On Friday, George Lakoff of the Rockridge Instutute appeared on NOW with Bill Moyers to discuss the need for Progressives to improve their ability to get their message out to the American people. Specifically, he says they must develop the ability to counter Conservatives’ ruthless efficiency and almost fanatical devotion to Staying On Message. In spite of the fact that the message may use terms which define something completely contrary to what they propose to do, Conservatives’ ability to claim the language in which the debate will take place both puts Progressives on the defensive and diminishes how the left’s position looks in the eyes of the public. Lakoff, who has written about this issue in The American Prospect, calls this “framing,”
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Ross Silverman
Swift brash flash of blue
Nobly shielding your fledglings
Can’t I mow the lawn?
How about global biological war?
Late last week, Newt Gingrich testified before the House Government Reform Technology Subcommittee on the public health system’s use of information technology to defend against and respond to terror. Yesterday, Tom Ridge engaged in a tabletop exercise with the nation’s Governors, simulating a biological attack on the United States. This morning, President Bush signed into law S.15, the Project Bioshield Act of 2004, which sets aside billions of dollars for the development and stockpiling of vaccines for bioterrorism agents, such as anthrax and smallpox (a/k/a lots of money to Bush’s Big Pharma Buddies).
All this, and anonymous rumors of sock stuffing just hours before the 9/11 commission report comes out! How about that.
Tabletop exercises and Rose Garden signing ceremonies make for pretty decent special effects, but in the case of bioterrorism preparedness, when you look behind the curtain, it becomes clear that the Administration’s committment has very little brains, heart or courage.
Reformation of the medical malpractice system has been an issue of great contention in recent years. And then, John Edwards got the nod as the Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate. I’m not sure if you’ve heard this, but there are a few people who would like you to know that, before becoming a Senator, Edwards used to spend his days before neutral triers of fact representing those who may have been injured by others. And he was pretty good at it. Edwards’ presence on the ticket has whipped the pro-“tort reform” crowd into a frenzy, and over the past few weeks the drum beat for change has grown even louder (and the band would appreciate it if you pay no mind to whether the drummer has any rhythm).
The problems within the medical malpractice system are myriad. The legislative solutions proposed, however, have generally been myopic. This is because the proponents of change — the Republicans and physicians — have successfully boiled down the debate to One Big Thing: a cap on damages. And that’s precisely the One Big Thing the Democrats and trial lawyers do not want to see put in place. It’s been largely like this for thirty years, and so long as the discussion remains on this single axis, there is little hope for making significant progress toward improving the quality of care delivered in our health system.
Fortunately, there are a few people who are trying to reframe the debate, and in this month’s issue of Health Affairs, William M. Sage offers some exciting and innovative solutions to the medical malpractice quagmire. He does it by noting how different the health care system is from when the debate began three decades ago, and by focusing his attention on the aging hippopotamus that has been standing quietly in the corner, hoping no one would notice him.