Give me a break. The left (myself included) spend weeks in shock at the tactics of the radical right trying to hijack the health-care debate and succeeding. And we complain bitterly about it.

Now, a CEO puts forth concrete proposals for health care reform alternatives, and instead of trying to elevate the discourse by engaging in a critique of the opinion piece from a policy point of view, the progressive blogosphere goes into full-bore echo chamber mode and attacks this man for having the temerity to carefully express his ideas in a national newspaper.

We get the government, the politicians and the debate that we deserve in a democracy. And right now, what we deserve is right-wing demagogues making up crap about death panels. And we only have ourselves to blame.