Impossibly simplistic, such jargon is only a basis for disagreement. Reality is far more nuanced. When I claimed, for instance, be be a moderate, I was implored by a late conservative friend that “a moderate is just a gutless liberal.”

Really?

Try this on for size: we should make policy decisions as though running a business. Pretty sure most of my “conservative” friends would applaud the idea; my “liberal” friends, not so much. Until I point out that in health care, for instance, we have a procurement problem. What business manager or procurement officer in right mind would pay twice or more what the rest of the world pays for anything? For similar, or in some cases worse outcomes?

We need to change the way we procure. As any thoughtful manager would.

It’s a gray-ish world out there. Not black versus white. So don’t lump me a conservative for saying we should use more common business sense. In advocating health-care overhaul, self-described conservatives would brand me otherwise. But don’t lump me liberal.

The sooner people realize the damage done by lumping, the sooner Congress or our State Legislature can get back to examining policy on merits and faults.