Conservatives and libertarians often fear that socialized healthcare will take medical care out of the hands of ordinary people, and hand it over to death panels. They fear that socialized medicine will cause inefficiencies, which will lead to long wait times and the rationing of medical care. They fear that these problems will kill lots of people with illnesses that are easy to treat with timely care. They also worry that socialized health care will kill innovation in the medical field, which of course would hold back brilliant new treatments that could save countless lives.

However, whenever a conservative or libertarian expresses their beliefs on this subject, people on the Left often automatically assume that they have nothing but ill intent. They call us selfish for not wanting to pay more to support people who can’t afford their own healthcare. They scream and cry that conservatives are racists who want to kill the poor.

They don’t want to admit that conservatives simply have a different opinion on what kind of system will benefit the most people. We may believe that free market principles will lift everyone up, rich and poor, but to folks on the far-left we are greedy monsters who don’t care if the impoverished masses die horribly from a lack of care.

Perhaps that attitude can explain the vitriolic antics of Kurt Eichenwald, a senior writer for Newsweek. After Republicans in Congress voted to approve the American Health Care Act, Eichenwald took to Twitter to wish death and misery, not on the Republicans who voted for the bill, but on their families. Eichenwald, who is an epileptic, wrote:

When Twitter users challenged him on this comment, he added:

Eichenwald has since deleted many, but not all of the tweets. This gem is still up, despite the fact that it references an event that never really happened.

Like I said, people on the Left equate a dislike for Obamacare with wishing death on certain people. Meanwhile, people like Kurt are actually wishing death on the family members of politicians. Until Leftists like Kurt Eichenwald stop viewing people who oppose socialized medicine as a bunch of selfish, murderous, poverty culling maniacs, it’ll be impossible to have an honest and open debate with them on healthcare, much less any other subject.