Letter: Larger principles must guide policy

Columnist David Brooks warns that any health-care legislation is doomed if we cannot achieve a national awareness and focus on the larger principles that have traditionally held our democracy together: opportunity, solidarity, authority.

Generally speaking, if a group of self-governing people cannot come together often enough to make decisions and enact policies that affect them all, stalemate develops and problems get worse. Ultimately, the powerful few will make those decisions and policies, but to what ends?

If American history is a reliable guide, the few who have used their power wisely to unite us have been much more effective in guiding our country and solving our problems than the few who have chosen to divide us to their own advantage. It is much more demanding and difficult for intelligent leaders to unite and think collectively than it is for the rich and powerful few to divide and exploit us.

Brooks opines that the Trump administration (or lack thereof) and the Republicans’ proposed health-care plan are divisive, destructive, and neglectful of our collective opportunity, solidarity, and authority. But, here we are again.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Letter: Larger principles must guide policy."