For many viewers, Barack Obama’s witty response to McCain’s insistence that he doesn’t understand foreign policy was the highlight of Tuesday’s debate. Obama answered that it’s correct that he doesn’t understand why we invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.
But the line that will have lasting resonance was Obama’s response when Brokaw asked whether healthcare was a privilege, a responsibility, or a right; Obama stated unequivocally that it’s a right. He went on to say that it’s wrong for people to go without healthcare in the richest nation in the world, and told the story of his mother spending the last months of her life dying of cancer while fighting insurance companies over whether they would cover the costs of her treatment.
Many secularists (including myself) have long lamented the ceding of morality to the religious right, which uses it to bludgeon whatever minority they happen to hate at the moment. But in America, the Enlightenment tradition is full of examples of clear moral language that reflect no particular religion, but speak instead to our sense of common decency.
With so many facets of American life clearly calling out for our leaders to acknowledge what is wrong, unfair, and even criminal, it’s about time for Democrats to frame the issues in clear moral language. For good or bad, this is what many people, who would not be swayed by policy proposals, most relate to.
Here are just a few examples:
It is wrong that median incomes have stalled while wealth has soared for the top 1%.
It is wrong that we have allowed businesses to kill key pieces of environmental legislation that would confer huge health benefits for relatively low cost; it’s equally wrong that we haven’t seriously begun to address global warming.
It is wrong that millions of Americans are behind bars for non-violent drug offenses (often for longer terms than rapists, robbers, and murderers) when their “crimes” might better be treated as medical conditions.
It is wrong that in many parts of the country gay couples don’t have the same legal protections as heterosexual couples, let alone the right to marry or serve openly in the military.
It is wrong that quality day care and preschool are not available to all Americans, especially given the huge social returns to this early childhood investment.
Hopefully, Obama’s clear moral language on healthcare is just the beginning of a larger moral conversation in which many more issues will be framed as issues of right and wrong and basic fairness. This will not only build a new and stronger Democratic coalition; it can also attract more traditional Republicans who have been put off by the stridency and intolerance of the religious right, as well as evangelicals who have grown weary of the culture wars.
Jason Scorse