Please name the country where socialism has been proven to work. If you are touting Canada, France and England, do you really want to look at the numbers for their medical programs or unemployment? Their issues are not flareups like our own, they are endemic.
its because of fear and patriotism and idealism. every country is a mixture of political systems. nazis are/were far right not far left. commies are far left (nazis hated them too). weirdly, they are very similar though in that they want to control everything. define "work". seems like they are doing ok. if "work" means "better" then thats a tougher debate. norway (poverty 6%, debt 48% of GDP, all have health insurance, 2.5 % unemployed) and australia (no debt, all have health insurance, 5% unemployed, 12 % poverty) do pretty well compared to the us (poverty 17%, debt 85% of GDP, 10% without health insurance, 10% unemployed).
You use the term Pragmatic a good bit. Which is more practical? To spend money you don't have or to not spend money and pay people you owe.
Pragmatists say that "pay as you go" is the practical path. Neither "tax and spend" like the left extreme, nor "spend and borrow" like the right extreme. The deficit must be attacked from both ends by raising income and cutting spending. Then we need to pay as we go. Individuals do it. States do it. Politicians need to be seeking pragmatic solutions rather than ideological objectives.
Yet you seem to be in favor of this health care reform debacle which is not a practical solution to the problems.
I don't favor all of it, but I seldom favor all of anything. And the Status Quo is no solution either. The republicans want it all dropped. Everything. Start over and do it their way. Sorry they have to win an election first.
Starting over is a way to get the things you like about it passed and the bad parts sh!t canned. Status quo will last another 4 or 5 years anyway under this plan. And I'm an American. I shouldn't get crapped on because my candidate lost.
