Political Passion

As anyone who is familiar with the Federalist Papers should be aware, the Founding Fathers were extremely wary of passion and emotion in politics. This was largely due to their belief that passion is often a more powerful motive in politics than reason. Indeed, as they noted, passion often works against reason. This was a significant reason why the Constitution was written, and why the process of making law was made so cumbersome. The long, and often tedious process of passing a law was to minimize the influence of passion, (or as we would call it, emotion), in the drafting and passage of law. It was thought that because of the time and complexity involved in passing a law, reason would have the opportunity to catch up with passion and so help ensure the objectivity and equanimity necessary to good law. This should be borne in mind amidst the urgency often claimed necessary for the passage of law, viz health care. Congress was designed to be a deliberative body, and deliberation takes time. This is why the urgency claimed by the administration and it's supporters for the passage of health care "reform" should be rebuffed. We should not allow our passion for reform to eclipse our reason.