Republicans and others who are in anguish over the possibility of socialized medicine ought to have to explain their ideology to a mother with a sick newborn. They ought to have to explain how this nation can debate health care and not mention how abysmal ours is.
Interpretation
The quote critiques those who oppose socialized medicine, urging them to consider the real-life consequences of their ideology.
Richard Cohen highlights the moral obligation to recognize the struggles of individuals, particularly vulnerable populations like mothers with sick newborns, when debating health care policies. He emphasizes the inconsistency and moral failure in discussing health care without confronting the dire realities faced by many, suggesting that ideology must be tempered with empathy for those in need.
In practice
During a political debate, one could use this quote to illustrate the human impact of health care policies.
It takes a willful disregard of history to appreciate how white Southerners could look at the Confederate battle flag and see states' rights or a way of life or a tradition - and not one human being whipping another, which was a common occurrence.
You can't just have slogans, you can't just have catchy phrases. You have to have an agenda. And I think what the Republican Party has to do, if it's going to incorporate the tea party efforts in it, is to come up with an agenda that the American people can see, touch, and actually believe in, and something they believe in.
It is time we had democratic socialism for working families, not just Wall Street billionaires.
It will take time to eradicate a cancer like Isil. And any time we take military action, there are risks involved - especially to the servicemen and women who carry out these missions. But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.
Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart.
I want to reform the tax code so that it's simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000 - the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president; the same rate we had when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history, and a lot of millionaires to boot.
Pakistan's political instability is its greatest vulnerability, and a decline in U.S. power would reduce America's ability to aid Pakistan's consolidation and development.
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