Reply #16: I oppose it for that reason.

[TayTay]

We have haters who, just this year, have already murdered a Doctor for political reasons and murdered a guard at the US Holocaust Museum for political reasons. It can be argued that both acts, as well as a host of others that promise violence against current office holders, are egged on by overheated rhetoric that talks about "traitors" and so forth.

Definition of a traitor: One who betrays one's country, a cause, or a trust, especially one who commits treason.

(Def of treason: Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.)

Elected representatives who don't vote the way I would want them to are not traitors or public enemies. They are duly elected and sworn representatives of the people who are expressing alternative ways to get to a common goal. They have concerns about financing and carrying out sweeping reform of our health care system. Well, we want a vigorous debate about that kind of reform, don't we? Isn't that what a Congress does, hotly debate the pressing issues? That does not make them traitors or even bad Democrats or bad Reps. It means they have an alternative vision. Compromise, the lifeblood of democracy, is the solution to this.

Compromise is not a dirty or cowardly thing. Democracy cannot exist without it. It is how we reconcile differences of opinion that occur in politics. No one died and made me as a Massachusetts voter, for example, Queen of all Knowledge. I have a point of view and opinion that I hope is fact-based. But it is not all-knowing. I have to defend that idea in the court of public opinion against others. The people I argue with, for and among are not my enemies. They are honorable people who have a right to their opinions, same as I have to mine.

I have an on-going and deep-seated horror of what the Bush Administration did in the last 8 years in terms of allowing torture, ignoring national and international law and pursuing rogue and unlawful actions on the world stage. I have used the word "treason" to describe some of these actions, particularly on the part of the former Vice President. This was not accidentally chosen. That leader may have deliberately lied and sought to solicit lies (lie: knowing the truth and deliberately ignoring it in favor of falsehood) in order to take this nation to war. That war has resulted in the deaths of thousands of US soldiers and untold numbers of Iraqis and others. That is horrifying to the core. It is betrayal on a massive, Vietnam-like scale and is unforgivable. (There is a reason why treason is listed as a crime in the Constitution and is specifically spelled out as a crime worthy of the death penalty.)

I don't think a carefully reasoned argument listing cause as to why someone might have violated the US Constitution to cause the needless deaths of US soldiers is the same as disagreeing with someone over how to implement a legislative and policy reform. Using charged words like "traitor" and "public enemy" to indicate dissent in a legislative argument demeans the meaning of these words.

I was happy to see the challenges in the DKos diary that you posted. That is a healthy and good sign. We all want the best possible health reform plan, but this is a complicated debated with many, many moving parts. The bill that comes out of this is not going to be 100% acceptable to anyone. Compromises are going to be made. That is how legislation is done. (Name me a single piece of legislation that has not gone through the process and been changed by compromise.) President Obama and the Democratic Congress will not be traitors if they implement a bill with compromises in it, they will be good public servants who navigated a really rough course. That is how it is done. We then take the legislation passed and refine it with more rounds of legislation and compromise. That is the eternal struggle. (It never ends and is never finished.)

Thanks for taking the time to review this. I really appreciate the effort and the dialogue. As ever, I learned something here. That is why we log on and talk to intelligent people with informed view points. We share information and fill in the blank spots in our own knowledge. It is a beautiful thing, when it works.