Does Rucho really believe it?

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, December 17, 2013

State Sen. Bob Rucho deserves the fire storm of criticism for his tweet declaring that “Justice Robert’s pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis, Soviets & terrorists combined.”
While the Mecklenburg Republican was unrepentant — initially at least — and dismissed the outrage as the whining of “elitist liberals” and socialists, the withering broadsides were more broadbased. They came from religious leaders and historians as well as those on the political right.
Rabbi Judy Schindler of Charlotte’s Temple Beth El said that “comparing the murder of 11 million human beings — among them 6 million Jews — among them, 1.5 million children — to an affordable health care act … comparing those two things is offensive.”
From Dr. Michael Bitzer, professor of history and political science at Catawba College, writing on his blog at WFAE: “To claim the passage of a policy through the democratic process of our nation’s government as more disastrous than the combined deaths and destruction of two horrific events in our modern history, let alone the havoc that modern terrorist acts have caused, is simply ignorant and shameful of the facts and lives that were impacted.”
Among Rucho’s Republican critics was N.C. GOP Chairman Claude Pope, who in a statement Monday said, “The tweet is highly offensive and he should apologize,”
You don’t have to be a Democrat, a liberal or a partisan of any stripe to perceive the over-the-top hyperbole in Rucho’s comment. Rather than simply take offense, however, voters should take stock and ask themselves this:
Was this simply the kind of comment politicians make when they shoot from the lip without thinking things through? Was Rucho just having a Joe Biden moment? Or does this reveal how, for Rucho and other politicians, the dislike of Obamacare long ago mutated from cogent opposition into fear and loathing so intense it has obliterated any sense of proportion or history? If the latter, what does that signify for rational decisionmaking?
Rucho subsequently said he was referring to the economic devastation he believes will result from the Affordable Care Act. Even granting him that too-easy out, however, it’s still an absurd comparison, given the costs of the nation’s hot and cold wars. Obamacare’s rollout has been a colossal mess, but health-care reform is hardly Pearl Harbor or the Battle of the Bulge.
Sometimes, politicians are most revealing in their off-the-cuff moments — as in Obama’s infamous statement about people in the heartland who cling to “God and guns” or his blithe assurance that people could keep the health insurance they like. Rather than clamoring for a mea culpa, people should ask whether Rucho really believes what he said.