The headline reads,

WHITE HOUSE MAY CAVE ON PUBLIC OPTION

However, if you click on the link, you will find that it goes to a rather sedate Wall Street Journal article which has a different headline. The headline on that article is quite different. In fact, that article is a rather humdrum article that says that the current administration is signaling that it is not stuck on one particular plan for healthcare, but rather is willing to talk and reach agreements on options to fix our healthcare problem.

Father Orthoduck wishes to point out that the headline comes from a far left publication. This is the other end from the video that Father Orthoduck posted in the previous post. On the previous post, the searchlight was put on the nuttiness, maybe even the craziness, of someone on the far right who was even willing to openly hope for another massive attack on the USA in order that the far right’s demand for more “security measures” might be listened to.

But, here is something of the craziness of the far left. Here are the true socialists, and they are most unhappy that President Obama is not turning out to be a true socialist. The Great O has actually said that he wishes to maintain competition in the field of healthcare! How bourgeois.

As Father Ernesto had pointed out on more than one of his series, the two extremes of American politics are just that, two extremes. The trouble is that they are the ones who grab the headlines because newspapers sell more on headlines such as Cheney being a war criminal or Obama about to implement a new tyranny than they sell on more sedate truth.

The trouble with using the extremes to craft your headlines is that you help push the country towards one of the two extremes. Moderates may not make headlines, but the reality is that moderates are what actually make the country run. The ability to compromise is the ability to pass laws. California is in near default precisely because the two parties are unable to compromise on a budget.

So, Father Orthoduck wishes to point out that we need to quit reading the extreme headlines and start doing the work of finding a middle-ground in which we can make this country run. No, no one will get everything they want. But, maybe, just maybe, if we work together, we can stop either extreme and can begin to find some solutions that will help this country run well. And, there will be a couple of subjects on which neither side will be able to compromise, but every subject does not need to be a major philosophical battle. It is when we allow the headlines to make us believe that every subject is a major philosophical battle that the country begins to overheat, like California, and comes close to breakdown.