Health care debate

From After Habermas: New perspectives on the public sphere:

"This blurring of state and society has been amplified by a second change. Much of the argument and activity constitutive of the public sphere, having once taken place in society between private individuals, now takes place within the confines of the state between professionalized politicians. More to the point, although this may maintain something of the appearance of a public debate, argumentation and debate are now subordinated to the logic of the competition for power between parties. The effect of party based organization, Habermas argues, is that views tend to be stuck to or strategically manipulated rather than genuinely argued over. Furthermore, the function of argument at the intreface between politicians and their voters is to win votes rather than engage the thoughts of voters and, by this means, educating and cultivating them - as the earlier publics had done for their participants. Politics becomes a stage show."

Republican or Democrat?