The New Third Rail

If Hogwarts were a school for politicians, there would be a required class on “Defense Against the Dark Arts of Demagoguery.” President Obama considers his health reform effort a target of this dark art–indeed, he seems to view it as the main reason reform has faltered on Capitol Hill.

Here is the defense he mounted in his big speech to Congress this week:

“Some of people’s concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Now, such a charge would be laughable if it weren’t so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple.”

Professor Snape would not be impressed. At issue, of course, are the two words “death panels,” uttered widely in opposition to Obamacare, most famously by Sarah Palin, the prominent politician to whom the president alluded. The phrase may indeed be “cynical” shorthand for a new government role in deciding on appropriate care as one nears the end of one’s life; certainly it is polemical. And it may even be “irresponsible”–in exactly the same way that Democratic political operatives for decades have irresponsibly tried to frighten the elderly into believing Republicans were going to take away their Social Security benefits. But “laughable” is precisely what it isn’t. End-of-life care is beginning to look a lot like a new third rail of American politics. Republicans will be happy to let Democrats learn this lesson the hard way.

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