The BBC Web site has a great essay by political scientist David Runciman, a professor at Cambridge University, trying to explain the recent surge in anger among the populace regarding health care and just about everything else.
It begins:
"Last year, in a series of 'town-hall meetings' across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama's proposed healthcare reforms.
"What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.
"Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.
"But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform - the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state - are often the ones it seems designed to help.
"In Texas, where barely two-thirds of the population have full health insurance and over a fifth of all children have no cover at all, opposition to the legislation is currently running at 87%.
"Instead, to many of those who lose out under the existing system, reform still seems like the ultimate betrayal.
"Why are so many American voters enraged by attempts to change a horribly inefficient system that leaves them with premiums they often cannot afford?
"Why are they manning the barricades to defend insurance companies that routinely deny claims and cancel policies?"
Very good questions and Runciman tries to explain in this excellent essay.
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