Instead of the merits of the health care bill that just failed, focus instead on how it failed. The failure reveals a serious affliction that has infected our politics. One word diagnoses the affliction -- hyperpartisanship.
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Of course we saw the chronic, corrosive hyperpartisanship between Republicans and Democrats. But more on that later. Surprisingly, on this bill there was crippling hyperpartisanship tearing apart the Republican House majority. On one side was the more moderate "Tuesday Group." On the other was the very conservative "Freedom Caucus."
Revisions of the bill to mollify one wing aroused objections on the other flank. Speaker Ryan and his lieutenants were literally caught in the middle?. Neither of the extremes was willing to budge. Both sides countenanced the bill going down in flames rather than compromise.
As one Senator observed, "It is difficult to make a deal with someone who never compromises." Both recalcitrants made the perfect the enemy of the good.
And the Democrats? The Democrats displayed their own special brand of hyperparisanship by standing by gleefully on the sidelines, waiting to roast marshmallows in the embers of the health care bill.
Bismarck once observed that there are two processes that never should occur in public -- sausage making and legislation. The process of legislation gets even uglier when everyone values selfish gain more than progress.
I'm Bob Evans, and that is my perspective.
