The Tragedy of Rep. Joe Wilson

In many ways, what went wrong with Rep. Wilson is what's going wrong with the Republican Party as a whole.

Here is a man with a serious policy problem in mind.  While the health care bill of the moment (if it can be said that there really is one bill we're all talking about) specifically says that illegal immigrants will not be covered.  However, many have complained that the bill does not do enough to verify the citizenship of those who take advantage of its provisions.  So Obama didn't really "lie" so much as he is pushing a piece of legislation that may not live up to its stated goals.

That's a bad thing... a bad thing that Wilson did nothing to improve.

Over these last few months, we've been told repeatedly by our so-called opinion leaders that yelling, screaming and chanting at town hall meetings were simply expressions of a frustrated populace.  We have been told that to criticize the tone of the debate was to be disloyal to our own and that anyone who might do so is an out of touch cocktail-sipping Beltway elitist.  We have been told we are at war against this bill. 

All manner of bad behavior, which we would have roundly and rightly criticized had it come from Democrats or even our own children in different contexts, has been excused because Obamacare is some sort of bloodless war between real Americans and socialism, communism, fascism and any other nasty -ism a talk radio host can think up.

But we're not at war.  We're fighting a legislative battle.  If Rep. Wilson were actually concerned about covering illegal immigrants and not making a self-centered "brave stand" against Obama the person, he would have done what legislators have done since legislatures were invented: he would have proposed an amendment in exchange for the only thing of value he has - his vote. 

As a result, the immigrant issue is ignored because it's clear the goal here isn't to put a good verification regime in place or even convince anyone of the need for one.  The goal isn't even to stop the bill.  The goal is to belittle Obama.  How juvenile.

Of course, he can't really offer his vote because it has long been off the table, as have the votes of most Republicans in Congress.  So instead of trying to do his job and improve a bill that is likely to become law, Joe Wilson is reduced to the level of a common heckler, an annoyance.

For debasing himself, his constituents and his party, for trading his dignity and position of influence to be a mere clown, he's rewarded by so-called conservatives, who swamp his office and send him money?

This may just be where the anti-Obamacare movement jumped the shark.

We started with real concerns.  Concerns about cost.  Concerns about personal freedom and government inefficiency. And yes, concerns about illegal immigrants.  Entire books have been written about the conservative approach to improving health care.  Yet several months in, and we measure success not by the improvements we've made or the concessions we've extracted, but by how big a noise we can make on TV. 

Sure, it feels good to be heard, but wouldn't it be better to actually say something?