If you think the health care "debate" has gotten out of hand, be sure to read
"In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition", Rick Perlstein, Washington Post, 2009-08-16
This so-called left-right divide is more of a cosmopolitan-crazy divide. According to Perlstein, Walter Cronkite would not have treated some of this controversy as serious public debate; he would have called much of it crazy.
Some is what some people really believe; some of it is pandering to these people and feeding them misinformation that they are ready to believe.
There are many legitimate issues to be discussed about health care, but the discussion has degenerated into a shouting match by a minority. It is not helped by those in the media who continue to consider such shouting matches as legitimate political expression. I think the correct name is mob rule, something the Founders worried about.
It has been made worse by a party that panders to this minority and calls itself a major party. When will the honest members of that party break away. Sen. Arlen Specter was one who broke away, but he didn't seek enough independence.
