If you support nationalized health care, remember that it will not be run by perfect people or even "wise and disinterested statesmen," whatever those are. It will be run by people like (a possibly drunk) Max Baucus (HT: Steve Horwitz). A quick Google doesn't yield confirmation that Baucus was drunk--there's some innuendo from partisans, but not much else in the first few results--but the case against his position is stronger if he gave a performance like that while sober.

If what I've heard on Christian talk radio and what I've read in a few places is any indication, the GOP's response in the debate has been a disappointing hash of Euro-phobia (They're going to make us more like the French!) and special interest politics (and they're going to cut Medicare to do it!). From both sides, it has been less about ideas and more about beating the Bad Guys.

In reviewing 2009, I think one of the most interesting stories was the way partisans changed their rhetorical strategies. When W. Bush was in office, it was the left claiming that dissent is patriotic while the right was screaming "America! Love it or leave it!" Now that Obama is in office, the right is screaming "dissent is patriotic!" while the left is screaming "America! Love it or leave it!" This cements my conviction that partisan politics is a spectator sport rather than an intellectual, social, or spiritual exercise.