve lines drawn between what you know is right and what virtually all of us agree is wrong.

In theory, compromise might sound as warm and fuzzy in politics as it does around your dining room table. And in theory, that's true. But the unfortunate reality is all too often that compromise is demanded as a matter of course even when the legislation at hand displays very clear rights and obvious wrongs.

Consider health care reform for example. There's one very clear "right" here, and that's the fact that health care reform is needed. The wrongs in the existing legislation, however, are many: Single payer proposals, the inevitability of rationing, the incredible expense to taxpayers, the accompanying gargantuan bureaucracy, the unfathomable loss of privacy, and more. But instead of dismissing those wrongs out of hand, there are those who are nodding their statesmanlike heads sagely and talking compromise.

Now that President Obama has been faced with massive opposition from the public to his health care reform plan, even he's talking about bipartisanship. Republicans have had several alternative proposals for health care reform rejected by the administration and the majority in Congress out of hand in the recent past, but the president is now expressing some interest in talking in a desperate attempt to get something done—anything!—so he can have his legacy. And he just might get at least some of what he wants.

Most of the major players aren't going to budge from their current stance. The loss of face would be too great for their egos. But those out of the limelight could be looking for recognition or favors and that in turn could result in their support. Just as possible is the potential they could be subtly threatened by party leaders. Either way, if what they get in exchange is worth the risk of losing the next election, they may offer up their vote. Right and wrong rarely enters in when power or glory is up for grabs! And unfortunately, that kind of trade is how too much gets done in Washington these days.

The death of Senator Ted Kennedy has only further complicated the process where health care reform is concerned. The man's body hadn't even cooled before Democrat opportunists suggested that health care reform be named for Kennedy, and the push for passing the legislation in his name began immediately thereafter. The push was so hard that not only was right and wrong set aside, but so was all manner of tact or decency. It was almost beyond imagination, but it was all over YouTube: During the funeral service itself, some young Kennedys asked the congregation and the country to pray that Grandpa's dreams be realized!

Even those on the other side of the aisle are jumping on the Kennedy band wagon. Senator John McCain may have been a longtime colleague and even a friend of Kennedy, but his admiration for Kennedy's talents to broker compromise is less than I would have expected from a man who campaigned for president under a "country first" banner. McCain has now publicly stated more than once his desire to see that some compromise is reached on health care reform.

Some of those who are watching the political process unfold have boldly stated my own secret fears of a health care bill that could be even broader than those currently under consideration, almost solely in homage to Kennedy. I've joked with friends that health care reform legislation is actually a fitting memorial to Kennedy: It's unthinkably expensive, almost completely unmanageable, and it will create more problems than it solves. It is, in fact, right in line with any number of other Kennedy causes. But it wouldn't be remotely funny if such legislation were to pass!

Yes, we elect our politicians to do a job, and that job involves getting things done. But getting something done via compromise purely for the sake of getting something done results in repercussions that are often far worse than the status quo. Some in Congress are even suggesting that compromise means we simply give everything up to agree with them, and that their own votes will be cast on an "all or nothing" basis. Okay. Do nothing.

You see, we all know that either something will work or it won't. Either people will be helped or they'll be hindered. Either taxpayers will suffer or they'll benefit. Either something is right or it's wrong. It's not complicated, and adding caveats or more legalese to make it more complex won't make it better. Every version of health care reform currently under consideration is really no exception to much of what's come out of Washington in the past. But unlike the occasional bridge to nowhere, this is one mistake that will take us somewhere. And you had better believe it won't be anyplace we want to go!


About Lady Liberty
Lady Liberty is an American woman who is proud of and grateful for our heritage of freedom, and who fears the present generation intends to bequeath little of that heritage to the future. Those fears prompted her political activism, and ongoing and anti-freedom developments since then have only increased her determination to do whatever she can to inform and incite activism in others. A "Constitutional libertarian" or a "Jeffersonian liberal," it is far simpler to say that she believe we each ought to be able do pretty much as we please as long as we don't infringe the rights of others or burden others while doing so. Lady Liberty maintains a website accessed here. You can access Lady Liberty's podcasts here.