Why the hell can't we all get along??

As the debate over health care reform is increasingly hashed out in public forums during Congress’s summer recess, it is apparent that the tenor of the debate is becoming ever more hostile. Town hall meetings with Senators and Representatives degenerate into shouting matches over the littlest detail of the bill. Right here in Phoenix, a protestor showed up outside an appearance by President Obama with an assault rifle casually slung over his shoulder. A similar story emerged from a presidential appearance in New Hampshire where a demonstrator had a gun strapped to his thigh.

Now, neither of those instances violated the law—both people were outside the perimeter around the President where weapons are not allowed, and New Hampshire and Arizona both permit open carriage of firearms. But the point of these incidents is not whether those demonstrators did something illegal. The point is that this serves to highlight the larger question of why the hell we Americans can’t seem to get along. We’ve always had a tradition of spirited debate about critical issues. But when did it get to the point where all we know how to do is hoot and holler and wave our guns at each other?

The culture of polarized political hostility is nothing new, but it seems to have reached a boiling point when it comes to health care. Opinionated citizens all across the country are shouting themselves red in the face. The collective national blood pressure must be up by thousands of points, judging by the tomato colored people we see on TV, online, and in the papers. If there was ever any question about whether we, as a country, are completely nuts, well folks, we have an answer.

But aren’t we better than that? Aren’t we above scribbling a Hitler mustache on Obama—or for that matter, on the President Bush the way extreme liberals did for eight years? We’re Americans. Our country has been the source of some of the most beautiful and insightful writings about debate and dissent the world has ever seen: from Thomas Paine’s fiery “Common Sense” to the reasoned logic of “Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau to the playful disbelief of Molly Ivins’s writings about lawmakers in Texas and beyond. Why can’t we celebrate our differences and disagreements instead of instinctively reaching for our handgun when we hear somebody say something we don’t like?

Now, I’m well aware that there have been plenty of debates over plenty of hot button issues throughout America’s history. And I also know that sometimes those disagreements were settled with violence, or even war. I’m admittedly young, and this has likely been the most intense policy debate I have witnessed in my lifetime. I know full well that this is not the first time the American populace has behaved like a bunch of escaped lunatics. But why does that make it okay? There’s no easy answer to this question, but I’m going to pose it anyway because it’s something that we all need to hear: aren’t we capable of debating an issue without acting like complete children? And, if the answer to that truly is no, then maybe we need to look a little deeper than health care reform to find out what’s truly making us behave like this.